Design a traffic strategy for your site.

Content Strategy & Site Goals

Update your content strategy & site goals.
Articulate your content strategy (topics, audience, mission, etc.) and set 3-5 measurable goals for your site.

"I want to grow my wedding planning blog to 1,000 UVs per month through content topics such as: better budgeting, DIY, free resources, negotiating with venues, etc. By creating a site with interesting content beneficial to both men and women, I want to go beyond the typical wedding blogs and reach a broader, more dynamic audience..."

"I want to turn my fashion & fitness blog into a community by increasing engagement, encouraging social shares, and providing content that's appealing to women conscious of how their style changes as they attain their ideal bodies..."

Optimizing Your Site & Content

Conduct your keyword research.
Start with a list of 5 potential keywords, conduct your research, and determine 7-10 keywords to target for your site and main content areas.
Optimize your site & pages.
Based on your keyword research, come up with a title, description, and set of keywords for your overall site. Do this for the main pages on your site as well if that's an option.
Optimize your content.
Find a post you've already written (preferably 300-500 words) and optimize the content by adding & emphasizing keywords, using relevant links, and optimizing any images.

Promoting Your Site

Promote on social media.
Choose 3 of your published posts you can try to get more traffic to using social media. Link to the posts and indicate what sites you'll promote them on and what image, headline, and/or share copy you'd use.
Brainstorm potential partners.
Identify 3 potential partner sites or blogs.

Think of some of the blogs or sites similar to yours and use Alexa.com to make sure their traffic isn't way bigger than yours.
Research ad networks & other platforms.
Consider your niche, traffic, etc. and research potential ad networks to apply for and blogging platforms to join.

Creating Community

Determine extended blogging community.
Identify 3-5 sites you'll start commenting on regularly and featuring in link roundups.

Your Traffic Strategy

Finish your traffic strategy.
Whether you want to do it in longform, bullet points, or some other snazzy way you love, complete your traffic strategy and share it with the class.

Then get to growing that traffic!
Re-examine your content strategy.
Make sure that your content strategy and goals are still aligned with and reflected in the other aspects of your traffic strategy.

Additional Resources

Kipley

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