May was always going to be a make or break kind of month. Ok, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but a lot of lessons about what does, and more importantly what doesn’t, work were learned in April.
The plan for May was, and still is, a three pronged traffic attack.
- Content
- Giveaways
- Redesign
I expected the giveaways to bring in the most traffic, followed by the content and then the redesign.
The reverse is true.
We are now almost at the end of May and the recent redesign has caused an increase in traffic of around three hundred unique visitors per day. New content has increased traffic by around half that amount. And, bringing up the rear, the giveaways have hardly impacted traffic at all.
Traffic analysis shows that the giveaways are bringing hit and run traffic. People come in, enter the competition, and then run and don’t come back.
Content driven traffic lasts since it builds a blogs reputation and this is something that every blogger, new or old, should strive for. If managed correctly with good navigation and usability this traffic will stay.
The real surprise is the level of interest the redesign has generated. Especially since it’s only really a realign. Traffic analysis reveals that the surfers hitting the realign announcement blog post as a point of entry are returning day after day.
So, if you want an extra hit of traffic, redesign your blog.
Simple conclusion! I just redesigned my blog actually. I was looking for a fitting Wordpress theme for quite a while (althoug I’ve been blogging for just over two months now), but I finally found it.
But how does this work, is it because your site is easier to navigate that people come back to it?
I can admit…I was here for the free loot. :)
Actually have been reading since Ellis but just subscribed.
That is really interesting.
What is the keyword(s) they are searching for to get there? Blog redesign?
I guess you can look at the giveaway part as creating brand awareness rather than brand loyalty. Keep up the good content and word of mouth and social bookmarking with help boost your figures with meaningful traffic.
but uh, we still get the free stuff, right? right? :-)
Does this mean that you’ll not give away Iphone number 3 thruh 5 ?
ciao
alex
That’s interesting! I also thought the giveaways would increase your traffic.
you should make another post about the giveaways here and bigarena just to test if people are paying attention ;)
Since I was the one who started grumbling about the previous design first, does that mean that I get a special prize? *grin*