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Yes you read that right, in 2020 I increased my blog sessions by 1000%! For those of you not familiar with Google Analytics a session is basically how often your blog is visited, within a single session it can contain multiple pageviews. That’s why pageviews are higher than sessions but sessions more accurately reflect how many people are visiting your blog. So yeah, 2020 was an amazing year for my blog. Here’s how I increased by blog views by 1000%.
For clarity as you can see below there was a period in 2019 where my Analytics was down so it tracked 0 sessions. I’ve averaged out sessions for those months though which means I probably got around 7,000 visits to my blog in 2019. In 2020 I got 58,336 visits and 72,823 pageviews on my blog. It’s absolutely mind blowing to me that my views increased so much. It didn’t happen without a lot of hard work though. Also this was all done while working. Blogging isn’t my full time job.
A learning curve
One of the big things I did in 2020 was to invest a little bit of money on guides that would teach me all the things I needed to know about blogging. I’ve been blogging for 10 years now but for 7 of those years blogging was purely a hobby. I didn’t make any money from it and I wasn’t interested in implementing SEO or marketing and promotion. So even though I’ve been blogging for a long time I by no means know everything about blogging.
I bought a lot of guides in 2020, some were amazing, some not so much. One bloggers products I do recommend though is Kayleigh’s. This amazing lady is completely smashing blogging and is regularly making £10,000 – £12,000 a month just from blogging! So if you’re looking to start making money blogging you should definitely check out her products.
Another set of products to check out are Nele’s SEO books. SEO is definitely my weak spot but Nele’s guides are so easy to follow, I’m always dipping into them to check on what I should be doing.
I really think that investing in learning more about the sides of blogging that would get me views and earn me some extra money is what has helped me to grow.
A solid blogging strategy
Something else that has helped increase my views is finding a solid strategy for creating posts and promoting them. It’s something I stick to for every post I write now. From researching titles, finding keywords, including images and promoting content across social media. Blogging is no longer about sitting down, typing out a post and hitting publish. I was stuck in that mindset for a long time because that’s how I’d always blogged, when I started back in 2011 no one talked about SEO and creating pins for blog posts wasn’t even a thing!
Back in March I figured out what was and wasn’t working for me and made sure I stuck to the strategies for blogging that were working and as you can see from the first graph I included in this post that’s when my views really started to pick up.
Back in May I wrote my own blogging guide detailing all the free to use websites that I use to create my posts, promote them and ultimately get them seen by people. There’s no point in writing great content if you’re not driving traffic to your blog. You can pick up a copy of my guide for just $10 (around £7) and there’s 24 pages in there detailing exactly how to use the sites I recommend to boost blog traffic.
Now the chances are if you’ve been looking at how to grow your blog then you’ll have seen a lot of bloggers mention the wonders of Pinterest. Some bloggers are getting thousands of views daily from the platform. But I’m here to share my honest experience of Pinterest with you. In 2020 Pinterest brought me almost 31,000 sessions over the year. That is a massive chunk of my overall sessions. But Pinterest clearly isn’t bringing me thousands of views a day and it’s super time consuming when blogging isn’t your full time job.
Pinterest has clearly been great for my blog but I’ve had my fair share of problems with it too. My account has been marked as spam twice meaning that throughout 2020 I had around 4 months where any new pins I uploaded just flopped. A lot of pins I upload still don’t get amazing views, the average number of clicks from a pin for me is around 10. I did have a couple of pins that went viral last year though with millions of impressions which turned into thousands of clicks. And I do get some pins that perform quite well.
My advice is to not solely rely on Pinterest for blog views because the reality is Pinterest works for some and not for others. I bought every guide and course I can think of and implemented every strategy there is within those guides and the only one I’d truly recommend is The Ultimate Pinterest Marketing Guide by Mariam, it’s honestly so good!
Pinterest is so hit and miss that it is worth investing a little of your time into but work on other areas too.
