How To Increase Engagement On Your Blog

How To Increase Engagement On Your Blog

How To Increase Engagement On Your Blog

One thing I hear a lot of people complaining about is that engagement on blogs is down, especially compared to a few years ago. Some people blame the introduction of Blaze, the rise of other social media platforms and changes in the algorithm with recent updates. I’m some people lol. But yes, overall, engagement has decreased in the last two or three years compared to what it once was. That’s why I wanted to share some tips on how to increase engagement on your blog.

It’s not what it used to be. A few years ago, you could post something and get hundreds of views, likes, comments etc. But that’s not the case anymore. These days, you have to work extra hard to get engagement and it’s becoming more challenging to grow your blog because of this.

SEO

SEO is something you need to invest some time into if you’re hoping to grow your blog and increase engagement. Having an SEO friendly blog will help you increase the views you get from Search Engines. This will increase your overall engagement as you’ll have more traffic which means more comments. You’ll also see an increase in email followers as your traffic grows. That’s another thing SEO is great for.

I’ve noticed a big increase in engagement, traffic and following since I began making my site SEO friendly. Each year, I get thousands of views from Search Engines alone. So even when I’m not posts or active, my blog remains active and has engagement from these readers.

Alternatively, if you would prefer not to get views from Search Engines you can stop them from crawling your site with a Robots Meta Tag or robots.txt file directive.

Related Posts: SEO For Dummies, SEO For Dummies #2, SEO For Dummies #3, SEO For Dummies #4

Related Post: How To Increase Your On-Page SEO

Tags And Categories

Tags and categories are vital when it comes to engagement. And your blog in general. They can make or break you. A lot of people don’t realise their importance but WordPress offers these features for a reason. They need to be optimised.

When it comes to tags and categories, the tags and categories you use is how the algorithm classifies your post and pushes them to the audience it believes will find your content interesting. Therefore, if you use the wrong tags and categories, your posts will be pushed to the wrong audience who aren’t interested in it and so will not engage. On the other hand, if you use the right tags and categories, your posts will be pushed to the right audience and you’ll see a steady growth in engagement and your blog overall.

Related Post: How To Use Tags Correctly

Activity

Just like how you want to increase engagement on your blog, others do too. In many ways, WordPress is all about give and take when it comes to growth. So think about yourself and your activity. Are you engaging with other blogs and bloggers? Are you taking the time to leave likes and meaningful comments? If not, you should be engaging with other blogs and trying to be as active as possible. That is a great way to increase engagement on your own blog.

Furthermore, you want to make sure that when people engage on your blog, you engage back. If someone comments, make sure to respond and even chat with them if you can. This will encourage them to keep coming back and become a loyal reader.

Related Post: 5 Ways To Get Loyal Followers

Find Your Niche And Audience

Finding your niche and audience is vital when it comes to increasing your engagement. Find your people, as they say. Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to make some wonderful friends on WordPress who have supported my blog throughout and vice versa. We have been able to find and support one another. And these days Lifesfinewhine and WordPress feels more like a community to me then just some platform on the internet. Finding the right audience for your content will really help you increase your engagement because these are people who genuinely care about what you’re posting.

Finding a niche or some niches that work well for you helps as well. It gives your blog some sort of structure instead of it just being random posts with random topics. It also helps your audience understand what to expect from you. And I know what you’re thinking, Pooja you’re one to say that when your blog is all over the place. And to that I say, is it though? Or do I dable in a lot of very specific niches that my audience is interested in? It’s okay to have multiple niches, but it’s good to have some limits and some form of structure as well.

Conclusion

So, those are my tips on how to increase engagement on your blog. I also want to mention that these are all organic methods to grow your blog, so they may take a little while longer to show results. However, organic methods are best to grow your blog compared to buying likes and comments. In the long run, that will do much more damage to your blog whereas organic growth will enhance it in many ways.

Did you find these tips helpful? Should I share more? Do you use any of these methods to increase engagement on your blog? What are some methods you use to increase engagement on your blog? Let me know in the comments below because I would absolutely love to hear from you. Or simply stop by and say hi!

Want to grow your blog but don’t have the time, resources, expertise or energy? Check out my services and hire me to grow it for you! Click here to view my services. 

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79 responses to “How To Increase Engagement On Your Blog”

  1. I agree, Pooja, the strong community on WordPress is a major reason why I have been here for over ten years! I am visiting many blogs each day, some I have followed for several years. I’ve never bothered with the SEO thing. You are right about the many likes and comments years a go, Pooja, those days are gone…

    1. Same here, the community is what keeps me here! Yes, unfortunately we don’t get as much engagement as we once did 😫

      1. Ahh the good old days of WordPress…

        1. Yeah, I miss them 😔

          1. Me too, I’ve had a few blogs hosted on WP over the last ten+ years.

            1. Yeah, I think five to ten years ago was the peak time to be blogging. Still, it’s better here than most social media platforms so I stay.

