I’ve been blogging here for just over 4 years now. I love blogging, but one of the things that has always frustrated me about blogging is that I have never been able to draw a direct line between my blog and a quantifiable business benefit. IOW, I couldn’t give you an exact ROI on my blogging. I know that blogging is indirectly leading me to business because it’s directly leading to a lot of the things that ultimately lead to business, but it’s muddy. A couple of years ago I decided to get serious about creating that straight line from blogging to business benefit.
I started really obsessing over the stats here. One of the things that I noticed was that search traffic was rising. So I started changing the way I was blogging and writing, and I began to write more for search engines. If I was getting more search traffic, in theory I would be getting more traffic from people looking for help with marketing and social media. In other words, potential clients. So in my mind, rising search traffic meant more potential clients visiting my blog.
So I really began to focus on improving the SEO of my posts. Search traffic over the next couple of years went from 50 visitors a day, to 500. Search as a percentage of overall traffic here went from 25% to as high as 66% on some days.
I mention this because last night I went through the archives of my posts here, and started examining them from the first post. I was actually looking for something completely different, but I was immediately struck by something: Almost every post had about 20-30 comments. I realized that the posts here over the past couple of years had gotten far fewer comments the posts did for the first couple of years.
And then it hit me: When I had started writing for search engines, I had (unwittingly) stopped writing for my readers. The people that came here and commented on almost every post. I was then writing for people that had never visited the blog before and who were about to find it for the first time thanks to a Google search.
And yet….one of the common discussions I’ve had with other consultants is exactly who we are writing for. Along these lines, there seems to be two camps: The people that believe you write for potential clients only. This group could care less if they ever get a comment on their blog, as long as they get an email or phone call asking about their services from someone that read their blog, they are happy.
The other camp wants comments. The other camp views comments and the discussions on their blogs as almost a form of networking, and feel they get business as a result of those discussions.
I think both camps make good points. But I do think there is real business value in creating vibrant discussions and engaging with your readers, even if those readers aren’t potential clients. Perhaps the real goal for those of us that are blogging for our business should be to write for search engines AND our readers at the same time? Or is that even possible on a consistent basis?
Who are you writing for?
So you don’t think the change is a result of overall online habits, that is, people are commenting less and less? I wonder if “sharing is the new commenting” is a culprit in the changes you see.
I like getting comments, but they are more an ego stroke than anything else. Of course, when a readers shares something thoughtful and adds to the discussion, I do enjoy that.
But I equally value a share, a +1, a like, or a pin. Maybe I value those even more because it means I can reach more people. If my content is good enough to share, I think I’ve done well. I see it all as a whole — comments on the post, shares on social, +1s on G+, pins on Pinterest. If I see a nice balance, I know the post worked. Every reader has different ways of consuming and engaging with the post.
I guess I fall in line with this group, “could care less if they ever get a comment on their blog, as long as they get an email or phone call asking about their services from someone that read their blog.” Is that mercenary of me? I love helping people with my content. I love getting positive and insightful feedback. But I’ve gotta pay the bills too. 🙂
Hey Jimmie, that’s a good point about how fragmented online conversations are becoming as we have more ways to share and more sites to be active on. I think that plays a role, but I wonder how much?
As for the value of our conversations, I think we all have to decide that for ourselves, something I am still trying to get sorted out myself 😉
So timely for me, Mack. I just wrote a blogging strategy for a client. I put “what inspires you,” “your online reader,” and “your search engine” in a Venn Diagram. I feel like all should be addressed to keep momentum going. Doing it well — or consistently — is tough. But it’s a gem when mastered!
LIsa the ‘what inspires you’ part is SO important and often we can overlook it in trying to satisfy the reader. Which, to be fair, is often pretty inspiring!
But I love your idea of the Venn Diagram, i bet the space where all three overlap is small, but a good place to be!
Since I’m fairly new I would say I’m blogging for myself and people that may be similar to me. Comments make me feel like people are reading it. Yet Zen Habits allows no comments and it is an incredible blog. So I don’t know if either one is better.
Comments are awesome for a new blogger, ‘old’ bloggers also like them! Feels good to know you are creating content that moves others to share their take.
Search is an impersonal, machine-based referral. Tribes generate personal referrals through real attachment. I “get” the value of SEO and reaching larger numbers of readers, but really – isn’t it almost always people with whom we have a deeper attachment that help grow our business? As I’ve evolved, my attention has been more focused on the smaller, purpose-built tribes of like-minded people – not waving a flag for Google to find.
Smart thinking, Mr. Woodruff!
Well said, Mack.
