Read time: 5 minutes.
Surf camp blogging isn’t all that difficult.
With the rise of WordPress, Wix and Squarespace, anyone can build their own website and begin populating their blog with engaging content. Effectively becoming a surf writer or surf copywriter in the process. Well… almost anyone.
In any case, it’s an excellent step towards growing your business. And people who prioritise blogging are 13 times more likely to see a positive turn on their investment.
But you already know that having a surf camp blog is important.
It’s why you have one.
What you may not be able to figure out though is why in the world nobody is visiting yours.
You’ve created snappy titles for your articles. Added photos and captions. Made sure that everything reads flawlessly. And even incorporated some basic SEO good practices.
What else is there to do?
Well, the truth is that increasing traffic to your surf camp blog is trickier than it looks. But you needn’t throw your hands up in despair. Nor should you abandon your blog simply because it’s not working out for you in that moment.
Instead… you should breathe some life back into your blog or news page with proven methods to drastically increase traffic to your surf camp blog.
Whittled down and tested by none other than myself. These strategies have worked for brands such as Rapture Surfcamps and I’m sure they’ll work for you too.
Check them out now if you want to increase traffic to your surf blog.
I’ve even included a helpful checklist at the bottom. Screenshot it and tick off the appropriate steps the next time you sit down to write a blog article.
10 ways to increase traffic to your surf camp blog
1. Be strategic about your content
If you want to increase traffic to your surf camp blog, you can’t expect to wing it and see results. Quality content is king. But creating consistently drool-worthy content requires a strategic approach.
The best content is specific in the way that it addresses a certain query or need. Who are you writing this article for? What is the benefit to your reader? How can I make their life easier?
Content can be humorous and edgy. Or it can be informative and educational. It can’t be both. In order to be effective, you need to make a choice.
Once you have a rough idea as to which type of article you want to write, you can then develop a spit draft. This draft contains the bones of your article. It’s where you decide what goes where and the information that you want to include.
Fortunately, researching content for a surf camp blog article is incredibly easy. Use Quora, Google and your own TripAdvisor testimonials if you’re a hospitality-based surf business.
These places are a goldmine for article ideas. For example: If you find that lots of people are constantly gushing about your surf guiding services on TripAdvisor, plan a few surf camp blog articles around the comments that they’ve left.
And always ask yourself whether you would find the article shareable. If your answer is “hell yes” then you’re off to a good start.
2. Make your headlines irresistible
The power of a snappy headline cannot be overstated. And 8 out of 10 people will click to read your content purely off the back of a powerful header.
This pretty much means that the rest of your article could be absolute gibberish. As long as your headline is irresistible to the reader, you’ll get clicks. But how do you make your headlines irresistible?
Focus more on drawing the reader in. Don’t try to write a typical clickbaity title. You want to offer value first and foremost. Not deceive in order to catch their attention.
That, my friends, won’t win you any mates. Instead… try using these 5 hacks for optimising your headlines.
Make sure the main headline contains your primary keyword
Your main headline shouldn’t just suck people in. It should also appease the Google SEO gods by including your primary keyword. This will boost the chances of your content being ranked by search engine result pages. And as we know, that’s pretty dang importante.
Use eye-catching words or stylistic tools in order to intrigue the reader
Like I said earlier… you don’t want to fall into the trap of writing clickbait titles. But you should use eye-catching words or a clever turn of phrase in order to intrigue your reader.
Just don’t forget about the first tip though. A crafty title only works when it’s combined with a well-researched keyword. Some words that can be used to bolster a headline include:
- Rare
- Powerful
- Grief
- Amazement
- Guaranteed
- Safe
- Urgent
Speak directly to your reader
Put yourself in your reader’s shoes. Speak directly to them by using the second person perspective, ‘you’.
Make them feel like it’s addressing either them personally or a group that they belong to. Take a look at the example below. See how it calls out anyone who owns a surf school?
“10 secrets of a successful surf school (that owners forget all the time)”
Link it to something beneficial that you offer
Your headline should clearly connect the reader with their wants and/or needs. The best ways to do this is show them how they can benefit from the content in question.
Explain how it solves a problem. Answers a particular question. Makes their life easier. And otherwise leads to a positive result.
Be ultra-specific
I hated numbers as a kid. Maths as a subject was pretty much a writeoff. My textbook a canvas for scribbling crude pictures of perfect waves.
But now that I’ve gotten older (and a little bit wiser), I can see the value in using numbers to my advantage. They represent something concrete that readers can latch onto. And others agree. With a study by Conductor noting that 36% of people worldwide prefer numbers in a headline.
The lesson here? Maths doesn’t suck as much as I thought it did. And using numbers in your header can be a smart move.
3. Use photos that are both relevant and high-quality
Want proof that photos can help boost traffic to your surf camp blog? Look no further than a surf magazine.
