8 Best Ways to Make Your Blog Post Go Viral
We are a restless family of four, looking for adventure, ways to increase our funds, and more educaitonal options for our littles. We have exchanged things for experiences. Join us!It’s every blogger’s dream to make a post go viral.
Sometimes this happens by accident. You created a post that captured the right people’s attention and it was shared thousands of times. (That would be the dream of all of my posts!)
However, this isn’t going to be the case for all of your content. To give it the best chance that you can, I’ve put together this great list of ways to help boost that post and garner more attention.
Related Posts:
How to Pick the Right Blog Topic (& Feel Confident About Your Choice)
An Easy to Follow Branding Guide to Be Unique
How the Heck Do I Make Money on My Blog?
#1: Research Viral Posts
What better way to know if a post will go viral, then to see what has already gone viral. When looking, of course, make sure that you are looking for posts that are related to your topic/brand and look for them on big blogs. Big blogs tend to know what they’re doing and what people are really attracted to. Read, study, and learn from them for the best ideas.
Once you find a viral post, go on a search for related content that has also done well and compare to find the similarities to help you know what to write about. I absolutely do not want you to steal someone else’s content, but knowing what your audience loves by seeing what they are loving elsewhere is the way just about anyone online learns. You can then add your own voice, experiences and helpful tips to an article of your own that will help make your post stand out and become viral.
#2: Research Using SEO
SEO: Search Engine Optimization is a way to help search engines like Google or Bing to know that your content has the information that your readers are looking for.
The powers that be at places like Google create algorithms that take the words that someone puts in their search engine then crawls through the information on the millions of blogs out there to suggest the best ones from top to bottom. A bloggers goal is to get to the top of Google.
The way to do this is by creating long valuable content rich with keywords that aren’t highly competitive. Your goal is to write more valuable content than the others that are ranking high (first page, especially top 4) in Google.
What Tools do Bloggers Use to Make Their Post Go Viral?
Free: Google Search
The first place I go that doesn’t cost a penny is Google search. Have you ever noticed that once you search for a phrase in Google it will automatically bring up other popular search phrases? For example:
These are great to use when you want to consider your own title, headings within your article, and content. If these are the most popular phrases in Google, then people will be attracted to the title.
Free: Answer the Public
This website will give you an idea of what people are asking on Search Engines. The only problem is that it doesn’t tell you the number of times it gets searched, so make sure to also have our next suggestion on your website. You want to have keywords that are being serached for a few thousand times a month.
Free: Keywords Everywhere
This browser add-on will help you when you are searching your keywords on the web. It comes up with how often it is searched per month and can give a general idea of competition. My problem with this tool is that I’m not certain exactly how accurate it is. It would seem to me that some keywords are searched far more often then it suggests, so use this to get an idea, but not an exact amount.
Free: KWFinder
This website lets you search your keyword to see the competition. If a green light comes up, then you are more likely able to rank higher in Google. In this case, do a search on Google for this keyword and see who the top ranking websites are. If they are smaller websites then you may have a chance to rank higher. Check out what they’ve written and write a longer, more valuable website.
Yup, I mean 2000 to 4000 words. I haven’t gotten to 4000 yet, but have written over 3000-word blogs before. I know this may seem like a lot, but just make sure that you compile your blog ideas and put them together to add value in one place as opposed to multiple posts.
For example, this post at first was just under 1000 words long and by the end, it is now 3200 words long. I hadn’t actually expanded on each point at first, then I went back to add the ‘tips within the tips’ and you get far more value. If I had only said, ‘Do good SEO’, then not only would my English be poor, but I wouldn’t actually be helping you ‘do good SEO’. Now you have some tools to get you started.
This tool is free for 5 uses per day.
Free: BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo helps you to see where your keywords are getting traction by showing you the top posts with those keywords according to the number of social media shares (FB, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, # of Links).
Use this tool to see what others are doing to get great results with your keywords.
This tool is free for 5 uses per day.
Free: Yoast SEO Plugin
This free plugin will crawl your pages and posts, give you a rating and suggestions on your keyword use and optimization. If you use this, you will quickly be able to see if your efforts are truly optimizing your posts. It is complex, so just stick with the basics at first.
If you find that you like it, then you can upgrade to the premium version with more options to help your SEO.
#3: Dynamic Titles
This is a big one for me. Actually, in my free email blogging course and when offering advice for what topic to choose for your blog/business I suggest writing down some of your biggest ‘Wow’ moments in your life and writing them into titles to see what will offer the most to your audience.
Creating amazing titles has gotten a lot easier now that so many online companies have done extensive research and designed ways for us folks to test out our titles and make them more click-worthy.
