Posts Tagged ‘Blogging’

The Most Successful Content Strategy For Bloggers In 2020

It’s impossible to ignore the importance of content strategy in 2020 if you are looking to grow your blog. A great content strategy that works to bring you an audience can have a massive impact on your business and can mean the difference between running a tiny blog as a hobby and being the owner of a successful high traffic blog that brings you monthly revenue, customers and a solid profit.

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Organic Google Traffic Sent Me 4562 Page Views To A Single Post Last Month – Here’s Why

It’s been a while since I’ve done a traffic post, but on my consultancy website (LaurenLambie.com) I’ve achieved some really fantastic traffic lately so I wanted to write up a blog post to share what has been working for me – and how it can help you to. The reason I’m keen to share this is because there are no complicated SEO tactics involved at all so it really is something you can achieve yourself, even if you have a relatively new blog (LaurenLambie.com has only been around since 2016).

Please note this post may contain affiliate links. Please refer to my disclosure for more information. 

Traffic – The Numbers

There was a bit of number crunching involved here. You can see from the screenshot that this particular post (The 109 Most Popular Instagram Hashtags For Entrepreneurs) had 5849 views during that 30 day period, but I do get a lot of referrals from Pinterest (more on that in a bit). When referring to my analytics, I get around 78% of my traffic from Google, so based on that, we’re talking about around 4-5k page views just to that post, from Google. (i.e. 4562 if you assume 78% of those 5849 views came from google – it’s an assumption but it’s not far off I’d imagine).

What Worked In Terms Of Google

Like I said in the intro, there was no huge SEO optimisation happening in this instance – I don’t spend a great deal of effort on things like link building to my website, for example. What I did do, however, was follow best practice. In other words, when I created that post (and all the other posts on that site) I played by the rules and created content that I knew Google would “like” (and by like, I mean that they would see it as good, authentic, high quality content).

Most of my knowledge there came from an eBook that I had read through (on recommendation) by Lena Gott, a blogger who’d managed to boost her traffic from 17k to 400k (per month) in just 10 months. I won’t list all her strategies here as it wouldn’t be fair – buy her book – it’s not a lot of money and well worth it – even applying 1 or 2 of her 21 strategies has an amazing impact on your traffic levels.

Google Traffic Strategies – The Best Practice I Followed

I will outline what I personally did that I think helped my SEO. Firstly, I wrote a blog post that people were already searching for. I had a broad idea that I wanted to write about Instagram hashtags, did my research on Google and Pinterest, and found that some of the most popular posts were all about lists of good hashtags. So that’s what I wrote about! It’ so tempting to just write about what you want to write about, but instead, write about the stuff your readers want to read. A bit of market research before writing a post goes a long way!

I also use Yoast, the SEO WordPress plugin, to make sure that my post scored highly from an SEO perspective – good use of keywords, good quality content, links etc. Yoast is a market leader – I’ve seen countless SEO experts recommend it. I’d say it’s a must-have plug in if you want to get any traffic from Google.

Lastly, I spent time researching and writing the post. I did the research I needed to find the relevant hashtags, and that’s valuable to people – when anyone reads that post I had saved them quite a few hours of their own research. The result? People are linking to my post as a recommendation. You remember at the top I said I don’t do link building? Well, I don’t actively go out looking for posts to link to my website, but people are reading my posts and linking to them because they’re relevant and valuable – that’s what Google wants. The lesson here? Don’t try and play the system. Always do what Google wants you to do if you want Google to send you traffic.

The Part Played By Pinterest traffic

Now, there was a time, not so long ago, when Google wasn’t really sending me any traffic for this post, but I was still getting a lot of views to it. Most of that traffic came from Pinterest, and it’s no coincidence that it’s one of my most popular posts on Pinterest, or that – as of the time of writing this – it has over 3000 social media shares. Here’s a screenshot:

I think this has been incredibly useful to Google when they are trying to determine whether they should rank my content. And that’s one of the reasons why I use Pinterest. Sure, the traffic from there is good, but Google traffic is great, and one seems to boost the other. Pinterest is me making a long term investment in my blog posts, making sure they get consistent traffic, month in, month out. And should something bad happen to Pinterest, I will still get the traffic from Google.

Now, don’t just stick a pin on Pinterest and hope it sends you traffic. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that (I can testify to that; I’ve used Pinterest for years but it’s only in the last 2 years it’s really sent me traffic – because I’ve had a proper Pinterest strategy in place. Again, much too much to talk about in this post but that strategy came from a blogger called Carly who writes the blog Mommy on Purpose – you can purchase her eBook here (side note: before reading her eBook I took a far more expensive, premium course in Pinterest, but read Carly’s eBook after it was recommended multiple times – the expensive course – which I won’t name – allowed me to start seeing a few hundred Pinterest referrals – but Carly’s eBook turned that into thousands).