              1. Especially Instagram with its dictators and blocking me from commenting for a week.

                1. Another blogger I follow is having the same issue, so ridiculous 😡

  2. SEO certainly makes a world of difference, followed by engaging with other bloggers. I miss not having to put in as much effort though in years gone by

    1. Absolutely, they both make a big difference when it comes to engagement. Yeah, a couple of years ago it was so much easier but WP has just changed too many things now.

  3. I’ve never found that tags have helped my blog in terms of other people. I use them extensively internally to provide links between related posts (authors, series, genres) but that springs from my desire to keep my blog interconnected.

    1. That’s so odd because tags make a huge difference for me. My views depend a lot on what tags I use. Yeah, they’re good for organising your blog a little better too.

  4. This is a very informative post. I’ve been blogging for two years and the first 6-9 months I was not engaging with other bloggers, but then I did and traffic, likes, comments it all improved a lot. However, I switched my theme from twenty twenty to twenty sixteen because I wanted a sidebar and it seemed like that made the traffic slow down a bit, but I don’t know. I am saying that because in a previous post you said that the theme may matter for SEO. Anyway, other than that I have not paid much attention to SEO but I will do that sometime this spring.

    1. Thank you so much. Yes, engaging with others is vital if you want to increase engagement on your site. Changing your theme definitely makes a difference because it affects your load time, interactivity time, visual stability etc which affects your SEO. That’s great, SEO is important so hope you are able to make some changes in Spring.

  5. SEO is like block editor for me. I know I need to do it, but just keep making up excuses why today is not the day.

    If your theme matters in SEO, does the editor you use make any difference?

    1. I understand, it’s a lot of work and research so I kept putting it off too. For years actually lol.

      Not really, the editor makes really little difference except that the Classic Editor may not work well with newer themes so that’s something to keep an eye on. But if your post looks fine the editor really shouldn’t matter. I actually don’t use the Block Editor because I find it annoying.

  6. Thanks. But I noticed an immediate large drop just after Blaze was introduced. Till then, my blog was steadily gaining views. Then it plummeted.

    1. Yeah, I did too. It’s really disappointing that they threw us under the bus for Blaze.

    1. Thanks so much.

  7. More good, sound advice, Pooja. 💕

    1. Thanks so much 💕

  8. Very useful tips Pooja! I have saved your post for future reference

    1. Thank you so much, so glad you found them useful!

      1. Very much so 🙏🙏🙏

  9. My traffic is a sixth of what it was. On the other hand I hardly get any Spam and I used to get hundreds. I need to sort out this SEO but it’s finding time.

    1. Yeah, it’s not the same these days. SEO helps a lot but it’s definitely time consuming and you also need a certain amount of knowledge about tech.

  10. Thanks Pooja . very useful tips.

    1. Thanks, so glad you found them useful.

  11. Such an informative post, and many useful suggestions! Saved! 👏

    1. Thank you so much, hope it helps! 😊

  12. Very good and informative as always PoojaG. I gotta look into SEO. Still haven’t sat down and figured it out as yet.

    1. Thank you so much. Yes, do check out SEO related stuff because it really makes big difference.

  13. Yes please Pooja, continue to provide more tips. While I’m nearly on top of these ones, I’ve not been very active for some time now and my numbers have decreased. I need to write more posts but not only do I feel unwell physically, I’ve been struggling with my mental health too. Mind you, I still find time to read other blogs and continue to engage with fellow bloggers. Keep up with the informative tips, please.

    1. I’m so glad these advice posts are helpful. I understand, blogging does take time and energy so if you’re not well mentally/physically it’s hard. Hope you feel better soon and staying active definitely helps.

  14. Wonderful info Pooja… I broke down yesterday and bought and installed a SEO plugin… Now I will take the time to go back and update my posts per their recommendation… I was impressed though.. Once I went through the process, it came back with a 81/100, so I guess I wasn’t doing too bad after all…

    I greatly enjoy interacting with other Blogger’s about topics they write about that interest me and I love learning new things. So, please, keep the tips coming!! I am learning a lot from you!

    1. Thanks so much! Oh that’s good, SEO plugins help out a lot. 81/100 isn’t bad at all. Just some changes needed and you’ll be good.

      I enjoy that too, interacting is my favourite part of WP. Will share more soon and so glad it’s helpful!

      1. 🌞 I am working on the changes needed now…
        Thanks Pooja, more tips are always helpful. BTW: I checked out the services you offer and they are impressive!

        1. Good luck!

          Thanks so much, if you’re ever interested in any services feel free to email me and I’d be happy to give you a discount!

  15. You always make it seem so easy! 😅 If I actually followed your directions, it probably would be.

    The “engagement is down” thing doesn’t feel real to me. Of course, if fewer people use WordPress then fewer people will see your posts in Reader, but I don’t consider that *real* engagement, do you? Like I have a lot of subscribers for someone who doesn’t try to grow his subscribers, but I know 90% of them never read anything I write.

