Monday, September 3, 2012

Book Marketing: 3 Ways to Boost Your Blog Traffic

Your blog or Web site probably includes a tool called Web analytics. If not, it's free and relatively easy to add this capability using Google Analytics or an indie favorite called Statcounter.*
Before your eyes glaze over please note: Web analytics provide a quick way to boost your traffic -- just hear me out!

Three Way to Analyze and Boost Your Traffic

1) Most Popular Pages: Add Links to Other Articles on Your Site and Around the Web.

Web analytics tools typically include a Popular Pages feature. It's not uncommon to have an old page generating steady traffic for some oddball reason.

Five years ago, I traveled around Vietnam and met a French sex tourist who offered me unsolicited tips on how to find a prostitute. I took his tips and wrote a tongue-and-cheek piece called "Prostitution for Dummies."

Now, sex tourists, johns, punters, and pervs traveling through Vietnam visits my page. I also write humorous erotica, which means these visitors are all potential readers. So, at the end of the "Dummies" page, I added links to related content on my site.

Note: The page below includes naughty language and other politically incorrect stuff. Don't click it if you're offended by that kind of thing.

Adding basic navigation and links to related content on your site can boost your traffic.

2) Make Friends with Sites that Link to You

The Came From feature in Statcounter (or Traffic Sources in Google Analytics) shows your major sources of Web traffic. This is useful for a couple of reasons:

a) If a site you weren't aware of is sending you lots of traffic, you may want to:
- thank them with an e-mail.
- reciprocate by offering to add a link on your site to their site.
- post additional links in forums on their site.
- offer to write a guest blog post for them.

b) If like me, you post links to recent articles in numerous forums and social media sites, you can see which are producing and which are a waste of time.

I have a travel site called Rosstravels.com. Two sites have been generating regular traffic and are worth me contacting, thanking, and courting.

3) Keyword Search Terms: What Words do Visitors Use to Find You?

You may be surprised. You may also want to use the those words more frequently on your site so it appears on the first or second page when people search Google.

According to Google Analytics, a decent number of people are finding my site by searching for "Erotic Humor."

I have no pride and added a menu button for "erotic humor" to my blog.


I also added "erotic humor" to my article labels...


And I added the phrase to some of the articles posted on my site. (Did I mention that I have no pride?)


Note: You don't want add keyword search terms willy-nilly around your site for two reasons:
- You can piss off Google by packing your pages with keywords.
- You can piss off your readers -- we're supposed to be showing visitors that we're good writers, right?


*If your site or blog doesn't include Web analytics, the feature is relatively easy to add with either Google Analytics or Statcounter.
The process involves:
- Registering on the analytics site.
- Adding to your blog some code generated by the analytics site. For blogs, you can often add the code to your page design once and be done with it. For Web sites, you may have to add the code to individual pages, which can be a pain.
- Statcounter is an indie, non-Google favorite. The site has been around for years and the tech support is polite, fast, and helpful.

For More of My Book Marketing Tips, See:

- Keyword Phrases for Newbies

- Search Engine Optimization for Newbies

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