How are other people’s results after two months of ongoing blogging efforts? This is a question that has been going through my mind lately. I have been making daily posts to this SEO blog and I even managed to get some traffic from Google, Bing and Yahoo. But how did others do in the first two months of their blogging endeavors?
Goals
I started this blog with as goal to share as much information on digital marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) as possible. We all know that it takes the right tools, knowledge and support to take your business to the “next level”. I am here to help with free SEO tools, software reviews, content marketing tips and more.
Traffic
There are days that I get 100 visitors (which is pretty good after 2 months considering that I don’t use social media or other websites to drive traffic) and other days that I receive only 30 visitors (which I think is ridiculously low, shame on you WordPress!). The exact amount of traffic fluctuates based on how search engines are treating me, whether or not I have been commenting on other blogs, and how WordPress interprets my comments and sends me traffic that is somehow related to the content I review and post. WordPress seems to have a secret sauce I have not yet been able to fully figure out.
Below you can see my WordPress stats:
Google usually sends traffic to specific articles that seem to become popular shortly after I publish them. For example, I wrote an article named how to increase Google Adsense earnings on WordPress which received 100 hits within a week. Another example of content that received a bit of traffic: answerthepublic and Serpstat, both are free SEO tools many people like.
Finding my Voice
I have done a lot of SEO work in the past but I’ve never considered myself a writer. Lately I am doing more content writing and I am finding the style that best matches my personality. I notice I am getting more comfortable just writing what’s on my mind, and I am also able to adopt more easily to different styles.
It’s not easy to produce quality content and to still mix in the right amount of targeted keywords so I have to stay focused. After all, nobody wants to be forgotten by the search engines. I really enjoy it when people engage in the conversation and comment or ask questions, so it’s really important that SEO doesn’t make the content look unnatural.
Finding my Tribe
Finding a tribe is important for bloggers. It is the crowd you will be sharing your life story with. You may have noticed that I have a wide variety of interests and I often find it hard to stick to SEO and digital marketing. Instead, I wonder off reading poetry and travel stories, or I end up talking about summer vacations and intercultural recipes.
What I did find is that a tribe consists of many different kinds of people, some which fit the profile you have in mind, and others who’s presence will positively surprise you. I am really thankful for all the people I have met here on WordPress, and it is privilege being able to reach out and getting to know you better.
To Promote, or not to Promote
That is the question. Over the past week I have been adding affiliate links to some of my posts to see how people would react. Now it appears that Google and WordPress do not like this. When I checked the Moz tool for my page- and domain authority score I noticed that it had dropped 15 points. I suspect this is because I use a free WordPress account and because of this I am unable to add no-follow tags to the affiliate links. But then again, one should not focus on marketing until a decent amount of followers and traffic has been secured, so it is fair to say I went ahead of myself. I just couldn’t help but wondering how other bloggers would react to content marketing, at least I am wiser now.
Upgrading
I have been thinking about upgrading this free account since I already met the goal of obtaining a first page ranking on Google and other major search engines such as Yahoo, Bing and DuckDuckGo (this was the initial bet when I started this blog). Unfortunately upgrading to a different domain name will cause me to loose all value of the current location which I dearly foster. I may stick with WordPress.com or upgrade to a self-hosted package on bluehost later this year.
Bloggers I’ve grown fond of
Since I started this blog I’ve been networking with wonderful people. You may already know them but I will share a link to their blog below just in case. Many of them, but not all, have an interest in digital marketing and SEO. Below I have linked to their blogs, check them out and make sure to read, like and follow.
Hugh’s Views and News Hugh is a successful blogger and writer. I really enjoyed reading his article on how to promote a blog for free, but there is plenty of other content on his blog that may tickle your fancy.
AmerBekic is an excellent writer knowledgeable on everything that has to do with digital marketing and SEO. I chose an article about SEO and creativity because I think you will appreciate it as well.
New Lune is a twenty-something year old freelance designer and translator born and raised in France and living in London. She describes herself as a lipstick hoarder, bookworm, polyglot, cat-person and chocolate addict.
MostlyBlogging is run by Janice Wald, in this post she explains how visuals relate to SEO. Visuals should engage readers which keeps visitors on your blog for longer and makes Google happy.
Joanna Journals Joanna is a professional SEO blog writer and freelancer who has experience with hundreds of blog posts for SEO. If you need a blog post done or you have questions about SEO make sure to send her an email.
Kally from MiddleMe has created a strong profile as a writer and a recruiter. I have linked to an article on her blog about SEO tips for freelancers. It is about mastering the art of freelance marketing and branding yourself. Enjoy!
And there are many other people whom I truly appreciate but unfortunately I can’t fit them all in one post. If you have a blog with content related to SEO or digital marketing and you would like me to list you, feel free to leave your link in the comment section below and I will consider it for inclusion in my next link roundup.
