Archive for web traffic search traffic – Page 2

Content Marketing Results: 18 Ways to NOT Get Blog Traffic

What do you need to know about about the way people read online to make your content marketing efforts pay off?

What are you doing or not doing on your blog that screws up your traffic?

At least a few times a week I get an email from a smart professional who struggles with making their web marketing work to get found, get known and get clients. Here’s a typical one…

“Okay, Patsi, I’ve been following you for a while now, and your blog writing tips have helped. I’m posting twice a week, but I’m still not getting comments, and my traffic stats stink. Can you take a look?”

Of course, I have to point people to my consulting services if they want me to spend time doing a good analysis and provide specific solutions.

But often the problems and the solutions are common and universal. I can almost predict where the low traffic problems come from based on looking at a lot of blogs over the last five years.

Here’s a general overview of things I see many people doing on blogs that don’t bring good results:

  1. Frequency: Not posting enough
  2. Headline: not compelling or even clear
  3. Content: No clearly defined problem and solution, no answer to the “so what?” question
  4. Content: No keyword usage in headline, first paragraph, or in body
  5. Content: Too broad and general, need to hone it down to specifics, need to personalize it
  6. Formatting: Too many long blocks of text, need shorter paragraphs, subheadings
  7. Engagement: Too author-centric, not enough asking readers questions, addressing them as “you”
  8. Engagement: Not enough client stories, no quotes from other people Read More→

Blog Marketing: How Readers Find Your Business

What’s your favorite excuse for not blogging for your business? Here are some that I hear:

  • “I don’t have time to blog.”
  • “My clients aren’t surfing the Web reading blogs.”
  • “Oh, that means I’ve got to write about my business every week?”

And yet, if these same professionals realized that a business blog is the best way to get found online, the best way to connect with potential clients, and the pathway to turning readers into clients, they might see things a little differently.

Here’s a drawing I made that shows how readers find your blog and become clients.

There are over a billion people connected to the Internet. I’m willing to bet my lunch money that quite a few of them fall into the category of “your ideal clients.”

It’s not likely they go online looking for you, your business or your blog. I’m not saying that. But they do go to search engines and they type in questions with keywords.

And they do  go to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Here’s what this looks like, how readers find your blog, in this Smart Draw diagram I did:

Like any diagram, it’s simplified. Read More→

Michael Martine’s Best Blog Traffic Tips

(News Flash: I hate last minute changes to my schedule, who doesn’t? Especially when one of us (that would be me) gets a date mixed up… The teleseminar workshop on how to get more blog traffic is not this week, but next: Wednesday May 19 at 4 p.m. ET.  The very popular Michael Martine @Remarkablogger, will be teaching The Ultimate Traffic Formula then. Hope you’ll join us!)

In the mean time, it’s been an opportunity for me to brush up on all the traffic tips and trends that are currently being used by smart bloggers. Michael generously shares his best blog posts with us here:

Guest post from Michael Martine of Remarkablogger:

I went and collected all my best posts on blog search engine optimzation and traffic analysis and put them together here in a big list for you. I want you to have these handy as a resource you can turn to anytime to boost your knowledge about improving your blog’s search situation.
WordPress SEO – Why Should You Care?
Read More→

5 Content Marketing Goals for Your Website & Blog
… and One Big Challenge

What do you want your website to do for your business? No really, it’s not as obvious a question as it might at first appear.

I’ve been working with executive coaches and consultants for ten years now, helping them improve how they show up on the Web. In those 10 years, I’ve seen a number of changes to the way websites look and function. It doesn’t matter if you use a traditional website, or a blog, or a blog as a website, the principles are the same.

Yet many professionals aren’t clear about the goals for their online content marketing. I made some notes for one client and thought I’d share them with you here.  I came up with 5 goals your site should strive to accomplish in the first minute or two. One of them is a big challenge… Read More→