Today was a minor success in terms of blog traffic. After posting the link to my entry on the Broad St Run to Facebook, it was liked 9 times and brought in about 50 people. You’ll see the Facebook indicator reset on that post because I changed the URL to something I believe Google will show more in searches. When I type Broad St Run in Google and my blog doesn’t make the first 10 pages, I know I’m not doing something right. Not having your keyword in first part of the URL is a start. I also don’t have enough original content which is key. Pictures of the race would help tremendously and then tagged appropriately. Problem is that I’m not a person who takes pictures, ESPECIALLY WHILE I’M RUNNING. I don’t bring my camera to the race because I’m focused on running. Signing up for the run and then taking pictures of your slow finish is the epitome of what’s wrong in running. However, I know this garners interest in posts because I saw some terrible posts getting 40 comments. I’m not saying my posts deserve national attention but I do believe my performance and dedication to this blog far surpasses some of the shitty websites out there that generate more traffic.
I’m sharing this post to help other people understand what it takes to make Google like your page. Ideally, and this is a guess, you do everything right the first time and make absolutely no changes, this is your best chance to get the page recognized by Google . Once Google indexes the page, I’m not sure if it gets re-indexed with updated information if you go back and make changes. Meaning if I make a post, publish it, then go back and edit it, does the new information get updated or is the first publishing what counts moving forward towards searches. That’s why I don’t expect that post to get anymore traffic when I change the URL, but since it didn’t get any attention in the first place from Google, it doesn’t hurt to change some things around. Plus it helps me answer the question of updating and re-indexing.
I always claim that I don’t care about visitors but there is something alluring about growing a website’s popularity from original content. It also expands your network which can never be a bad thing. The more eyeballs, the more opportunities. That’s why trying to master Google should be a part of every bloggers universe. The 9 likes on Facebook though this afternoon proves how social media can also play a part. I know 9 wasn’t a big number, but it’s bigger than 0.
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