Going self hosted
2020 was the year I finally made the move to a self hosted WordPress site after 9 years of using Blogger. It was scary and it was something I’d wanted to do for a very long time but investing so much money into self hosting terrified me. Within the first month of being self hosted I immediately regretted not making the move years ago. Self hosting has been incredible for me. I have so much more freedom with my blog and so many things that help me create better content and promote it, I bloody love a good plugin!
My ultimate goal now is to get my second blog in a position where self hosting will also be viable. I host my blog with Lyrical Host and they’re incredible, they moved my blog over for me, settled any fears I had about losing 9 years worth of hard work and installed my theme for me. They’ve been amazing.
If you’re looking to go self hosted or switch hosts then you can get 10% off at Lyrical Host with the code ‘LAUREN10’.
Search engines
I’ve already mentioned that SEO isn’t my strong point so this year I’m going to try and focus on improving my organic views. With that being said 2020 did provide a couple of really good SEO moments.
Back in August I wrote an Eat Out to Help Out post listing restaurants in my local town taking part in the offer. I didn’t promote this post anywhere but thanks to Google my views went crazy in August and September. I live in a small town so aside from online news articles no one was writing about this topic but a lot of people were searching for it. I shot to number 1 on Google for the search term ‘Eat Out to Help Out Barnsley’ and managed to outrank the two local news sites and the Yorkshire Examiner.
December also saw one of my old posts really take off on Google. My 25 Blogmas post ideas ended up ranking 1st, 2nd and 3rd on Google for its relevant keywords. It’s slipped down to number 2 now but you can bet I’ll be revamping it to try and get it back to its number one spot!
The power of organic traffic is incredible and it gave me a real buzz to know that people were finding my content on Google which is why I really want to improve my organic views this year.
So there we go, that’s how I improved my blog views by 1000%! It took a lot of time and hard work, I don’t get to sit and work on my blog during the day because I’m out at my actual job so a lot of evenings and weekends were sacrificed to get my blog to this place.
Did you have any big blogging wins in 2020? Let me know in the comments.
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Wow! This is a huge achievement! As a new blogger, I’m still finding it hard to generate traffic from Pinterest and social media! Your tips are really helpful! It’s nice that you acknowledged the people who helped you with that too. More power to you.
http://www.lifebeginsattwenty.com
Thank you! It really does take time a lot of time, it’s not an overnight thing. Be patient and you’ll see the results. I’ve been working on all the things I mentioned consistently for a year so it does take a lot of effort before you see the rewards.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I’m definitely going to invest in Kayleigh’s guide! I too am not having much luck with Pinterest.
Madeline
madelinewilsonojo.com
It’s very hit and miss and fairly time consuming. It’s not something that brings overnight success, I’d recommend being patient.
Some amazing ideas!
Can’t wait to see you flourish in 2021.
Emma | http://www.lifeofemmax.co.uk
Oh thank you so much!
This is seriously incredible!! So inspirational, I was pleased with my efforts this year but I really want to up my game this year.
You’ve lit a fire under me!
Thank you so much! You’ll do amazing this year I just know it, I love your blog!
I am currently focussing on the same things and I really hope it’ll work as well as it did for you! Good that this is giving me some hope for the future 😁 thank you!
You’ll be able to do it, I have no doubt. If I managed it then anyone can! Good luck with it all.
Congratulations Laureny! I am so happy for you. I managed to double my blog views in 2020 and thought about doubling it again in 2021. Here’s to both of us succeeding and growing more!
Thank you! That’s great that you doubled your views in 2020, I hope you can manage to double them again this year.
Pinterest is such an important thing and yet I struggle to get it to kick off like I want it to. Well done on doing so well in regards to your traffic.
Thank you so much! I honestly wouldn’t worry about Pinterest too much, it’s so time consuming and there are other areas you can focus on to grow your blog.
Wow well done Lauren! I am going to try and work on my SEO too this year 🙂
Lauren | https://www.wooloftheking.com/
Thank you! I hope we can both smash our SEO goals!