I definitely think this is an ongoing battle/struggle for every blogger who wants both traffic and community.
In my classes, I compare writing for search engines to Marilyn Monroe, and writing for people to Jackie Kennedy. Jack Kennedy had both, you should too. =)
I make that comparison because I continue to struggle with that balance myself. I’ve decided to test the balance of people-written blog posts with content marketing (templates, ebooks, etc.) which create traffic on their own and power up my email list.
And as someone else mentioned, I’ve definitely seen that over the past 2 years especially, the conversation doesn’t happen on my blog.
Ha, I liked the Jack Kennedy analogy! I definitely think you need both, I think the key is finding the right balance between the two and I think it’s probably different for every blogger based on what they are trying tto accomplish.
Great post Mac.
Until now, my efforts have been solely focused on engagement. I’ve never focused on SEO and I think in many respects that has hurt my business. I have a group of readers that enthusiastically promote me to friends, but without the search engines sending large numbers of new potential clients my way, my growth has suffered.
Thanks for spurring me to think about my own approach.
CJ
Thanks CJ, as I just told Tara, I think you need both. Maybe you could start with writing as you always have been, but then before you publish make sure you are hitting on the ‘right’ keywords and phrases in your post?
Nice post Mack!
I think it’s worth remembering that it is people who are using the search engines. SEO is important when trying to attract new visitors to your blog, and it is possible to optimise a blog post using SEO techniques – h1’s, keywords, meta descriptions etc. Such techniques help people find your blog post but you should always write the content for the reader.
As a side note, social signals – comments, shares, likes etc also count towards SEO rankings, so it’s worth encouraging readers to act.
FABULOUS point about the ‘social signals’ impacting search rankings. I think this is another layer to SEO that makes it so difficult for the layperson to understand.
I wonder, does it then become a matter of actually focusing on optimizing your posts for PEOPLE as well as SEARCH ENGINES? And can you do both consistently and effectively at the same time?
All signs point to their needing to be a mix of both, it seems.
Perhaps another way of looking at it is New Visitors vs Returning Visitors.
New Visitors – Write content that people are looking for and make it easy for the search engines to find. Hopefully then the liking, sharing, following, commenting will fall into place.
Returning Visitors – The social signals and comments received on previous content should provide an indication of what works, what your readers like and any comments will perhaps provide insight to what you should write about next.
Hi Mack,
I think I love the most when your posts are one big question… which is why I’m here and commenting 🙂
As someone whose main blog remains “eclectic”, I experiment with SEO and watch my analytics to see who is coming, and why. Most of my traffic comes through search and I’d like to change that… but I’m not so sure I want to give up my broad range of topics.
Recently, I put some thought into who I am the most passionate about reaching, and made refinements to the imaginary audience I’m addressing as I write. What happens now is that I write a post until it’s just about done. Then I look at me blog’s SEO tools and decide whether I will pour *this particular post* through the tools.
The approach is so new, I can’t tell you how and whether things have changed. What I can tell you is that I’m experiencing a fresh surge of inspiration, and an evolution of my written voice.
P.S. To clarify, I want to change the balance of how much of my blog traffic comes through search, versus how much is returning visitors. My goal at this point is to shift things only slightly — say, to 60% search and 40% returning visitors.
Hi Penina, only speaking from my experience, but regular posting (2-3 times a week), plus focusing on keywords in the title and same in the post, seemed to drive my search traffic up to around 60% of overall. YMMV.
Thanks Mack,
My search traffic is now at 70-75%, which I think is too high.
Personally I’ve always tailored my posts to the human. This isn’t to say that I haven’t changed and tailored to how that human may find me by making my titles questions, similar to what the human will be searching for on Google. But I make sure that when the blog post title is a question, I will answer that in your post.
I feel many blogs have also gone this route by making the title a question. They then skirt around the answer, repeat the question at the end of the post and ask for the reader to answer. Talk about frustrating and a waste of time!
I agree with Jimmie that comments may now be coming in the form of RT’s or tweets with links to your posts. I am guilty of that as it is quicker and easier for me to add my two cents with the link and tweet/endorse to my followers.
Yet, I’ll admit, get sad when people don’t comment on my posts, so I guess it is a bit of karma. 🙂
Monica I do the same thing with my titles, I often purposely make them the search terms I think people are using.
And I just commented on your blog and RTed one of your posts 😉 Thank you!
I have two authors writing for me and I try to give them work to suit their personalities which gives me better quality and also keeps them motivated. They write mainly for the readers and then I will make a few changes to ensure that the search engines are also catered for. So far it seems to be working quite well.