Here are three resources for you to try your title on:
CoSchedule’s Headliner Analyzer
Advanced Marketing Institute Headliner Tool
These are fairly similar, but try each of them out to see which one you like most. Basically, you will just put your headline in and it will give you a score and/or suggestions to improve your title to better grab your reader’s attention.
A headline is like a book cover, it’s what your readers judge first. If it interests them enough, they will click on it. If the content is quality, you will keep them on the page. If the email opt-in is strong, they will sign up. If they sign up, you will have an audience that trusts you and will purchase from you. And so goes the circle of online business life.
Make the title different than other similar posts, but still using the key terms and phrases that draw attention.
Pull people in with great titles, intrigue them with great content and giveaways, and keep them through email and personal connection.
#4: Write Great Content
This should be a given. The better your content the more likely people will want to hop over to other content on your website, want to come back to read more, and to sign up for emails. Your quick posts should be no less than 1000 words and more often your posts should be at least 2000 words. Many influencers are aiming for up to 4000 words in their posts. This will be hard to compete with but don’t fret, there are many keywords and keyword combinations out there to compete for and you can have a post go viral without it being at the top of Google.
So, create great content so that people will see you as someone they want to come back to to learn more. This will also help your readers want to open your emails because they will, again, see you as someone worth taking their time to read about.
#5: Grow Your Email List
This is absolutely essential for your blog in general, but it can also help boost your post to go viral. When you have an audience that already trusts you, then they will be your best bet to start the ball rolling by opening and visiting your website so that Google recognizes that your website holds value, sharing your posts on social media and pinning on Pinterest.
How do you grow your email list?
Step 1: Create a great freebie. Recognize that people value their email almost as much as they value their money. If you are asking for their email, then they need something of value in exchange. So, create a great freebie that your readers want and they will sign up to get it.
Step 2: Use a great email service like Convertkit. It’s highly recommended by many influencers online and it’s what I use. It’s super easy to get started and understand (more so than Mailchimp, which I’ve also used in the past) and in the long run, it’s cheaper than the others out there (which are many!). They have great service for their customers as well, which has helped me as I’m really not a techie (I figure it out as I go).
You can look into Convertkit here.
Step 3: Use a new tool called Bonjoro: I’m super excited about this tool since it helps you to directly and personally thank your subscribers for signing up to your email or to thank those who sign up for a course or buy a book, etc. Once someone signs up, you will get a notification on your phone and email to send a quick video in which you can use their name (if you ask for this at sign up) and thank them personally, maybe even give them a tip or two.
Bloggers are forever trying to connect with their audience in a more personal way. We create Facebook communities, we reach out in emails greeting with their first names, we try to respond to comments on our websites and social media, all in the name of adding a personal touch.
Many bloggers already know and are pushing it (especially this year) that video is a great way to connect with people too. As an audience, seeing faces and having people talk to me through video makes me feel more connected to them. It helps the old adage, ‘put a face to the name’. It’s why viewers get so attached to celebrities, almost feeling like they have become an old friend (unfortunately this is one-sided).
Bonjoro helps you to combine video, email, response rate and a thank you (the best ways to connect with your audience) to create a quick personalized message for your newly signed up audience. It quickly puts a face to a name and gives you the ability to thank them by name. The best thing is that it only takes seconds to do.
Convertkit boasted that it transformed their onboarding and reduced their churning by 17%. Their customers are incredibly excited and even made one of them say “I can’t believe someone has noticed me”. Convertkit just hit there $1M per month mark. How? They are helpful to their audience and they connected quickly with them when they signed up using Bonjoro. This combined with their great product and the stamp of approval from big influencers has helped them grow to $1,000,000 per month.
(Again, you can get Convertkit here)
Alison from Highrise used Bonjoro to welcome new users and saw open rates of over 70%
Alex Pickle from Design Pickle had feedback from customers praising them on their customer service experience right off the bat because they used Bonjoro.
I think Bonjoro is the next thing coming up the pipes to help bloggers in a big way. And you can start it for free (up to 14 signups for free). Check out Bonjoro here.
Step 4: Give value to your subscribers beyond your website through your email list and tell them that you are doing this. It is extremely important to always communicate these things to your readers. They won’t know that they are special and valuable to you if you don’t tell them. Take a note from Pat Flynn, he signs off his emails, youtube channel and sometimes his podcast and blogs with “I appreciate you”. Why? Because he does. No readers means no business, so appreciate your readers and let them know through action and words (this is just good basic relationship advice too).
Have I told you lately how much I appreciate you? I most certainly do!
