Optimizing your blog from A to Z
Here are some quick tips to optimize your blog for better performance.
(1) Manage your internal linking structures.
Any well managed site has links from one page to other related pages. But, not all links get clicked on. Your job as an analyst is to pay attention to which links do well. Let’s say you have a page about roller coasters. At the bottom of that page there are links to four other pages on your blog. Maybe one of those links will get a generous amount of clicks based on your Google Analytics account. Perhaps the other links will not get as many clicks. Consider replacing the non-clicked links with other links that might get clicked more. Replace the links and in a month, check the click results of the new links. Also consider the SEO relevance of the link. If the two pages share some critical keyword(s) which matter to you, you might want a relevant link with better keyword similarity and less clicks. That choice is up to you, but at least you are thinking about the two most critical issues.
(2) Have lots of links to your site
Do you have a site? I hope so. A blog is the most ideal way to drive relevant traffic to your site from search engines. Write about industry relevant issues, and watch the clicks come in. Ideally, each blog you write should have between one to five links to your site. If you are lucky, you can sell links to other sites, or get other people to write free blog articles for you in exchange for a link. I have the luxury of this arrangement and I am enjoying it!
(3) Identify topics that are popular.
At airports the security does something called profiling. They can tell based on how you look how likely you are to be a smuggler, drug dealer, or blog writer. Blog writers need to be good at profiling. They need to know the different types or segments of blog articles that might fit into their blog. They need to be able to identify the most popular segments and get good at brainstorming to think of many interesting titles and themes for those segments. If roller coaster blog entries do well on your blog, then try to think of 100 ideas about roller coaster blogs that are all different. Space them out so you don’t bore your readers. Figure out what works and repeat it.
(4) Experiment
There is no harm done in trying different things. In my experience, only 2% of the blog articles I write become really popular. I would have no way of knowing that they would become popular until after it happens. Sometimes my worst written entries become the most popular just because that is what people want to read about! Try different things and try them quickly. Don’t waste too much time on blogs that have unknown results. Crank out lots of articles and see what does well. If something does well, then do more with that theme.
(5) Promoting your blog on all the major networks
If you want your blog to grow fast, promote it on Facebook, GooglePlus, Twitter, Reddit, Stumbleupon, other blogs, your site, and create your own newsletter! I have a newsletter and I keep calling people to get more followers. I have about 2300 followers and it is a great source of traffic to my blog. It more or less doubles or triples the traffic to my blog which is amazing.
(6) Create tagging strategies that work.
Keywords are what makes SEO go around. But, some keywords are hard to get traffic on. You might need to write 20 articles that are really interesting, all using similar keywords to get some play on Google. The next step is to have links to those keyword tags from Twitter, and other sources. The keyword combination, “Roller Coaster” has a lot of competition, so focus on which keywords give you the highest ROI and get some links coming for them from wherever you can get them.
(7) Keyphrases vs. Keyword variations
I learned that it is easier to get traffic from Google using keyphrases. Perhaps you might have a question that someone would google such as, “How do I find a roller coaster?” If that phrase gets searched on a lot, and you happen to write a blog article with that as the title, you will get traffic. It is that easy. Check your Google Analytics to see what keyphrases you are already getting traffic on. See how high you rank if you google those keyphrases. If you are already in the top five, you might not need to write a blog about those. But, if you are not on the first page, then go and write a blog using those keyphrases. Sometimes lots of short blogs each with a different keyphrase title are a great way to get lots of traffic fast! Try it.
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