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I am new to blogging and have been following my daily stats everyday. I have consistently had around 60-80 (modest, I know) visitors/day but in the past 4-5 days it has dropped to 1 or 2/day. Also, when I try searching for keywords in my posts via google, it is not showing up like it used to.... Anyone have an idea why this has happened? Thanks so much!
The blog I need help with is harmonyhunting.com.
This is what a Google search turns up > http://tinyurl.com/492tcuq
Your blog is indexed by Google (18 results).
Your blog is indexed by Bing (11 results).
Generally speaking it takes 4 - 6 weeks adter we verify blog ownership with the bif search engines before our posts beging to appear in the SERPs (search engine pages results).
blog verification - webmasters tools http://en.support.wordpress.com/webmaster-tools/
This post contaisn factors that may expedite the indexing process. > OMG! I can’t find my blog on Google > http://www.onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/01/21/omg-i-cant-find-my-blog-on-google/
I cannot even begin to speculate why your stats are showing a decline. Perhaps your blog had many spam referrers who are now being filtered out.
The most effective way of promoting a blog within the WordPress.COM community is to seek out other blogs in the same niche as our own blog and post meaningful comments to posts in them. You will find lots of threads in the forum searchbox filled with advice on a subject and you will find I have posted into many of them because it's a subject I blog about.
Social networking tremendously expands the audience you can connect with. At the end of the day, if you do not use social media and social networks to promote your blog posts and blog, then you will find building a growing readership is more difficult as the audience you reach will be limited.
http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2009/11/07/blog-promotion-basics/
Timethief - Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out here! I am going to work on your suggestions and see what happens!
You're welcome and best wishes. :)
I sympathize as I tend to freak out when my stats drop. But as a wise 18 year old me when she set up my blog--you can't write to the numbers.
Still, I wish I could build up traffic. After a year, I'm still averaging only 100 hits a day.
@miriamswell
Please see here for the step-by-step approach to traffic building > http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2009/01/15/twenty-five-steps-to-increase-blog-traffic/
Will do!
@@miriamswell
I visited your blog and would like to make some suggestions.
When a visitor arrives on a blog they want them to which niche the blog is again and what it's about.
Ideally the URL, Blog Title and Tagline, and custom header or custom graphics in the sidebar of a blog reflect branding.
Within seconds of a visitor's arrival we ant them to be able to locate an About page.
(1) Write an appealing profile
(2) Write a concise and informative blog description
(3) Write an Elevator Speech
(4) Shameless Blog Promotion
http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/01/27/mastering-shameless-blog-promotion/
***headdesk***
Edited version: When a visitor arrives on a blog we want them to know which niche the blog is in and what it's about.
You ought to check out this tutorial if you haven't done so already > http://learn.wordpress.com/
Timethief--I appreciate this. I also went and looked at your many tips! I do of course have many contributors and guest bloggers. On the About page--you think I need to add a profile of what--me? The blog is described there, but maybe an update?
I'm thinking really Miriam's well is just like a tiny literary magazine (of which I've had many).Maybe I shouldn't worry too much but accept the limited but sweet audience I have?
@miriamswell
I am an honest and plain spoken person who is considered by many to be blunt espeically on the subject of blogs and how they are presented.
1. The blog URL and Title are the same. This is a good but there is no Tagline. You need an effective tagline (no more than 67 characters including spaces) and it must contain key word branding for the blog.
Example: Southwest and Santa Fe Baba Yaga poetry, essays and art events
2. Separate your About page into three sections:
About the blogger
Expand the biograpgical information please.
About the blog
Invitation to Contribute
3. You are featuring authors so you can consider these ideas and see whether or not they are suitable:
(a) Use an Authors widget in the sidebar so readers can click it and find all entires by a specific author.
(b) Use an Author's Grid widget to display the avatars of all your blog’s authors, which link to a list of posts they’ve each written.
4. Would you conside changing to another theme? I think Coraline which ypu can also set up in 3 columns like you have on Garland now. It has a custom image header option, nice typography, and some nice features. Ypou can view and demo it here http://theme.wordpress.com/themes/
This actually is really helpful--thank you!
Now excuse my ignorance, but how to I add a tagline? I.e, how to get in to change the title?
Dashboard> > Settings > General is where the Blog Title and/or Tagline can be changed at any time.
--Site Title
--Tagline
Save Changes
This does not change the URL. Never remove these as search engines require them for indexing.
Blog Titles and Branding Tools >http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/07/31/blog-titles-and-branding-tools/
Creating an effective blog tagline > http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2009/06/22/creating-an-effective-blog-tagline/
Thank you--I've made some improvements!
Well done! ♥ It looks great! The tagline is descriptive and if you ever want to put another keyword in there you can easily replace "and Beyond". You About page is better now but it's a tad on the long side. The FAQ's is fabulous. I would place the FAQ's on a separate page.
Next you need to activate sharing options so social networking buttons appear at the bottom of your posts for your readers to use so they can click and promote your blog eleswhere. See here > http://en.support.wordpress.com/sharing/
You may find these posts to be of interest to you. >
Promoting Your Writing or Poetry Blog
http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/06/26/promoting-your-writing-or-poetry-blog/
Bloggers: Publish your book, ebook, or your blog
http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/08/03/bloggers-publish-your-book-ebook-or-your-blog/
Thank you--I worried about "about" being too long. I'm following up on your links! Your advice has been terrific!
I'm willing to work at this with you for as long as you need help with it. Blog on!
@timethief :)
@hewsut
lol :)
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