One year ago today I posted:
By a factor of four, this has become the most popular page/post on my site with more than 2,200 pageviews (Sidenote: I began using Google Analytics on Jan. 15, 2008 and have been blogging since Nov. 24 – yes, I missed my first blogging anniversary).
I don’t want to navel-gaze, but I’d like to use this as a quick lesson in the power of the Web, specifically Google and linking. Some of my inspiration for publishing these figures comes from Mindy McAdams and William (Mark) Hartnett, so I’ll tip my hat.
Links to the “top 10” post have appeared on several sites, including this recent post by Suzanne Yada:
Suzanne’s post was linked by a number of people, including Jeff Jarvis on BuzzMachine, Jay Rosen on Twitter and Ryan Sholin on Invisible Inkling. As a result, her blog became the No. 3 entrance source for my post. Powerful stuff, eh?
With the exception of zero pageviews from Aug. 17 to Sept. 6 (I have no idea why), the post has been viewed almost daily. Traffic increased after Sept. 7 and has been up markedly Suzanne’s post on Jan. 1.
The top traffic sources (by pageviews, including those temporarily under a different URL) were:
- Google (1,318)
- Direct (228)
- suzanneyada.com (151)
-
mediageeks.ning.com, aka Wired Journalists (55)
- digitaljournalism.org (51)
- Yahoo (38)
(Note: A link to the post is included in my blog sidebar under “top posts,” which also drives traffic)
Social media sources:
11. Publish2 (20)
15. Del.icio.us (16) [+ 4 listed under source No. 29]
16. StumbleUpon (16) [+ 13 while temporarily under a different URL]
22. Twitter (6)
27. Facebook (5)
Being such a big fan of Twitter, I’m a little disappointed by that number. But it’s important to note that this post came only one month into my experience with Twitter when I had no Twitterfeed set up and relatively few followers.
Moving on…
Fellow SEO nerds, take note of the top five keywords:
- journalism tips (150)
- advice for journalism students (68)
- top 10 journalism colleges (44)
- tips for journalism students (30)
- tips on journalism (30)
Conclusion: If you want a post to have a long shelf life (now I’m channeling Pat Thornton), make it timeless and make sure it’s got good SEO juice.
Another method is to save links to your most noteworthy posts on your social networks. For example, I manually shared the link on Publish2, Delicious and Wired Journalists. Also, my blog is included in the Wired Journalist Feedstream, which includes these cool people.
Finally, make friends. They’ll give you link love. And maybe they’ll get some link love that helps you too.
PS. Don’t forget to check out the original post:
Speaking of link love… hey thanks! :D
That post I wrote has definitely been a lesson for me of the power of the Internet. You do a quality, useful post, like you did with your top 10 tips, then it goes a little viral, then it gets a little staying power and BOOM! a year later it gets picked up again.
Now the trick is to keep it up. You’ve been doing a stellar job. Me, I’m trying. :)
You’re welcome!
Very true. I envy the link love you got from the start — that was like a catapult of awesomeness.