There aren’t many left these days. But I used to love it as a kid when my dad brought home a copy of Tracks magazine.
I would flick through it in a trance. Soaking up every patch of printed ink on the page. Looking for shots of my favourite surfers (Brendan Margieson and Dave Rastovich in case you were wondering). Utterly transfixed by their style, the destinations and of course the waves.
For surf camp blogs that are trying to emphasise a certain lifestyle, images are a formidable ally.
Make sure any photos you use are of the highest quality. Anything blurry or oversaturated will turn people away rather than get them keen.
Don’t forget to use keywords in both your captions and the alt-text too. And certainly don’t neglect the fact that not all images you pull from the web are free.
The last thing you want is to violate copyright law. Stick to royalty-free sites such as the following and you’ll be sweet:
4. Create evergreen content for your surf camp blog
Evergreen content is one of the key ways to increase traffic to your surf blog. This type of content will never be irrelevant. It can live on your surf camp blog forevermore.
This means that you won’t need to constantly update it. You won’t need to pay someone else to update it either. It will continue to be important no matter how long you leave it up.
For example, a post about this year’s World Surf League winner won’t be useful to anyone in a few months time. A post about the best surfers in the history of the sport will always be readable. This qualifies it as an evergreen piece.
SEO software developer Moz suggests that list posts (or listicles) are one of the best ways to attract more readers to your surf blog. They also mention that evergreen content will continue to generate traffic long after it’s been published. Try combining the two for maximum effect. I dare ya.
5. Understand who you’re writing for
I’ve mentioned this on my Instagram page before. But knowing your audience is perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to creating a high-traffic surf camp blog.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. To ensure you can create effective content that speaks directly to your ideal customer or guest though, you need to know what your target audience is looking for.
Here are some questions you should ask yourself before you begin laying the foundations for your article:
- Who is my target audience?
- What concerns/problems do they have that I can solve?
- What do they desire that I can give them?
- What content can I produce to help solve their problems?
These types of questions will give you a decent insight into the ‘how’ and ‘what’ of your content. But they’re not the be-all and end-all.
The following queries will help you flesh out what your typical customer or guest looks likes:
- How old are they?
- Where do they come from?
- What is their education level?
- What are their passions/interests?
Once you’ve got a good idea as to what your customer looks like and at which stage of the customer journey they’re at, you can then begin to plan your content.
6. Include long-tail keywords
You’ve probably already heard about how critical keyword research is to levelling up the traffic to your surf camp blog.
This technique is used by beginner bloggers, expert content creators and SEO specialists. It will help people find your articles and discover your business page.
But as opposed to well-known short-tail keywords, long-tail keywords are keywords that are composed of 3 or more keywords.
This means that they’re more specific. And more likely to attract people at the ‘buying’ stage of their customer journey.
For example: If you’re a surf school in Portugal, it might be hard to rank at the top of Google with the search term “surf school in Portugal”. There’s just too much competition.
If you specialise in providing professional one-on-one surf lessons for adults though, you can use keywords such as “expert one-on-one surf lessons for adults in Portugal”. This will hook people who are searching exactly for that service.
Using long-tail keywords can feel kind of clunky at first. But targeting long-tail keywords is a highly reliable method for ranking well (or even snagging the top spot) on Google.
Here are some tips for finding and using long-tail keywords to increase traffic to your surf blog:
Brainstorm a few long-tail keywords
You don’t need an expensive program in order to brainstorm some long-tail keywords (Although it definitely helps). All you need is good ol’ Google and it’s Keyword Planner. Using the steps below plus these two tools, you can generate some reliable keywords for your next article:
- Punch a phrase into Google that’s relevant to your business
- Make note of the autocomplete suggestions that it makes
- Put a few of those terms back into Google
- Check out the related suggestions at the bottom of the page
- Put a few of the most relevant long-tail keywords you’ve found into Keyword Planner
- Assess which ones will drive the most traffic (high search volume with low competition)
Use these keywords throughout your article
The next step is to create content around these keywords.
Some may say that keyword density is worth considering at this point. But to be honest, I think that where you place these keywords is perhaps more important than how often they’re placed.
Gone are the days when you needed to place a word in your copy at least X number of times. As long as they’re found in the following areas and distributed logically throughout your article… you’ll be gravy:
- Main headline
- URL
- Subheaders
- Alt-text
- Captions
- Meta title and description
Find variations of these keywords and repeat in other articles
Your work isn’t done yet. Once you’ve written an article around a specific keyword, you need to rinse and repeat.
Create more articles using variations of this keyword. For example: If your long-tail keyword is “surf camps in Portugal”, you could write additional posts with the following titles:
- “Surf camps for kids in Portugal”
- “Surf camps in Portugal for intermediates”
- “Budget surf camp in Portugal”
This technique of using similar keywords to create different articles is now called keyword clustering.
