Sunday, September 21st, 2008
I have often wondered if there is some grand resource out there for those of us who are interested in internet traffic trends by industry. It would also be helpful if this data were returned to me chronologically. Daily would be ideal.
If you run your own websites as part, or all, of your business, internet traffic trends are of great concern to you. Some days, your websites seem to be over performing. This is great and it’s very easy to get used to. The entrepreneurial spirit in you goes into hyper-drive. Well, what goes up, must come down. The only problem is, on the internet, there are way too many variables that dictate website success to ignore any “downturn” in website performance. If there was just a way to gauge whether it’s the industry as a whole that has taken a downturn or if it’s just your one website.
Personally, I have seen rather predictable ups and downs in traffic. I remember back over the Summer, during the holidays. On July fourth, web traffic was anemic, only to have an upswing shortly thereafter. I suppose you could just let your website be and hope for the best, but any business owner worth his/her salt isn’t going to sit idly by and watch outside forces play such a strong role.
I think the type of information I am talking about is available over at ComScore, but I believe you must pay for that. I suppose I could trot over to Alexa and type in one of my competitor’s URLs to see how their traffic has fared during the past few weeks, but Alexa’s website traffic stats are notoriously unreliable. They are built upon the Alexa toolbar, which is geared much more towards some groups of internet users, rather than others. Let’s just say that computer geeks gravitate towards the Alexa toolbar, but soccer moms don’t. Tech website traffic is going to look a heck of a lot higher than pottery websites. There may some value in the site across industries though, since those Alexa toolbar people would visit various types of similar websites.
I will continue to look for an answer to this little issue I am having, but in the meantime, if you know of any industry based traffic trend sources, please post a comment.
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Tags: alexa toolbar, Business, business internet, business owner, computer geeks, comscore, data, entrepreneurial spirit, internet traffic, internet users, traffic stats, traffic trends, URL, web traffic, website, website traffic, Websites
Posted in Internet, Websites | No Comments »
Monday, September 15th, 2008
This article was written by Jay Gaulard on behalf of BlogLeeg, a popular blog directory.
If you’re blogging without pinging blog directories, you’re missing out. Blog directories help your blog get more traffic.
Blog Directories Can Bring Big Traffic to Your Blog
When the Internet was young, search engine traffic came at a premium price. Websites could buy their way into search engine listings, but there was no guarantee that the purchase would result in a significant amount of traffic.
Today, the rules are much different. In some ways it’s much easier to get great traffic from search engines, but in other ways it’s even harder. A website has to have a lot of clout before Google or Yahoo will list it in their top returns, but there are many ways to make your site more attractive to the search engines.
If you’re trying to build traffic for a blog, the best thing you can do for increased traffic is to blog and ping. This slightly humorous-sounding term simply means that you let blog directories know each time you make a new blog post.
By cluing in the blog directories whenever you add a new blog post, you’re building traffic in two ways. You might get an initial rush of traffic from the blog directory as readers click through to see your new entry. The real magic happens when the search engines follow the link from the blog directory back to your blog.
The search engine then finds other material to index. As you keep getting more links to your blog, the search engine has more pages to index. Eventually you’ll find your blog turning up in searches. You won’t be in the top couple of pages right away, but you will see your search engine traffic rise.
Blog and ping might sound a little complicated, but it’s actually very easy. Most major blog platforms ping the major blog directories automatically. If you want to ping a blog directory that’s not listed in their default list, you can usually add it manually.
What if you don’t actually have a blog yet? Well, it’s time to hop on the bandwagon. Blogs are useful for conveying your personal thoughts to anyone and everyone, about whatever subjects you choose. You can keep in touch with far-away relatives or just give yourself a creative outlet.
Lately, though, blogs are used quite often as marketing tools for businesses. The business blog can take many forms, from an informal journal kept by a CEO to a formal, frequently-updated record of new products.
Setting up a new blog is not difficult at all, and you have several options to do it. Most often, new bloggers set up a blog with one of the popular blogging platforms. These platforms offer standard templates, or you can create your own to match your company’s color scheme or your personal preferences.
Once your blog is set up and ready to go, don’t forget to make sure that it pings every blog directory possible. Blogging without pinging the blog directories is like spinning your wheels: you’re doing something, but you’re not making any progress.
If your blogging platform does not support pinging or doesn’t submit to the directories you want, you can use software to accomplish the same thing. It’s available under many different titles, but the basic function is to take your most recent blog post and send it to several blog directories. Your links start building up, your search engine traffic increases, and you are one happy blogger.
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Tags: amount of traffic, blog, Business, google, google yahoo, increased traffic, internet search, internet traffic, search engine, search engine listings, search engine traffic, search engines, website, Websites
Posted in Blogs, Directories | 1 Comment »
