Business blogging is a long-term marketing strategy. I typically tell new business bloggers to set up analytics on their blog from the beginning, but to ignore them for at least a year. Focus on the craft of blogging and sticking to a schedule for that first year. Then start looking into the data as you prepare and move into Year 2.
After about two years you typically begin to see some traction with traffic. You build enough history, especially for a new brand, with the search engines and see some organic search traffic. You also see some sharing on social media and other channels including email.
But what if you’re not seeing the traffic you expect after two years?
Here are a few possible reasons.
1. Not Enough Quantity (Not Enough Quality)
If you set a goal to publish a blog post once a week you’ll end up at about 100 posts after two years. 100 of anything gives you some pretty good skills. For example, I enjoy golfing. If you set a goal of practicing golf for two hours once a week for two years you’re going to likely see improvement after those two years.
But what if you didn’t hit that goal of 100 blog posts after two years?
This could be a big reason that you’re not seeing improvement. The two year timeline is really a quantity timeline. It’s about putting in the effort to produce content and learn from the good and the bad. It’s difficult to predict what content will work and what won’t work. That’s why quantity is important. It helps you build skills and to create enough data so you can start seeing what works and what doesn’t.
Quantity leads to quality.
2. New Brand Starting From Scratch
Brand is important for many things. Search engines seem to look at brand as one signal when it comes to rankings. They likely need some data and time to trust new brands that appear in the business world. You may be publishing some great content on your blog, but if you’re a new brand it can sometimes still take years to build the recognition and trust that search engines and people want to see.
Most businesses need time. The same is true with blogs. If you see a blog that is “new” that builds traffic fast you’re still likely looking at a blogger or a business leader that has build some type of recognition and trust elsewhere. Perhaps on a previous blog.
3. Not Enough Guesting
Imagine an actor that you’ve never heard before. They participate in a movie. The movie is released. If they get into theaters or on the right streaming services some people will discover it. But in that scenario the film will likely go unseen by a lot of people.
That’s why you see actors often appear on all types of shows to help promote the movie. They go where the audience exists and try to provide something interesting so they can get attention. For themselves and for their work.
This is guesting and it helps to do a good amount of guesting when you’re building a brand or building a new blog. You might write one guest post for every five or 10 blog posts you write for your own blog.
4. Not The Right Strategy
Many bloggers look internally for strategy and topics. This can sometimes work, but it’s good to look at your target audience and what they want to read when forming a blogging strategy. You can use Google to find topics and questions your audience is asking. You can talk to current customers to learn what they’re interested in. You can even look at other blogs and forums to learn what topics matter most.
Trust your own intuition, but also look for data when brainstorming topics for posts.
5. Writing For The Wrong Audience
Every once in awhile I come across a business that is writing for its peers instead of its customers. It might be a dentist that is writing content that may appeal to other dentists. It might seem silly to write a post like, When To Bring Your Toddler In For Their First Dentist Appointment. You may think, every dentist will think I’m an amateur for writing that.
But that is an important question for someone taking care of a toddler. It’s not basic information for them It’s very important.
Look at the content you’re creating and make sure you’re writing for your customers and not for another audience.
6. Too Similar To The Competition
As a business owner, manager or marketer you know that it’s important to differentiate yourself from the competition. If you’re not getting the traction you want with your blog you may need to find more ways to differentiate your blog from others in the industry.
For each topic, look for gaps in what has been written about. See if you can focus on the popular topics and specifically the areas of those topics that are being overlooked.
For example, maybe you have a blog about the NFL. There is a lot of coverage about quarterbacks and wide receivers and defensive backs. But there isn’t a lot of content about kicking, special teams and punting. People love football. And they know that special teams are important. But not many dive deep into special teams. That’s an example of an opportunity.
Conclusion
Persistence is a key to a lot of things in business. Blogging falls into this category. Many get frustrated and give up after a few months. If you’ve given it two years and are still frustrated, I feel you. But you may be right on the cusp of building some real traction. Hopefully these insights can help get you over the final hurdle.