When starting a new blog, one of the first challenges is how to get targeted traffic to the site. Google will eventually remove the site from the “Google Sandbox”, but months will pass until that happens. Pulling in traffic from other sources is an excellent way to accelerate the pace of removal from the mythical sandbox, and provides the opportunity to bring in customers and earn money while you wait for Google’s blessing.
Here are a few ways to promote a new blog without Google.
Choose Topics of Interest Carefully
While we’re not necessarily suggesting using link-bait titles, you should certainly aim to find article topics and titles that are absorbing and eye-catching, respectively. Whether your blog is focused on the trendy Tech & Science niche or involved in arts & crafts or restaurant reviews, develop a blend of interesting topics to write about.
Divide up the content into several types. See if there is a need for newsworthy content or writing that could potentially go viral. How-to guides are never a bad idea where visitors would expect to find that type of content in your niche. Also, don’t forget to have a mix of informational content that directly helps readers and will eventually get noticed by Google too.
Market Using Instagram
Instagram has become an effective way to develop followers, publish photos and videos, and add interesting written missives to share opinions on accompany images. Sites that are likely to have a strong social component should not be afraid to engage people on social platforms.
A cross-pollination effect often happens where the followers of one Instagram account are only too happy to follow someone else too. In this way, developing a strong following after only a few months is possible for people who work at it. Automatic posting tools like Buffer make it easier to post regularly, without doing too much legwork.
Guest Posting for Traffic
Most people think about guest posting to only gather up links. For legitimate blogs, they’re often not willing to include a do-follow link to your website. Some website owners feel all is lost at that point. However, that’s not true at all. Firstly, no-follow links still have value because a quality, well-known blog linking to your new site is nothing to sneeze at. Secondly, it helps to make your link profile more natural because a percentage of no-follow links is to be expected.
Guest posts also provide other benefits too. When well written and covering topics that appeal to the site’s readership, readers become aware of the site you represent. The no-follow link is often clicked on to check out your site after reading the article. When liking your site, you gain another regular visitor and someone whom you might make money from at some point in the future.
You’re also pulling in new visitors before Google has shown any love to the site through organic search results. Doing so keeps you interested in the site. It often speeds up the site escaping the Google sandbox when it has its own sources of traffic. When leaving the sandbox, the search rankings tend to improve dramatically and then more people can discover the site for themselves.
Any new site has to wait patiently to receive Google’s blessing that it’s decent and not spammy. It’s important to not sit on your laurels while this process is ongoing because there are lots of things that can be done on your own to develop initial traffic sources, other relying wholly on Google.