I gotta have it fast. I gotta have it now. I don’t care if it’s been verified, I don’t care if I know nothing about the source. If it’s real-time it must be good.
You probably know what I’m talking about. Real-time information is spit at us all day whether we like it not. We have friends on vacation that are tweeting pics of gorgeous beaches to us while we sit in our bland cubicles. Please, just save your pics until you get back so I can ignore the entire gallery at one time… thank you!
If micro-blogging is the new kid on the block, old fashion blogging is the pimply faced teenager that doesn’t do much, but you know you still have to take care of. Blogging has turned into “Snail mail.”
If you’ve been living under a rock, “Snail mail” was coined to “Real mail” back when “Email” sprouted up. Email was fast and sexy, while mail was slow and filled with junk… I know it’s very ironic.
Things change. the Internet has changed, communication has changed and most importantly the way we promote our business has changed.
Why the snail mail reference?
Businesses are turning to blogs to create a personal, real, and most importantly sticky marketing. Make a blog post and it can guide search engine traffic to your website for years. With proper SEO, backlinking and optimizations your tiny little website can dominate larger companies. Unfortunately, it’s not real-time.
Changes you make can take…Gasp!… Hours to produce any sort of visible result, and worse yet, it will take days to produce any reliable trends for analysis. Tweak something, monitor the results, tweak again is the mantra to highly-efficient, highly-productive business blogs.
Of course the same is true about mistakes you make. Recently, I moved my website from one host to another and started to see my traffic decline. It was especially noticeable from search engine traffic. It took about a week to see that something was definitely wrong. It took another week for me to see that the fixes I made stopped the loss of traffic.
The problem was, and still is, that I was making a few changes at the same time so I couldn’t put my finger on the exact problem. I was changing some links to have “nofollows”. I was changing my permalinks so I had some new 301 redirects. I think the main cause was the sitemaps for Google were not getting created anymore, due to permission issues.
Whether you think sitemaps are effective or not, I’ve heard it both ways, I definitely want one. Even more so now that I had this problem. There are arguments that page speed has little to do with SEO, but I saw with my own eyes the effect of page load time and SEO.
In Summary
Here is some advice for keeping your blog running like an exotic sportscar.
- Do SEO audits. Log the changes you make, plugins you install, and results you expect. Every week or so, do a quick check. Go to the Google webmaster tools and check your keywords, sitemap, and page speed.
- Try to only change one thing at a time. There are at least 100 articles written on SEO everyday. Don’t just implement them all. Do one thing at a time, then you be judge. Every blog is different, and what will work for one will not work for another. Make a change, monitor it, test it, and tweak it…
- Monitor the right metrics. traffic is a must, but you need the right traffic. Don’t just look at Google Analytics and make judgement from one metric. If your search traffic is down but Twitter traffic is up, maybe people are starting to talk about you. Don’t make changes to destroy the new source of customers, go with it. Momentum is a good thing, if you see a trend starting, use the momentum to push it along.
- If you can’t fix it, find someone who can. Don’t lose sight on the fact that your blog is an extension of your business. If administering your blog is taking away from your business, you need to get help. less traffic equals less sales, put a dollar amount on those lost sales and you will quickly see why paying for good help is often the best choice.
- If you find something that works, tell others. I’m not talking about affiliate programs or ebooks. I’m talking about tested strategies that you have used on your blog. One of my most popular posts is a graphic showing faster page load times will get your website indexed by Google more often
Your thoughts!
Article by Matt Dunlap
Matt Dunlap is a small business blogger and entrepreneur. I try to focus on the hidden aspects of blogging like page load times, Googlebots, and remarketing. What makes most people yawn, is a lot of fun for me. I'm also addicted to guest blogging. It's hands down the best way to build backlinks, authority and community.
19
{ 39 comments… read them below or add one }
Twitter: Techsavyshweta
September 28, 2011 at 4:39 pm
Hey Matt,
Awesome article..
Will keep your tips in mind while doing SEO
Good advice to take it slow and one step at a time and no read to rush into things.
Thanks.
Usama recently posted..Who Are You Outsourcing Your Self-Worth To
Hey Matt,
Had no idea what snail mail is, really interesting, thanks for explaining. Love the tips,really helpful
Anyways great to connect with you, I’m Ben from http://www.EpicLaunch.com
Oh boy…this sounds exactly like some of the issues I have had in the past. It is very true how slow it is to take effect when you make a change. By the time your changes start to get recognized by google you have made so many changes you can’t tell which ones are having the effect. Well, good advise to take it slow and make one change at a time.