Thanks for reading ’till the end 😉
SEO San Francisco 
Love it.
Interesting one.
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Hi Debby, thanks so much for including me and my blog in your list of bloggers you’ve grown fond of. I’m truly honoured.
I’m impressed with how much traffic you’re already getting on WordPress despite only having been blogging here for two months. I was getting nowhere near that amount of traffic after two months. In fact, it wasn’t until I joined one of the online blogging courses that WordPress ran, that I started seeing a gradual increase in visitor numbers, comments, likes and followers. Then, over the last six years, I’ve been here, I began learning a lot about blogging, how WordPress works, and how to build a blogging community of my own as well as joining other blogging communities out there.
I checked my stats and, by far, my biggest referrer is from the WordPress Reader, followed by search engines and then Twitter. It’s the same for all the time I’ve been on WordPress and for the 12 months.
As for affiliate links, I come across several bloggers who use them, but I’ve never (as yet) been tempted to click on any of the links. Probably because nothing tempted me.
I enjoy reading all your posts. They’re easy to read and you come over as a fantastic tutor. I’ve already learned a lot from you.
Thanks again for including me on your list and for linking back to one of my posts.
Have a great day.
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Thank you so much for mentioning my blog! I truly appreciate it and that really means a lot to me ❤️ This was such a great read x
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Thank you! 🙂
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Hi Hugh, thank you for your kind words and for taking the time to respond in so much detail. Most of the traffic I get from Google is due to longer SEO optimized articles. Google really likes it when I answer questions that have not yet been answered on other sites so I try to be as original as possible (even though this doesn’t always work out the way I want it to). Adding original images with informative content also helps in getting more traffic. This keeps people engaged which in turn keeps them on the site for longer. Since Google is measuring and using retention rates as a ranking factor this has a positive impact.
Anyway, I’m happy to hear that the information on this blog has been useful to you. It’s always a pleasure to be able to help others by answering any questions they may have. Thanks again for your encouraging words and I hope you have a great weekend, cheers! 🍸
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Thank you for your kind words, I much enjoy your blog and I always read the French version as I have the English interpretation to lean on just in case. Thanks for being around, it’s a pleasure to get to know other bloggers dedicated to SEO, freelancing and driving traffic. If there is ever anything I can do for you don’t be a stranger 😉
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I have a lot of problems with trying to convince some bloggers that SEOs rank longer posts far better than they do shorter posts, Debbie. Some won’t even read any blog posts that are more than 500 words long! They’re missing out on so much.
BTW – the pingback to Joanna’s blog on this post is broken. It leads to a page that says the page has not been found. I thought I’d mention it to you so you can fix it. I checked out her blog yesterday and learned a lot about keywords and alt-text on images. Something else for me to think about.
Have a lovely weekend.
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Hi Hugh, opinions are indeed divided on whether long or short posts are better. I had good results with short content on websites, but when it comes to blog posts longer material has always worked better for me. The fact that blogs provide dated content seems to have something to do with it, my posts often appear as “news” and therefore create short term traffic from Google.
Joanna does know a lot about SEO and marketing, she has a lot of interesting articles on her blog worth checking out. Thank you for mentioning the broken link, I was wonder why I didn’t hear from her.. haha I will check it out right away.
Enjoy your weekend and be safe! x
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Hi Debby! Thank you so much for this post. I am honoured to have been included, and thank you to Hugh for picking up the broken link. It’s been so lovely meeting people who are interested in building their blogs through SEO. As you know, this is something I’m very passionate about, and it’s great to know there are people out there with a similar interest and passion. I hope to continue working alongside you to educate people on the world of SEO. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you through the world of blogging!
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The pleasure is mine Joanna, it’s not every day that I meet someone who likes SEO as much as I do. If you ever need a helping hand with your SEO campaigns you know where to find me. Thanks for dropping by and like you said, let’s continue working alongside each other to educate people on the amazing world of SEO and digital marketing. Wishing you all the best!
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Thank you Debby. It’s lovely to have such support. Likewise, if you need any help, I’m always at the other end of my comments or emails! Keep doing what you’re doing, and I look forward to seeing your next post. All the best, and have a lovely weekend x
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How to earn on wordpress
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There are many ways you can earn extra money with your WordPress blog. If you have a blog about recipes you may want offer premium content. Optimizing your blog and allowing others to place ads on your site is another option. You can either sign up with Google adsense or allow advertisers to get in touch with you directly.
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How is it possible in wordpress
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There is a lot of information about making money on WordPress, have a look at this article about Adsense: https://debbyseo.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/how-to-increase-google-adsense-earnings-on-wordpress/
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