I’ve some of the eat to help out posts literally blow up! Such a great way to bring in organic traffic! I’ve really loved seeing your blog grow you’re absolutely smashing it x
Thank you so much!
This is such an amazing achievement, and I love reading about everyone else’s process and success stories! I’ve gotten a couple of Kayleigh’s ebooks, and I’m definitely going to purchase the SEO ones too as they confuse me! Determined to follow in your footsteps with my blog and keep learning too! Thank you for sharing!
Hannah | https://acupofwonderland.com/
Thank you so much! For me SEO is one of the hardest parts about blogging! Good with your blog, I know it will be amazing!
Wow, you achieved a lot from your first blogging year! Thanks for sharing these tips, it’s always helpful and encouraging to new bloggers x
Thank you, I hope it really does encourage old and new bloggers alike!
It’s far from my first year of blogging though, I’ve had this blog for 10 years. It’s only the last 1-2 years where I’ve really started to focus on growing it though.
I really need to get on Pinterest! Looks like a great platform to promote blogs. x
Zoey | http://www.zoeyolivia.com
It can be but I also find it very time consuming too.
Amazing journey. Thanks for the tips, I’ll definitely be using them to grow my blog this year 💜
Thank you. Good luck with growing your blog!
Really insightful and helpful post! I’ve nearly been blogging for 8 years now and predominately, it has been a hobby for most of that time. I’ve only started earning money recently and really trying to grow my views – so I love all your tips. It’s funny as I do marketing as a job so I’m familiar with all the groundwork to make my blog work really well – it just means implementing it, which can be quite time-consuming. And I’ve loved it this long as a hobby!
Thank you! That’s the thing, there is so much work that goes into it and it can be so hard to manage when you work alongside blogging too.
What an amazing achievement! I totally get you with starting earlier, as I’ve been blogging for six years and no one ever used to talk about SEO or any of that stuff. You’ve done so well, and I wish it continues for you xx
Hannah | https://luxuryblush.co.uk/
Thank you so much! Yes that’s the thing with blogging, there’s always something new to learn!
This is amazing. I also am only self hosting now, so I want to learn as much as I can to get my blog to a great place. Thank you so much for writing this, I am definitely taking notes.
Great post!
Thank you so much! Good luck with your blog!
Congratulations! This is a fantastic success for you. I’m currently trying to get my mind around SEO as I’d like to organically rank in the top pages of Google soon.
Thank you! I find SEO one of the hardest parts of blogging!
Some amazing advice on how to increase blog views, your numbers are incredible! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Oh thank you so much!
Wow, that’s amazing that your vies increased so much in a year! Good job! I saw a decent amount of growth during 2020 with my blog but nothing compared to yours. Even so, it’s encouraging to see even a small increase because that can lead to bigger increases as I put more work into it. This year I am going to invest some time and money into more blogging resources so I can have constant improvement. Reading about your growth has motivated me to see how much I can grow my own blog this year.
Thank you so much, I’m glad it’s motivated you!
Congratulations! That is very impressive! I am currently working on increasing my views. I really need to work on my SEO. Thanks for sharing this great information! It gives me a starting point and some inspiration too!
Thank you so much, I’m glad it’s helped you out!
Thank you so much for sharing this, Lauren! As a new blogger, there are so many things to learn about blogging. I learned a lot every day. You did amazing! Congratulation! Wish you the best in 2021 😀
Thank you so much! There is a lot to learn but you’ll get there!
Wow that’s amazing 😊 you’ve done really well. Between March and June my views went up from regularly posting on Pinterest but it was so time consuming I couldn’t keep up with it. I’ve also learnt a lot about SEO from Nele’s course 😊 Lottie x
LottieLately.com
Thank you so much! I agree Pinterest is extremely time consuming.
It’s incredible how far you have come. I’ve decided 2021 is the year I start making money on my blog. Currently getting my head around SEO, I’ve added Yoast to my blog and it’s such a great tool x
Thank you so much! I have Yoast too, just be sure to still do proper keyword research and don’t solely rely on Yoast!