That’s a bit harsh on the pimply faced teenager that nobody wants
Peter J recently posted..Turn your blog into a business
Identifying a problem in a situation as yours can definitely turn into a nightmare. Although I agree that one change at a time is better in order to detect where the problem came from, if you have absolutely no clue, then the wait might even turn into months.
Daniel Sharkov recently posted..Monetizing your Blog – The Less Ads the Better
Thought this was going to be another of the “blogging is like…” posts, but you managed to make it into a useful post after all
thanks for the tips!
Anne M recently posted..And… I’m back!
Thanks, I feel the same way about “list” blog posts
“101 best sites to look at”
Matt Dunlap recently posted..WordPress Auto Tags plugin
I like your reference to making your blog like an exotic sports car. Because that is exactly how they build and develop one over time. They monitor, analyze, and tweak consistently over a long period of time.
Derek Jensen recently posted..Simple NEED to Analyze Yourself for the Online World Requires Your Thinking
yep, and in time your blog will be worth enough to buy an exotic sports car
Matt Dunlap recently posted..Is it better to build a niche or a brand
That can be annoying. But if you are using a WP format you should be able to generate a sitemap pretty easy. The only thing is you have to remember to rewrite it everytime you change something.
cam recently posted..Comment on Call of Duty- Modern Warfare 2 Throat Communicator for Xbox 360 by Douglas C Houghton
If blogging is the new snail mail, the twittering is the new email
Before creating a sitemap, make sure that your page structure is well organised and linked and that the juice flows naturally through your site.
I couldn’t have said it better myself! Twitter is very important in the mail equation. I think you need both your blog and Twitter to fully engage and expand your follower base.
Trevor B. Reed recently posted..FeedBurner is Stealing Your CommentLuv Backlinks
I wish that weren’t true I find Twitter to be kinda annoying.
cam recently posted..Comment on Call of Duty- Modern Warfare 2 Throat Communicator for Xbox 360 by Douglas C Houghton
Great post Matt, at least one more than me who think the same about SEO; controls, double control, make small changes, monitor it, test it and tweak it. That is SEO.
Yes, SEO can be so confusing for so many businesses, mainly because they start to think about it after they realize their website will get no hits just by “being on the Internet”. Then they think it’s just a one shot deal…
Matt Dunlap recently posted..The SEO mistake that is costing you thousands of website visitors
I agree with you, Matt. SEO is think first, control and find strong keyword (also longtail keywords), make a good domain name of the keywords, find many titles with the keyword and longtial in. Think again before reg. the domain name.
Twitter: TJ_McDowell
September 7, 2010 at 7:37 am
If your comparison of blogging to snail mail is accurate, then Twitter just did blogging a big favor. Here’s what I mean. When there was no email, getting snail mail from a friend wasn’t uncommon, and it wasn’t a big deal. Once email was introduced, snail mail became less common, and now it’s something out of the ordinary to get a personally written letter from a friend via snail mail. So if blogging is the same way, we’ll see bloggers start to drop off, and having a high quality blog will be a little unusual, and maybe people will appreciate it more. What do you guys think?
TJ McDowell recently posted..Wedding Photography Tips To Get Amazing Images
Exactly, when you get a handwritten letter in the mail, it’s a big deal… Leave the tweets to Justin Beiber
Matt Dunlap recently posted..How to put WordPress custom post types in the xml sitemap
Nice article. SEO is the main part is getting success and getting huge traffic from search engines.
Rahul recently posted..Encrypted Google Search
Twitter: heydevesh
September 6, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Hey Matt,
Great Post man. Awesome tips !! I really like your summary part.
Thanks for sharing this great Post.
keep up the good work.
Dev recently posted..4 Ultra Simple Ways To Get More Comments On Your Blog Post
Great tips Matt.. Kudos on mentioning to check page speed via webmaster tools. Some plugins and even templates have a dramatic effect on page speed. Using a plugin like W3TC (W3 total cache) can really help if you have some other plugins or template installed that is relatively slow.
Great first post, keep up the good work!
Aaron recently posted..blogReaction Introduces Revenue Sharing on Free Blogging Platform
I use Nginx as a reverse proxy to my Apache server, then use wp supercache on my wordpress installs. Works great!
I also recommend using a firefox extension like firebug with yslow and google pagespeed. Shows you everything that is wrong with your blog and how to fix it
Matt Dunlap recently posted..How to add blog posts to your email signature
Interesting post Matt.