What Traffic Lessons You Can Take Away From This

  • Traffic can be so frustrating – especially when you’re writing, promoting, promoting some more and you’re not seeing results. So stick with it. Traffic is a long game, but when the scales tip in your favor it’s worth all the effort. Be consistent and be persistent!
  • Don’t try and cheat the system. It might work for a while, but however smart your strategy is, Google and Pinterest are smarter. Just work with these two platforms, do what they want you to do, and you will be richly rewarded.
  • There is no substitute for just good, old-fashioned, high quality, valuable content that people actually want to read!
  • Don’t just throw stuff around trying to get traffic – have a strategy in place. And stick to it.

Recommendations For Boosting Your Traffic

I’ll link to those two eBooks again. I’ll also link to a couple of good posts on this blog which you can read that cover different aspects to SEO.

For a fantastic all-round traffic strategy: Lena Gott’s eBook – 21 Strategies I Used To Go From 17K to 400K monthly page views

For a solid, proven pinterest strategy: Carly’s fantastic Pinteresting Strategies eBook

An SEO expert talks about link building in this post: How one website got 60k visitors from Google – A Link Building Strategy Case Study

A basic SEO post for the complete beginner: Do You Ignore SEO? This Blog Post Will Change Your Mind

My top Pinterest tips for consistent Pinterest traffic:  If Your Pinterest Traffic Isn’t Growing, Here Are 8 Ways To Fix The Problem

If Your Pinterest Traffic Isn’t Growing, Here Are 8 Ways To Fix The Problem

Pinterest has been an amazing traffic source for me. But it’s also been a source of woe. I’ve seen first-hand how quickly Pinterest can help you get a surge in traffic, especially on a blog that’s really just ticking along and not showing much growth (despite your best efforts). But I’ve had a lot of experience of my Pinterest traffic stalling. It just flat-lines. And then I’m left wondering – what am I doing wrong? And while I’m at it, why is every blogger on the planet getting hundreds of thousands of hits a day on Pinterest and I’m not? (Actually, those sorts of numbers are rare, but it’s easy to get into that sort of mindset when you read other success stories).

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Boosting Your Blog Traffic in 3 Easy Steps

When we start blogs, either for our businesses, or personal sites, we often naively expect that we’ll set it up, add a little content and an about me page and the traffic will come. We expect to get thousands of readers within days. Other sites have got plenty of traffic, after all, they even work with brands and make a living from their blogs. How hard can it be?

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Is Your Website Turning Off Your Customers?

If you are reliant on your website to generate income from your business, then you need to invest time into producing something that your customers will love using. But if you lazily throw something together, and if your website turns out to be annoying and frustrating to use, then you will turn off your customers, possibly causing them to migrate to your nearest competitors.

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Why Working Online Can Ensure Career Flexibilty In Your Future

Has there ever been a better time to take your career online? In today’s digital environment, Taking your skills, services, and products online can help you reach a worldwide audience that generations before could only dream of. It’s no surprise that so many of us now choose to start our career working online. It’s an amazing opportunity to secure a great income well into the future years ahead.

Working from a laptop gives this generation of freelancers. contractors, and employees the flexibility to be location-independent in their career. They might need to work from home some of the days in the week, fit their job around other commitments like childcare, or work on a freelance basis due to their time and lifestyle.

If you’ve started out in a digital field of any kind, or want to further your online prospects; it’s worth exploring your options. Here’s what you need to consider before taking that leap and working remotely.

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Building An Online Presence With Personality

What a time it is to be alive! The digital age has not only allowed us to stream hours of content into our homes, talk face to face with people on the other side of the planet and order cuisine from around the world with just the tap of a screen, it’s also proven a tremendous boon to those who yearn for the entrepreneurial life. The digital age has transformed the world of small business in a number of ways. Above all, it has provided hard working, ambitious and imaginative people more means than ever through which to build and grow their very own online business. Whether your enterprise exists solely in the digital realm or whether you have a physical presence on the high street or even if you’re just a freelancer working from home it’s essential to build an online presence for your business.

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Starting A Business From Your Bed

If you want to get away from the world of corporate business this year to spread your wings elsewhere, we don’t blame you. The business world is a complex and stressful place, and between your deadlines, employee drama and the pension scheme: working in an office can get old real fast.

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Freelancers: Don’t Let The Summer Slump Drain Your Productivity!

productivity

Dang, it’s hot outside! The summer sun has a magical property. It has a way of making us a little brighter, a little cheerier and a little more optimistic. It can turn even the most quotidian of things like a stroll in the park into a kaleidoscope of colors, scents and sounds and a treat for all the senses. It’s a time for picnics, garden parties, barbecues and consuming two thirds of your body weight in ice cream. But as welcome as the summer sun may be, it’s also the source of lethargy and distraction in the workplace. In fact, the “summer slump” is a well documented drain on workplace productivity and many corporations take big steps to mitigate its effects on their workforce.

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