The best strategies to increase blog traffic are not secret. Write posts that answer what people search for, give readers a reason to come back, and show up where your audience already talks. What separates blogs that grow from blogs that stall is usually less glamorous: knowing which of those efforts is sending visitors, and putting more time into that one.
So this post pairs each channel with how you will see it in your analytics. It skips the tricks entirely: no bought traffic, no link schemes, no posting-frequency rules. How many posts a new blog needs is covered in how many blog posts to get traffic, and reviving older posts in our guide to a content refresh.
Where to increase blog traffic: three channels you control
Search is the channel that compounds, because a post that answers a real query keeps being found. The work is matching each post to what the searcher wants, which our guide to search intent covers. An email list is the channel you own outright: once someone subscribes, you can tell them about the next post without waiting for an algorithm. Communities and shares are the channel you borrow, by being useful in forums, groups and newsletters where your readers already gather.
Each one shows up differently in analytics, and each can be hidden if you are careless. The channel definitions themselves are explained in our post on website traffic sources; the table below is just the working summary.
| Channel | What you do | How you see it in analytics |
|---|---|---|
| Search | One clear intent per post; refresh posts that slip | Organic search in Google Analytics, queries in Search Console |
| Email newsletter | Send new posts to subscribers | Its own campaign, if link tracking is on before you send |
| Communities and shares | Answer questions and link where it genuinely helps | Referral or social visits from the site that sent them |
| Untagged links | Nothing; this is what happens by default | Often lumped in with direct, where you cannot act on it |
Make your newsletter show up as its own source
Email is the channel most often lost in reports. A subscriber clicks through from a mail app, the visit arrives with no clear referrer, and it lands in direct. Our post on direct traffic explains why that bucket fills up. The fix is to tag the links in every email, and most email platforms will do it for you.
Mailchimp is a good worked example because its help page spells out the steps. Its article on how to integrate Google Analytics with Mailchimp says you can “add Google Analytics tracking to your Mailchimp marketing emails to collect data about your Mailchimp emails”, and “Set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics to track contacts based on clicks and purchases on your website.”
For a regular email: “In the Settings & Tracking section of the email builder, check the box next to Google Analytics link tracking.” Mailchimp then shows “the email title as it will appear in your Google Analytics account”, and it “combines the Mailchimp marketing email title with the date”. In automations you can “Modify UTM Parameters” per email, and the page warns: “Make sure no field is left blank.” One exception in classic automations is “the single welcome email. That automation type doesn’t accept Google Analytics tracking.”
Two prerequisites: “You need an Admin user level or higher to connect this integration”, and you should “be sure that you’ve upgraded to Google Analytics 4”. After that change, statistics for tracked emails “can only be viewed in your Google Analytics account”, so that is where you look, not in Mailchimp’s own reports.
The tagging mistakes that hide email traffic
Most broken email tracking comes from a short list of mistakes, and the Mailchimp page names them. Each one is easy to avoid once you know it exists.
- Redirects. “Google Analytics won’t track redirects that don’t contain embedded Google Analytics code.” Link straight to the post, not to a shortener or an old URL that redirects.
- A stray space. “Google Analytics won’t work if there is a space after the URL in the email.”
- Sites that reject parameters. Your site must accept “utm_source=”, “utm_campaign=”, “utm_medium=” and “utm_term=”, or links can break.
- Special characters in titles. When editing the title, “make sure you don’t include any special characters. These can break your URLs.”
- Double tagging. “If you combine Mailchimp’s Google Analytics tracking with custom UTM tracking, this could skew results in reports. We recommend choosing only one type of Google Analytics tracking.”
- Turning it on too late. “Google Analytics can’t work retroactively.” The account must be set up before the email is sent.
Mailchimp also observes that for new accounts “it can take a few days to actually have data start populating”, so an empty report the morning after a send is not proof of a problem. If you tag links by hand for other channels, our guide to UTM parameters covers the conventions.
Communities and shares: earn the click
The communities channel works when you are a regular participant rather than a visitor with a link. Answer the question in the thread itself, and link to your post only where it adds something the answer cannot hold, such as a full walkthrough or a worked example. Communities notice people who only arrive to post their own links.
The same applies to other people’s newsletters and roundups. A post that genuinely helps a niche audience is the one editors want to mention. Those visits arrive as referrals, and our post on referral traffic explains how to see which sites send readers who stay.
Measure each channel, then do more of what works
With search, email and referrals each visible as their own source, you can compare them honestly. Look at which channel sends readers who go on to a second page, subscribe or come back, not just which sends the most visits. Then move effort accordingly.
This is the unexciting answer to the question of how to grow a blog. There is no single trick, only a few channels worked consistently and measured well enough that you can tell them apart. A blogger who knows their newsletter drives their best readers will make different decisions from one who sees a large, unexplained direct figure.
The limitation is plain. This post describes channels and how to measure them; it cannot say how much traffic any of them will bring or how long that takes, because that depends on your topic, your audience and your writing. The Mailchimp steps are quoted from its help page in October 2026 and may change. Other email platforms offer similar tracking, but their settings are not covered here.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best strategies to increase blog traffic?
Earn visits from channels you control: posts that match search intent, an email list you send new posts to, and genuine participation in communities. Then measure each channel separately so you know which to invest in.
Why does my newsletter traffic show up as direct?
Clicks from email apps often arrive without a referrer. Tagging the links, for example with Mailchimp’s Google Analytics link tracking, makes the visits appear as their own campaign.
Can I add tracking to emails I have already sent?
No. Mailchimp’s help page says “Google Analytics can’t work retroactively”, so the account must be set up before the tracked email is sent.
Should I use Mailchimp’s tracking and my own UTM tags together?
Mailchimp recommends against it: combining them “could skew results in reports”, so choose one type of tracking.
The takeaway Work the channels you control, tag every link you send, and let your own analytics tell you which channel deserves the next hour of effort.