    Engagement to me is people who actually visit my URL or click on my posts, which has grown recently but I don’t think that’s indicative of WordPress as a whole because growing from 1 to 3 frequent readers is not a giant leap. 😜

    A lot of what you’ve written on this subject does pertain to real engagement though. SEO would definitely drive more people to your website (if you are writing things people want to read) and you absolutely need to find your audience. I don’t know that I’ve found an *audience* as much as I’ve found friends, and I’m okay with that. The few times I’ve tried to start a blog that is geared toward an audience, I’ve found it to be way more work than I’m willing to put in to maintain!

    You crush it, though. I know sometimes you get burnt out but it’s truly impressive that you’re someone who has almost 30k subscribers and still responds to almost every comment.

    1. It’s easier then most people think, the only thing is these things can be time consuming 😫

      True, I don’t count impressions as engagement either. I don’t care about showing up on the Reader that much. For me it’s more about views and comments. That’s what I think of when I think of high engagement. I used to get hundreds of views easily but now I have to work extra hard for them which I’m salty about lol 😂

      Finding friends is good too, I’ve found some great people thanks to WP and I love that we can connect with people all around the world.

      Thanks! I love interacting (as you can probably tell lol) so it’s fun for me to respond to comments.

  16. Genuinely interacting with bloggers is one way I’ve seen an increase in engagement.

    1. Absolutely, that’s one thing that really helps increase engagement.

  17. This is a very helpful post, Pooja, and thank you for sharing. I just installed an SEO plugin and it will be interesting to see how it works. When I changed domains, I got booted out of the Reader mainstream. I purchased Jetpack Boost and it has helped a lot concerning slow loading and missing images (which I use many). Poetry blogs are not the easiest to gather an audience unless they like poetry.

    Of course, engagement with other bloggers is imperative, otherwise followers will think you don’t care and move on.

    1. Thanks so much. Yeah, SEO plugins definitely help. They guide us while writing new posts. True, poetry is a really specific niche so you have a smaller target market. I’ve noticed your posts don’t come up on my Reader and I don’t get email notifications when you post either.

      Yes, engaging with other bloggers is a big part of blogging.

  18. Thank you for the efforts you put into educating fellow bloggers, Pooja. 🙏🏻

    1. It’s always a pleasure, I’m happy to help 😊

      1. 😊🙏🏻

  19. Thank you for sharing your advice, Pooja. SEO is definitely something I don’t understand as well as I should. I need to look into this.

    1. It’s my pleasure. Yes, SEO is pretty important for growth so I always recommend doing some research and looking into how to make your site more SEO friendly. It’s a bit complicated but you’ll get the hang of it over time.

  20. Useful information Pooja

    1. Thank you so much.

  21. Awesone and very helpful post!

    1. Thanks, so glad it was helpful!

  22. Great post, Pooja! I remembered the linked one you posted earlier on Tags, too, which had gotten me thinking I was misusing them or using too many. I think I have sort of followed the advice…

    1. Thank you so much! Yeah, with tags I feel like less is more. You shouldn’t be using more than 8-10 of them for the majority of your posts.

      1. My pleasure!

  23. A very informative article .Thanks.

    1. Thank you so much.

  24. Thanks, Pooja…great advice shared 🤍💫

    1. Thank you so much, hope it helps 😊

      1. most welcome…🤍✨

  25. Thank you so much, Pooj📝🙏🏾

    1. Always a pleasure 😊

  26. Informative and interesting, thanks.

    1. Thank you so much.

  27. After literally abandoning my blog for 2 years, now I’m finding it so difficult to get back on track and increase engagement on my blog. Most of my readers who would regularly engage with my posts back then are currently on hiatus or have changed platforms, so to be honest even I don’t find blogging that enjoyable anymore bcuz most of the friends i made here don’t blog anymore.

    But I’m still trying to keep my blog alive bcuz I can’t let go of it, i love blogging.
    This post was really very helpful, Pooja. Thanks for sharing!

    1. I understand, it’s hard to get back into it. But don’t worry, you’ll make new blogging friends as we do and you’ll start enjoying it again. Thanks!

  28. Great info, Pooja, thanks! I just had one comment. Last month, I published but it didn’t show up on the “Read all responses.” I got WP help in and they said if you put more than 13 categories and/or tags, it doesn’t like that 🤷‍♂️ Sure enough, I reverted to edit, got it down to 12, republished and there she be. Dunno if anyone else has had this, but just thought I’d mention it 😎

  29. Really helpful tips, espcially about SEO. When blogging started, SEO was always an after thought, this however has changed now

    1. Thanks so much. It was the same for me, I didn’t care too much about SEO when I started but now it’s something I take very seriously.

  30. Awesome tips, Pooja! SEO is still something I struggle with, but is definitely worth trying to learn. 💖

    1. Thanks so much! Yeah, SEO is more difficult but definitely worth it 💕

  31. Thanks Pooja ❤️ These tips are quite useful!

    1. Thanks, so glad to hear that! 💕

  32. A & J PEI Treasures/E Jean Simpson, BEd, BA, MA Avatar
    A & J PEI Treasures/E Jean Simpson, BEd, BA, MA

    Interesting post.

    1. Thanks so much.

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