The micro-blogging scene doesn’t appeal to me. No depth. It’s reducing things down to one sentence comments. “Where’s the beef!” is what comes to mind.
Your struggles with switching servers gives me that cold-sweat feeling. Thinking everything is good and finding out a week later it’s not… what a nightmare!
Joe
Joe recently posted..Mouthwash & Oral-Throat Cancer Link
the problems that I have really make me look at other avenues for traffic… You can’t rely on SEO alone, especially in a crowded niche.
Matt Dunlap recently posted..Save Time with the WordPress Editor Shortcut Keys Plugin
Hi matt I really like this post.
thanks for sharing it
Hieu Martin recently posted..Blog tips – Increase traffic to your website
Hi Matt,
Super tips here.
In the age of instant gratification blogging can seem like snail mail but there’s no better way to develop authority than to run a content rich blog.
You summary is on the money. Change things one at a time and keep track of the metrics. And if it’s not broken, don’t fix it!
Ryan Biddulph
Ryan Biddulph recently posted..Follow These 5 Proven Steps to Become Rich with a Home Based Business
I agree… When I try to get gigs for freelance work, I just point people to my blog if they want to see my experience. try doing that with tweets, LOL
Matt Dunlap recently posted..Why is making extra money a bad habit
Regarding your sitemap thing – I do think it makes a big difference with speed to indexing. On one blog, I have it set to update the sitemap every time I publish a new post. Within 20 minutes, the new post has been indexed every time .
On my main blog, I don’t have that option set, and it takes a little longer – sometimes hours.
So, if speed-to-indexing is important, might want to have a sitemap and use the XML sitemap plugin for Wordpress to automate updating.
Tia Peterson recently posted..Are You Ignoring the Best Source of Content Ideas
I do use the wp sitemap plugins to update every time I make a post.
My understanding about speed of indexing is that it really depends on other popular sites. Even though you update the Google sitemap and notify Google doesn’t mean they send a spider to your site right away. Pagerank seems to have the most influence on how fast your new blog posts get indexed.
I’ve written some Googlebot user-agent trackers for my website and the indexing is very random. It’s hard to figure out when and what Google indexes on your website
Matt Dunlap recently posted..The SEO mistake that is costing you thousands of website visitors
I know it’s very bizarre. Age might make a difference as well. Both sites are PR2 but one is 2 years old and the other is less than a year. Both are on the same server; same everything with the only difference being age.
Normally, I would change the settings on the slower-to-index blog to match the other and see if there is any difference made, but I update that blog too often. It would be too many notifications at that point.
Great post! Meant to say that i the first comment.
Tia Peterson recently posted..How I Achieved Blogging Success In 30 Days
Twitter: stevescott1
September 6, 2010 at 2:38 pm
Matt, it certainly does seem that microblogging is becomeing the wave of the “future” and leaving regular blogging behind. It is kind of sad, because I am a fan of the long form. Though I can see the importance of timely information I always have liked more “thought out” messages rather than Instant sends without any thought behind them.
Steve recently posted..52 Daily Success Habits to Develop…Starting Today
Steve, I agree… I like content over speed. Posterous and Tumblr are considered micro-blogging platforms, but you don’t have character limits. Twitter just seems like an rss feed now.
Matt Dunlap recently posted..How to get Google to index your pages faster and more often
Funny you mention Snail Mail as a reference. I do agree Matt that changes take time to peculate into results. In our business, some changes take months, but when the action receives results it’s big for us.
Colleen recently posted..2010 Sausage Fest Christ The King Richland Washington
Welllll, whatdodya think Matt?
Colleen recently posted..2010 Sausage Fest Christ The King Richland Washington
I think changes that take months can’t be factored into good SEO. Any change that you make to your blog should be indexed within a couple days and the results will be seen in a week or two. Usually long term changes are from other websites making changes to their SEO, website closures, or changes in Google algorithms.
Matt Dunlap recently posted..How to set up WordPress for a workgroup of designers
Thanks Matt. All good points.
Colleen recently posted..2010 Sausage Fest Christ The King Richland Washington
Thanks for your cool sharing, it shows my mistake while trying to SEO my old blog. I have tried to apply some techniques at a time and this killed my blog.
Hope I can take it back using your advices.
Thanks so much!
TrangMoli recently posted..Hello blogging world!
Hi
I really like your summary part.It was awesome specially SEO part.
Thanks For Sharing
-Abhishek
{ 3 trackbacks }