So, How Long Does it Take to Grow a Blog? My Experience
I have a few blogs and I’ve been writing online since around 2019. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs and wins and losses. But this is one of my biggest takeaways: as long as you keep showing up, you can’t lose.
So, how long does it take to grow a blog exactly? In my experience, anywhere between few months to two+ years. But this question is pretty nuanced.
So let’s wrap up this chit chat and get to it!
How Long Does it Take to Grow a Blog?
Growing a blog can take between 3-12+ months for initial traction and traffic. But going full-time with it can take up to 2+ years. These are just averages and based on my own experience.
Blog growth depends on a lot of factors, such as expertise, niche, audience, competition and content consistency.
Plus, the whole idea of blog growth is pretty subjective. For example, what does “growth” actually mean to you — traffic?
Because there are sites getting 50K+ visits per months making less than $1,000. But then there are sites getting <5K visits per month making over 10K per month.
So it helps to first define growth and set clear blogging goals early on so you can gauge your progress more accurately.
Also, be sure to set realistic expectations, stay patient and adopt a good strategy. Growing a blog is all but guaranteed if you just pull the right levers and stay the course.
Explore more:
➤ My Blog Content Strategy
The Biggest Things That Slow Down a Blog’s Growth
No previous blogging experience
No publishing consistency
A bad keyword strategy
Low content quality
Not a good niche
Poor SEO
Bad UX
Explore more:
➤ My Biggest Blogging Mistakes
My Blogging Journey
I’ve been blogging since 2019, and my first site was a total flop. I pretty much checked all of the boxes (above) for things to avoid. But that’s okay. That was my education — and I learned a lot through failure.
I never took a course or hired a mentor and I ignored a lot of blogging best practices early on (like niching down and optimizing for UX). So it took me a little longer to start getting traction.
It took me a little over a year to hit 10K monthly visitors. From there, my traffic kept growing — until Google’s March 2024 update (which hit many sites).
After the update, I took advantage of my traffic loss to do a rebrand and update old content.
My growth was slow because of a few key things:
Covering too many niches
Poor keyword choice
A lack of clarity
I have a whole post (blogging with Squarespace) where I share a deeper breakdown of my results blogging with Squarespace. So be sure to check that out if you’re interested in those traffic numbers!
Grow Your Blog Quicker (4 tips)
Choose Good Keywords
The right keywords means choosing terms that 1.) make sense for your brand and 2.) you can realistically rank for.
In general — as a new site — lower-competition keywords are easier to rank for and will get you traffic quicker.
You can read my full keyword research strategy here.
But keep in mind that just because a keyword is competitive doesn’t mean you should ignore it. These terms are usually pretty important for building a more holistic content strategy.
They also establish brand authority and niche credibility.
Go Niche — Stay Focused
“The riches are in the niches...”
While you can totally build a multi-niche blog, focusing on just one (micro) niche at a time will grow your site much faster.
On the practical side, this makes time management easier since you’re not spreading yourself too thin. But there’s also an SEO benefit.
If your website topics are too diverse, Google is less likely to see you as an authority and may de-rank your content. This has been happening more often with recent Google updates.
Algorithms and rankings are pretty volatile right now and staying on-brand and niche-focused is a strategy that seems to be working for many bloggers.
Explore more:
➤ The Future of Blogging
➤ Multibranding for Creators
Build Topic Clusters (one at a time)
Topic clusters are groups of related blogs around a main pillar topic. These posts usually interlink between each other and, together, cover a topic in full.
Building topic clusters is one of the biggest secrets to a blog’s growth. It’s how you build real authority in your niche (aka, Google’s trust and subsequent traffic).
For example, let’s say you want to build topical authority for clay pottery making. A cluster of related articles could include:
How to Make a Clay Pot
The Benefits of Pottery Making
Essential Equipment for Making Pottery
Key Tips for Working on a Pottery Wheel
10 Clay Pot Ideas to Build This Winter
How to Fire Pottery At Home: The Complete Guide
If you’re hoping to grow your blog quicker, concentrate on building topic clusters of authority. It just works!
Work With a Mentor
“To know the road ahead, ask those coming back...”
Want to know the ultimate hack to shortcut your blog’s growth? Work with someone who knows how to grow a blog.
A mentor is an experienced coach who guides you and helps you overcome unique struggles, build your mindset and reach your goals quicker or more efficiently.
Just be sure to look for a mentor with verifiable experience and someone who understands your goals and you can actually vibe with.
And if you’re into my content style and want to learn more about working with me, I do offer private coaching — just fill out the form below and I’ll get in contact!
