Increasing Blog Traffic
Choose your words wiselyby j. brotherlove
Currently, part of my web/blog design research is focused on strategies for reaching, maintaining and growing readership and participation. There are a ton of articles online addressing the issue, often conflicting each other. Reason being, there is no one way to do anything.
Add to that the rapid rate at which websites are born with search engines’ ever-changing algorithms and ranking policies, and the prospect for gaining eyeballs on your page can feel futile.
Nick Wilson lays out 3 Ways to Immediately Increase Search Engine Traffic. Essentially, he writes “it’s not rocket science, and anyone can do it”. He details the following tips:
1. Write Better, More Specific Copy and Linkbait
2. Make it Easy for People to Link to You
3. Networking, the Unsung Hero of Blog SEO
I agree with him overall but I do think he has oversimplified the process for those who are interested in more than random hits from search engines. There are some interesting comments to the article.
More interestingly, Eric Kintz lists 10 reasons Why Blog Post Frequency Does Not Matter Anymore.
Every blogger has been told to blog and blog often to gain readership. So what’s this new school of thought? Actually, it’s an opinion I’ve had rolling around in my head for the better part of this year. I read several blogs with great content and a steady updating schedule but rank low on search engines on a consistent basis. On the other hand, I do well with search engines (a bit too well, in my opinion) with a haphazard posting schedule.
Of Kintz’s 10 reasons, my favorite are:
#4 - Frequent posting is actually starting to have a negative impact on loyalty
#6: Frequent posting drives poor content quality
#9 - Frequent posting creates the equivalent of a blogging landfill
I wholeheartedly agree! And RSS feeds have only made things worse. Instead of keeping a tally of sites and visiting them at your leisure, we now have hundreds of “recently updated” web pages demanding our attention. “Mark All As Read” has become my frequent course of action. My recommendation is to choose your words wisely.
Related
The Changing Face Of Publishing
SEO Fact — Do-It-Yourself Works
Googlerankings.com
Do you read copyblogger (copyblogger.com)? I use a lot of their tips not necessarily to increase traffic but because they are good writing tips and have found my site content is much better for it.
I was going to suggest Copyblogger as well and Problogger. Even if you don’t necessarily want to monetize Problogger has some good info on search engine stuff, increasing return visits, etc.
I just started reading copyblogger myself and find the tips extremely useful. There’s also a list of recommended books on websitetips.com.
This subject is gaining a lot of interest lately. Today, David Pogue, of the New York Times ran an interview with Wonkette on his blog titled, “Wonkette’s Ingredients for a Successful Blog.”
Oh the link to pogue’s blog and the interview with wonkette is here.
Also, this article is old, but there are a lot of tips that can be gleaned from it and the references it lists:
I keep mulling over what you’re talking about here. It looks like I do wonderfully with search engines, but with repeat visitors I’m not sure since most people who repeat are reading me through RSS Readers and the like. I do wish I had more participation interaction though. But maybe I need to speak up more. I used to think…say my piece and then just let the village converse. But I’m starting to believe more-and-more that you have to participate in the village.
I think the sheer number of people jumping online (and adding pages) has forced those serious in driving traffic to their sites to take notice. Also, there is some research that shows participation helps to build repeat visits.
I’ve been reading Copyblogger for awhile now but haven’t heard of Problogger. I’ll check that out as well as the other links.
ProBlogger is actually very useful since he pulls info and tips from a number of sources instead of just saying “this is how you should do it”. But since I’m not THAT obssessed with monetizing, I’ve stopped reading it for the most part. Still a subscriber though.