9 replies to this topic

[kslnor]

Maybe I know what I'm doing, maybe not.  Maybe I'm just seeking a bit of affirmation.  My site keeps slipping further and further into the Google abyss, in spite of what I think are good practices:

 

3 months ago I changed my static site to a blog, for ease of adding content and actually growing with the expectations of my visitors. 

 

I have been adding new posts to my blog, although I only add one or two per week.  Currently, I have 5 guest posts on fairly popular blogs within my niche (3 different blogs).  I have 3 more guest posts that will be published on another well-read blog over the next several weeks (or months).  My goal here is to get my name "out there" and gain more visitors,  This seems to be a slow process.

 

I only comment on blogs and forums when I know I will add value - neither venues have follow links to my site (per google webmaster guidelines, this is frowned upon). 

 

I utilize a few of the social networks, but a bit sparingly.  I'm not too fond of them, but I am building my number of "circles", "friends" and "followers".

 

I admit, in the past I did comment to gain links.  I also did not have as much content on my (then static) site.  Both of these I believe resulted in being hit with whichever animal Google threw at us back in late April, 2012

 

So...I'm sure I just need to continue to be patient and continue getting my name in front of people.  Is this an accurate statement ?  Or am I missing the idea ?  Gosh, what a slow process.

 

 

[Jill]

Are the new posts you write on your blog bringing any traffic? That should be your goal. If they're not, you need to look at why. 

[kslnor]

Hmmm...well, indirectly they do - when a visitor lands on my home page via organic search then clicks through to a post.  Also a bit of traffic from FB and Twitter.

 

Looking at my Analytics, it doesn't look like my new posts are getting any organic traffic.  As far as I can tell, they are not blocked from robots.  They are indexed.

 

Now I'm wondering why my new posts aren't bringing any organic traffic.  Perhaps they're too new ?

[SelfMade]

Here's what I do.

 

I use the GKWT almost on a daily basis.

 

When I get an idea for a blog post (I have 2 blogs in 2 different Niches) I first see if there are any search terms with decent traffic that I can fairly easily rank for.

 

Now the debate here at the moment is whether Rankings "exist" (or not) and Jill has wrote a decent counter argument for that in an article, which I DO buy into.

 

So when I get an idea I see what terms get searches and that I can go for, I like to write posts for about sub -200 searches per month.

 

Now that might not seem like a lot, but when you blog as much as I do that adds up.

 

I then get as many related keywords as I can and add them all as Keywords in the Thesis SEO section below the post, All In One SEO is a great plugin too by the way. If you use Thesis, you don't need it as Thesis has there own system built in to it which is what I use.

 

I then add those SAME keywords as Tags too and apply them all and choose any relevant ones of my most popular tags.

 

I then write a custom title for REAL humans, but the TITLE I use in the Thesis SEO is keyword rich for the SE's.

 

I let thesis automatically pull the description from the post. My theory is, that if you FORCE the Search engines to pull the description text, your effectively FORCING them to choose what they want/think is relevant and that usually makes my post's rank really well.

 

I mean last week I wrote a post on one of my blogs for a mildly competitive term and I'm position 5 page 1.

 

But lest I forget rankings don't exist do they?

 

I do a few other things that I won't say for fear of the resident lynch mob.

 

But that should point you in the way you want to go.

Edited by SelfMade, 23 January 2013 - 06:55 PM.

[kslnor]

Thanks for the details, Selfmade.

 

I utilize Google's keyword tool also, similar to the way you do to find keywords and phrases that supposedly rank somewhat well.  When it comes to creating the post and title, I just write in a manner that I think my visitors would appreciate, with a touch of the keywords splashed in here and there.. 

 

I haven't yet used the keyword portion of the SEO plugin (I use Yoast), i don't use tags, and I never even considered custom title vs. title in the SEO plugin.  Isn't this a bit spammy ?

[kslnor]

Can we please get back on topic ?  I came here for guidance, affirmation, assistance - whatever we want to call it. 

 

[Moderator Note: I removed the off topic posts. ]

 

So...my main question is:  is it a matter of more time and patience to allow for the recent guest posting / social sharing to take affect ?  Additionally, if one of my goals is to have my new posts bring in traffic, yet they don't, how can I determine what the problem is ?  Again, I am thinking it is a timing thing and a post that is a month old may be too new. 

 

As I mentioned, I do some keyword research and add a few into my titles and posts - but I am careful not to stuff.  My blog is for my visitors, but I realize I need some keywords. 

 

Thanks

Edited by Jill, 27 January 2013 - 12:27 PM.

[Jill]

So...my main question is:  is it a matter of more time and patience to allow for the recent guest posting / social sharing to take affect ?  Additionally, if one of my goals is to have my new posts bring in traffic, yet they don't, how can I determine what the problem is ?  Again, I am thinking it is a timing thing and a post that is a month old may be too new. 

 

No. Time won't help anything. You need to be doing a better job of promoting those posts to those who would be interested. And if they're still not coming to read them, or not recommending them to their like minded friends, then you need to take a hard look at them to decide why nobody likes them. 

[kslnor]

Ahhh...makes perfect sense.   I'm still "shy" with the social networks and I'm trying to figure out which other avenues work for me. 

 

Thanks, Jill. 

[chrishirst]

I'm still "shy" with the social networks and I'm trying to figure out which other avenues work for me.

 

 

Forums are also "social" networks

[imexperttools]

Ahhh...makes perfect sense.   I'm still "shy" with the social networks and I'm trying to figure out which other avenues work for me. 

 

I think you should stop being "shy" with social networks. It is undeniable that links from social networks are playing a much more significant roles in the search algorithms now comparing to the past.

 

Try to diverse your social backlinks, not just Facebook, Twitter or Google+ ... Tumblr, Soup.io, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.

 

I bet you will think again when you see just how effective the backlinks from these social networks can bring to your site.