10 Ways I Grew My Travel Blog to 100K Monthly Pageviews
A lot of bloggers are experiencing traffic dips due to frequent Google/search engine updates, AI overviews, and more.
But instead of talking about all of the crappy, negative (even if realist) trends right now in travel blogging, I wanted to make a post about what strategies I used (and still use) that actually GREW my traffic to 100,000 monthly pageviews.
While my traffic has since dipped below that, these are foundational, core strategies that I teach inside my Bootstrap Blogging course and that have helped members reach 50,000 sessions.
In the course, I dive deeper into each strategy but here are just ten of the ways I grew my traffic post-pandemic and why (and how) I am doing this today to maintain and update old posts and get high rankings on new posts.
Let’s dive in.
PS. These are not numbered so you don’t think about them in order of importance.
Focus on Helpful Content & Organic Traffic (SEO)
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization (you won’t make me spell that out all the time, will you?), is the main driver of blog traffic—yes, even now. Still now.
Evergreen SEO (as in, long-term, sustainable, SEO—not something seasonal or trendy), is here to stay.
Evergreen SEO is many things, but it’s not shortcuts. It’s not “black-hat SEO” which refers to slightly shady tactics to trick crawl bots.
Essentially, my SEO is good SEO. It’s white-hat (think “purist”), reliable, and pretty stable.
In my last ten years of blogging, my SEO strategy hasn’t changed much.
Basically, write better, original content.
And then, go through your SEO checklist. Some of my to-dos are:
- Properly sizing, compressing, naming image files
- Cleanly structuring posts with proper title tags, headings, and formatting
- Filling out essentials as in descriptions, title tags, alt texts, and making sure I have an eye for detail (headings should have a waterfall hierarchy that makes sense…)
- Ensuring internal links connect my clusters/content hubs and are logical…
- And much, much more!
Internal Linking to Clusters
Hehe, as I mentioned above, internal linking is on my SEO to-do list (so it should be on yours, too).
It’s important and mentioned twice for a reason. That’s all I should say, but I’ll add more:
Make sure every single post ties back into your content hubs in a way that makes sense. Point to your pillars. Link out from your pillars to supporting guides.
Make the web make sense for readers! 🕸️
Share Every Post on Pinterest (With Pins & Text)
I do a deep dive in my course about Pinterest growth for blogging, but, essentially, it’s a visual search engine you should not ignore.
Create a pin (with on-image text) for the blog post, and also post your blog images/photography (your best!) as well.
Pinterest LOVES aesthetic travel photos for inspiration.
Turn Posts Into Reels or Carousels That Drive Traffic
Stop creating content on social media as the end goal, and make content on social media that drives traffic and visibility back to your blog!
Now with ManyChat and LinkDM, this is easier than ever before. I wish Instagram worked like this five years ago!
Read also: Starting a Travel Blog VS an Instagram: Which One to Choose?
Write Posts with Evergreen Potential
This should be obvious, but writing blog content for trends is a short-term strategy.
Evergreen posts that re-rank each season is the way to go.
Pro tip: Make sure you’re writing content that is evergreen for year-round, not just pouring all your time into summer or winter searches only…).
Create Content Hubs to Build Topical Authority
If I numbered this list, this would be number one… 👀
PAY ATTENTION!!
You can’t just post one blog post about one destination or topic and expect to rank above your competition.
(Sometimes it works, but rarely…).
The more you blog about one topic / destination / purpose, the more authority you build. Which means the more you rank higher because hint hint: YOU become the resource!!!
Audit Older Posts for Broken Links or Clarity
You’d be surprised at how much internal links (there’s that again 👀) can strengthen or weaken your overall website SEO.
“Plugging in” old content back to new content, giving old content a refresh, and adding new content to a cluster can make your posts all rank higher.
Think about it as work for the collective good!
Email Outreach to Featured Brands & Businesses
For a natural backlink incentive, there was a period during my travel blog growth where I would email all the businesses, brands, websites, shops, etc., featured in my posts with, “Hey! Look! I mentioned you in my post. Reshare?” kind of message.
Sometimes, it went ignored. Othertimes, it soared! (Yay, I rhymed!)
If anything, it was a small 10-minute task to roundup the emails of all the people and small businesses I featured. Many would share on their socials. Some would offer a link back to my blog.
Whatever it was, always felt like a win because of the appreciative messages I received. You never know whose day you’re gonna make!
Reply to My Readers’ Comments & Emails Thoroughly
I think this didn’t help blog traffic growth so much as reader retention.
Wow, it works wonders to be human, eh? So many bloggers I know just ignore their readers’ comments and emails with a sort of shameful attitude. “I don’t have time for that.”
If I ever grow too big to be dismissive of my audience, then I’m in the wrong business. I know what it feels like to be on the other end of the stick and go ignored.
I believe being overly-generous with my value on the blog (and in emails) has been so pivotal in having repeat readers who’ve undoubtedly helped support my blog during tough times (like updates or algo changes).
Ask for Feedback & Spread the Word
In my first two years of growing my travel blog, I would often post really big guides to places I lived in and cared about deeply in Facebook groups for X destination, for two reasons:
- To get genuine feedback on my post by locals. Hey, what do you think? Did I miss anything?
- To get clicks and new readers to my closest readership base.
Doing this could backfire sometimes, as not everyone sees the value in writing about deeply misunderstood, underrepresented, or under-researched places or topics.
In most cases, though, it would get my posts seen quicker, shared more in circles by appreciative, like-minded folks, and thus Google would eat up my growing spider web faster.
Do Blogging Sprints & 30-Day Publishing Challenges
Bonus! This is technically #11 in case you were counting…
One of the biggest growth periods of my travel blog (2021) was when I was determined to reach 50,000 sessions and apply to Mediavine for ad monetization.
It was a cold winter in Chiapas, Mexico, and I decided to get up every day at 6AM and blog. Just blog. In afternoons, I would write for my freelance client (cause ya girl still had to pay bills), then I would finish off the post I had drafted earlier, edit photos, and publish. I published roughly twenty times in a core content hub and increased my traffic by 12,000 page views.
Google really began to see me as an authority and that’s when all of my posts began to rank first one after the other. Now, whenever I do big content hub builds, I still see my traffic increase.
What did you learn from this roundup? If anything, I hope it’s that growing a travel blog to 100,000 monthly page views is possible—even now, amid all the chaos and changes.