The 5 Best Blog Types for Boosting Your Website Traffic

Having a blog on your business’ website can help you build brand awareness, connect with customers, boost your search rankings, and bring in more traffic.

Regularly posting blogs shows Google and other search engines that your website is active and relevant. Each blog you post gives search engines one more page to index on your website, providing you with more opportunities to show up in search results and draw in traffic from organic search. And while all blogs accomplish this, some types of blogs bring in more traffic than others.

Here are five of the best blog types for boosting your website traffic—if you haven’t tried them yet, add these blogs to your content calendar!

1. Listicles

List articles, or “listicles,” are just what they sound like: articles written in list format (like the one you’re reading right now 😉). They typically include a list of informative or educational items, with a few sentences or paragraphs explaining each one.

These blogs work well because they provide information in a streamlined format that’s easy to skim. They’re highly shareable, making it more likely that readers will share the listicle with their social media followers. When done well, listicles can help you share valuable insights and get more clicks.

Listicle best practices:

• Use odd numbers for lists (i.e., 5 or 7 instead of 6). Odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye and will get more clicks
• Keep list items concise but high-value
• Include images—ideally, one for each list item

Here’s another example of a listicle blog we wrote recently.

2. How-To Guides and Tutorials

How-to guides and tutorials offer readers the chance to learn something new about a topic they’re interested in. It’s a great way to answer common questions about your business, showcase your knowledge, and build authority in your industry.

People love a step-by-step guide. And if they find your content helpful, they’ll be more likely to return to your site for more. From there, you can work to convert them into customers.

This kind of content also has the potential to keep drawing traffic to your site long after it’s posted. If your how-to guide or tutorial is about an evergreen topic, people will always be looking for information about it.

How-to guide best practices:

• Use clear headings and numbered steps
• Include images or videos
• Optimize for keywords with “how-to” phrases
• Write in first person to build a connection with the reader

Check out this how-to blog we wrote about applying color psychology to your website design!

3. Guest Posts

Consider publishing a guest blog on another relevant site within (or adjacent to) your industry. Or invite a guest writer to publish a post on your website. 

Writing a guest blog for another website can help you attract new visitors to your site. Hosting a guest blogger can help grab the attention of their audience for your company. Both are great for building backlinks and will help you grow your website traffic.

Guest post best practices:

• Target relevant sites that will boost your authority within your industry
• When hosting a guest blogger, give them a clear idea of the topic you want them to cover and provide guidelines to maintain a consistent style and tone 
• Include a link to the guest writer’s website
• When guest blogging on another site, get clear instructions on what kind of blog they want, what tone and style they prefer, and so on
• Make sure the content provides value (i.e., doesn't just brag about you and your company)
• Include a link back to your website within the blog.

Here’s an example of a guest post we asked our friend and photographer, Dan Iverson, to write.

4. Case Studies and Client Interviews

Case studies give readers real-life examples of how working with you has benefited your customers. Because real customer experiences are more convincing than any other marketing, highlighting the clients you’ve worked with helps build trust and credibility with potential new clients…and ultimately grow your sales!

Detailed data is important in a case study, though. While general praise from a client is great, if you don’t have specific wins you can share, the article won’t be as impactful as it could be. In that case, consider doing a client interview instead of a full-blown case study. It still offers a client’s perspective on your work and shows how they have been affected by working with you.

Both case studies and interviews are highly shareable and great for building backlinks, which can help you grow your website traffic.

Case study best practices:

• Share specific data and outcomes the client has experienced
• Structure your case study like a story, showing the problem, your solution, and the result
• Include direct quotes from the client 
• For an interview, send the client the interview questions ahead of time so they can prepare
• Record the interview so you can listen and transcribe their answers accurately.
• Include questions like “Why did you choose to work with us” and “How has working with us affected your business”  to get valuable insight into how your company helped them.

Here’s an example of a case study blog we wrote, as well as an example of a client interview blog we did.

5. Trending Topics

Writing about hot topics in your industry puts you on the forefront of a trend and gives you the chance to rank higher in search results, which means more traffic to your site. 

When you jump on a trending topic before that topic gets saturated online, it helps you stand out as relevant and timely—an expert in the industry. This kind of content is also more likely to be shared on social media, expanding your reach even more.

Trending topic best practices:

• Use Google Trends or news alerts to identify relevant up-and-coming topics in your industry
• Make sure your information is from credible sources
• Act fast—publish while the topic is still relevant
• Add your own unique insight into or analysis of the topic
• Include a CTA asking users to discuss in the comments

Here’s one example of a trending topic blog we wrote back when AI started blowing up in content writing circles.

Bonus: 3 Tips To Extend Your Reach Even Further

When writing any of these blog types, make sure to optimize your blogs for SEO, promote them on social media and in email newsletters, and repurpose your blog into other types of content.

Optimize for SEO

Research keywords for your topic and choose a relevant one that is easy to rank for. Long-tail keywords are typically easier to reach, so don’t shy away from longer phrases and questions. 

In addition, add both internal and external links to your blogs, linking to other pages on your website as well as to reputable external sites. One easy way to include external links is to link to your sources for statistics or other key pieces of information you share.

Promote Your Blogs

Promote your blog posts on your social media platforms for sure, but don’t forget to also share them in your email newsletters. Promoting a blog post in an email newsletter is the most effective way to share your blog and bring more visitors to your site.

Repurpose Content

Once your blog is published, find other ways to repurpose that content into a new format. For example, use the content to create a YouTube video, podcast episode, Instagram story, infographic, or webinar. Doing this helps you get a little more oomph out of each blog.

So…which of these blog types for boosting your website traffic resonated with you? We’d love to hear which of these ideas you’ll try next: sound off in the comments below! And if you’re looking for more content marketing tips, make sure to follow along on our blog or sign up for our email list!