#6: Analyze Your Own Content
Using great tools like Google Analytics or Sumo Heat Maps you can find what people are clicking on most and what they are staying longer to read. Look at the posts that are bringing in the best traffic and try to find out why. What’s drawing them to it over others? Where are they finding the post? Is the title different than others you’ve used? Is it formatted differently? What is the topic and can you write more posts on that topic?
A great way to know why your readers liked it is by asking them. Yet another reason to have an email list. Then ask them at the same time if there was anything that was still confusing them or if there are other topics that they would like to learn about. Compile this information and use it to create another viral post.
If you can begin to see a pattern, then you will be able to use that information to create great new content and to go back to make changes to old content to refresh it and breath new life into it.
#7: Perfect Pins on Pinterest
Pinterest is a fantastic platform for finding readers. If you aren’t using it then I highly suggest you start. Many bloggers swear by it as one of the main platforms for bringing new traffic to their website.
Keep in mind that about 80% of Pinterest users are women. There is some success with men, but it will be limited in comparison. If you have a largely male audience then you might want to look into getting a Google+ account and as far as I know, if you use Google+ you may be more likely to rank in Google. It is nearly opposite Pinterest in male/female demographics with about 70% men who actively use Google+. I don’t have a good understanding of this platform, so I can’t give too many insights.
However, if your audience is largely women then you might be asking:
How Do I Optimize Pinterest To Make My Post Go Viral?
- Use a business account instead of a personal account. You can do this by either switching over your current account or creating a new one. This gives you the ability to track your pins performance with Pinterest’s analytics.
- Sign Up for Rich Pins: This allows you to show more information about your post on each pin (like more keywords).
- Create Beautiful Pins: Make sure your pins are the right size (735px X 1102px) and that you use images that relate well to your post. I like to put the title on the post and often our website (I test both with and without), but don’t put any more words than that on the image. Make sure it is clear and easy to read. The image should be bright and vibrant, preferably with some red (or pink) in the image as this draws more attention to the eye. Avoid images with people or faces (a study showed that images without people and faces were clicked on more….not sure why our brains work like this, but you can test it if you like). If you need help creating nice images, then sign up for Canva and start for free
- Test your Pins: Create at least 2-4 pins per post to test out different images or titles to see which one is getting the most pins. This is called A/B testing. Once you find out which pin is performing better and then keep that one and create a new one and continue the test.
- Keywords: When creating the description for your pin be sure to use as many Pinterest keywords as you can, but in such a way that it sounds conversational. Not one responds well to spammy looking descriptions. To find these keywords, search a keyword from your post in on Pinterest. It will bring up suggestions below of keywords that often go along with the keyword you entered. From left to right, it gives most searched to less searched. Use these keywords to add to your description.
6. Pin Daily: There are different approaches that pinners take, but some studies show that pinning more than 50 per day doesn’t really do much for you and that Pinterest actually doesn’t actually like it. So try to Pin 30-40 times a day of pins that make up 80% of your own and 20% of others (see a formula below). To cut down on time doing this every day, you can sign up for a service like BoardBooster or Tailwind.
7. Group Boards: Only be a part of group boards that ensure pinners also pin for others, not just themselves. This group board doesn’t need to have tens of thousands of people because Pinterest has changed the way group boards work. You don’t get your pins in front of as many of the followers in that group board anymore, but you do have an advantage if you are part of a group that has active members who pin your pins as much as their own, then you’ll see progress. Start with just 2-5 boards to pin to per day. Groups also give you another place to pin your daily pins. So use this method:
- 4-5 of your own pins on 5 boards (3 of your own and 2 groups) and then pin 10-15 pins of others on your boards.
If you are serious about using Pinterest, then I suggest taking a great Pinterest course called: Pinning Perfect. If Pinterest is done right then you can grow your new readership to thousands or even tens of thousands per month coming from Pinterest.
#8: Social Media
Be sure to utilize your social media accounts and get your post out to the world to be shared around. This is one the best places to have your content go viral. If your audience loves it, then they will share it, if a ‘big time’ blogger or FB contributor likes it, then all your hard work will pay off and you will begin to see your post go viral.
Over time you will want to build up your audience on your favorite social media platforms. With more people connecting and active on your social media page, the better. You want people who love to share your content and to like and comment on your posts.
Viral posts on Facebook and Instagram tend to be finicky, but if you can get active members to share your posts, then this will help alongside all of these other tips to boost your post to viral.
Make sure that if you take this advice and you are planning to create posts with the potential to go viral that your website is ready to handle it. Not just with bandwidth so that it doesn’t crash, but with:
(We’ve got posts for that!)
There’s no point to a viral post if you can’t capture your audience, so be ready for it!
Have you had a post go viral? Tell us below about your best viral post tips!