(I’ve always just referred to it as creating content around keyword variations. But I’ll admit that keyword clustering has a better ring!)
Essentially it’s the same thing though. You build content around a keyword theme in order to establish more authority in the eyes of Google. With the ultimate goal being that Google’s crawlers will scan your cluster and send your page higher up the ranks.
7. Make sure your content is readable
English isn’t everyone’s first language. But it is the first language of SERPs. And search engines such as Google absolutely love long, comprehensive and clearly written articles.
The problem here is that most of us have short attention spans. And they’re only getting shorter. Just look at surf movies over the past two decades. They went from one hour plus long epics to 2 minutes clips.
But this doesn’t mean you need to shorten your articles. It just means that they need to be more readable.
Even the slightest speed bump or dodgy paragraph might put a reader off. They’ll then abandon the rest of your article before they get to the good stuff.
The good news here is that there’s a simple solution. Just make sure that your content is easy on the eye.
Use small sentences. Stick to making only one point per sentence. And keep your paragraphs short so that there’s plenty of white space on the page.
The easier that your content is to read, the more traffic you will attract and the more people will feel inclined to stay on your surf camp blog page.
The Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress is great for helping to improve readability. As is Grammarly (the free version) if you want to write better content.
Don’t neglect to use images, videos, photos or infographics to break up blocks of text too. They’ll make your article more engaging for users.
8. Incorporate links
Most of us know that incorporating both internal and external links into an article is important. But do you know why this is?
Essentially, internal links allow Google to better understand how different articles on your website interrelate. Google then uses the relationships between these posts as a ranking marker when determining the relevancy of your website.
Internal links will help increase traffic to your surf camp blog by attracting more page views. They’re also easier to implement given that asking for third-party links can be tricky.
As for external links, they should only direct readers to other websites with related content. Linking to external sites that have nothing to do with the source content makes zero sense.
Linking to a page that has a similar theme or matching topic to the anchor text, however, will put you in a position to achieve the best results.
Not to mention that readers will find it helpful when you link them to resources that can make their life easier in one way or another.
9. Add videos to your surf camp blog articles
The most successful form of content on the world wide web is video.
You, me and everyone else on the internet will spend more time watching videos and clips this year than we will reading blog articles that contain no multimedia of any kind.
Adding videos to your articles is therefore imperative if you want to increase traffic to your surf camp blog.
But simply supplementing a poorly worded blog article with a video isn’t enough to boost engagement. Your written content has to be on-point too.
If you can write a clear and concise article with good SEO and add an interesting video to your surf camp blog, you’ll be well on your way to improving site visits.
Not only that, but videos will lower bounce rates. This is due to the fact that people spend twice as long on a page with a video than one without.
Hosting a high-quality video on your blog will help take the ranking power of your website up a notch. But it needs to be supported by context and relevant content.
If you manage to do this, you can look forward to articles that hold a high average position ranking and boast stellar click-through rates.
10. Invite guest contributors to write for you
Finally, another strategy you can use to lure more people to your surf camp blog page is to invite other people to write guest posts.
Whether they’re a past guest, an employee or even an Instagram influencer with some serious sway within your niche. User-generated content brings more traffic to your site.
It’s more likely to be read and shared since it will be distributed throughout the network of the person who originally wrote the post.
And let’s be honest… guest articles are more content that you didn’t have to plan, write and edit yourself.
From long-form testimonials to featured comments, user reviews and local guides, user-generated content comes in many forms.
What you need to do is pick which type of content is right for your particular goal. You can then pitch the idea for this content to past guests or individuals of note within your niche.
Whatever you decide on though, it’s important to include SEO best practices in said piece of content.
Despite what I said before about guest posts giving you free bonus content, you still need to do some legwork in order to make sure it’s effective.
My advice is for you to focus on creating SEO-friendly blog posts. They’ll increase traffic to your surf blog and enhance the chance that your other articles will be seen.
You might even be able to write some spinoff content around the recently released user-generated article. All you need to do is freshen it up a bit. This will give you more mileage and help generate new leads from existing material.
A checklist to help you increase traffic to your surf camp blog
Have a scan of this checklist both before and after you write your blog article. Aim to tick everything off the list. However, if you can’t find a video, don’t stress.
You’ll already be lightyears ahead of almost every other surf camp, surf school, surf resort or surf house if you plan what you’re going to write, add some keywords and drop a few photos into the article.
| Surf Camp Blog Post Checklist | ✅ |
| 1. Topic addresses a common concern or query | |
| 2. Irresistible headline | |
| 3. Photos that are relevant and high quality | |
| 4. Evergreen content | |
| 5. Consider your target audience | |
| 6. Include long-tail keywords | |
| 7. Content is clear, concise and readable | |
| 8. Internal and external links have been incorporated | |
| 9. Use a video somewhere in your blog | |
| 10. Have a guest contributor write for you |