One of my goals this year is to use Pinterest more, but I’m not good at making nice pins lol 😅
I’d recommend investing in some pin templates!
Wow! That is such a big improvement and you have given such great advice on how to increase blog views.
Thank you so much!
Such a great read! Thank you for sharing! My biggest goal in 2021 is to focus on my blog and post consistently. I work a full time job as well so it’s tricky but I’m going to work hard at it! Thank you again for sharing this gave me great insight 🙂 all the best to you in 2021!
Thank you! Yes it is tricky working and blogging and it takes up a lot of your free time, it’s all about finding a good balance! All the best to you too!
Thanks for the ideas. SEO is very important and I an still learning that.
Yes, me too!
Wow, congrats. That is huge! Also thank you so much for sharing tips and advice with us.
Thank you so much!
My views grew significantly in 2020 after I decided to take my blog more seriously. I still have a long way to go but it’s a hobby for me so, while I try to do the right things, I have a lot of other things one the go.
I have thought about doing an e-book though. Maybe this year.
Thanks for sharing your tips!
That’s amazing! It’s definitely about finding a balance when blogging isn’t your full time job though!
Oh thank you so much, that really means a lot! Oh don’t even mention revamping old posts. When you’ve got 10 years of content it feels like it’s never going to end haha!
Congratulations, that’s incredible! Thanks for sharing these really helpful tips, I’ll definitely be considering them in the future. I hope your success continues to grow and grow x
Sophie | https://www.loveandliterature.co.uk
Thank you so much! I’m glad you found it helpful.
Super helpful and inspiring! I’m really trying to up my views this year, and definitely need to start using Pinterest more to help with this. x
Thank you! Pinterest can be great but it’s also very time consuming!
This is encouraging. Thank you for sharing. Sometimes blogging feels like an uphill battle and it is wonderful to hear success stories.
Thank you! Yes it does, I’ve definitely been there myself.
Great tips! We’re hoping to so self-hosted later this year.
It’s honestly one of the best things I’ve ever done for my blog!
This year, I really want to try and increase my views and I’m willing to spend a little money too so will check out those guides xx
They’ve been worth every penny for me!
wow, you have done so well, well done you! i need to start doing this to my blog! Wonderful tips here 🙂
Oh thank you so much!
Thank you so much for sharing this. It’s inspiring.
Thank you!
Thank you so much!
This is such a fab and useful post, Lauren! Love it! I also love Nele – she’s so knowledgeable! Gx
Thanks! She is isn’t she?
Wow thats incredible! Congratulations! I’ve only had my blog for 6 months and have been slugging away at Pinterest and trying to learn SEO. I know it takes time so I’ll keep at it. As you’ve shown, its possible!
Thank you so much! It’s definitely not an overnight success, but keep going because you’ll definitely get there!
1000% is massive. This is incredible. Thank you for sharing how you got there. 🙂 Will definitely be working to implement some of these ideas.
Thank you so much!
A very and insightful post. I tend to focus just on writing and hope that I get readers and ultimately some success. I need to work on the “mechanics” of blogging. A travel blog has not been easy in 2020, but I look forward to the future as we all do. Thanks,
Honestly it all depends on what you want from blogging. If it’s just a hobby and something for fun then the mechanics may not matter too much. If you’re wanting to make money and attract an audience then the mechanics definitely matter.
This is so motivating so thank you! I’ve been blogging for nine years now so I could relate to a lot of what you were saying!
Katy | http://www.katystephenson.com
Thank you so much! I’m really glad it’s motivated you.
Hi Lauren, this is amazing and so inspiring. I’m relatively new to blogging and I’m trying to learn about it all, but it’s confusing at times! I’m using Keysearch for my blog at the moment which I find useful but yet to see results. Thanks for sharing.
Jade MumLifeandMe
SEO takes time, you won’t get instant result but you’re building a solid foundation for your blogs future!