Where Has All Of My Blog Traffic Gone?

A client shared his concerns with me over a sharp downturn in traffic to one of his sites and was thinking about launching an expensive advertising campaign to bring people back. This particular site consists of standard HTML pages which means it isn’t based on a blog platform, rather on a nicely designed CSS theme, and is updated fairly regularly.

Although I’m not directly involved with this site, I reviewed his pages and then assured him that the drop in traffic was probably seasonally related. After all, we’re in the middle of the summer months and when your site is seasonally themed, then there are times in the year when an even steeper drop will be noticed.

When Your Blog Loses Traffic

My client’s concern brought up an issue that many bloggers contend with too – a sharp drop to their blog’s traffic. Blogging can be immensely frustrating especially if you pour your heart and soul into it and the returns are just not there. After all of that work you notice that your Alexa number continues to rise, your PageRank sinks and your traffic numbers plummet. But on closer inspection and after an honest assessment of your site, you may discover a number of reasons why traffic is down. Let’s take a look at five of the more notable ones here:

Seasonal Traffic – If you have a Christmas season site, you’re probably going through one of the biggest drops since December 26th. Very few people are thinking about Christmas shopping, but I would venture to say that once Labor Day has passed your traffic will begin to tick upward, increasing noticeably in October and surging by early November. For everyone else (in the northern hemisphere), the months of June, July and August are generally slower as even web addicts like to take a break, head to the beach, visit their families, etc. They haven’t logged off completely, but they’re making good use of their warm weather time. Surf’s up!

Blogging Frequency – Have you been blogging less frequently lately? Check back to when you first launched your blog and compare how often you blogged then with how often you blog now. Over time, you may have gradually slipped to where you’re posting less frequently. Perhaps when you got started you wrote 15-20 articles per month but have since slipped to around 12. Fresh articles bring in the traffic, so consider ramping up your production to match or even exceed previous levels. Don’t let your quality slip!

Article Appeal – Maybe your subject matter simply isn’t of interest to your readers. I always tell bloggers to write about their passion as their enthusiasm will shine forth. Enthusiasm is contagious and people are drawn to blogs where the blogger knows his stuff, is excited about the topic and offers a unique and helpful perspective to his readers. If you’ve gotten in the habit of producing boring articles, then your uninspired audience will flee. Time to ratchet up your blog’s appeal!

Check Analytics – I use Google Analytics to review my traffic on a regular basis. Analytics and similar free or low cost tools give me clues on where people are coming from, what search terms brought them to my blog, which articles were most read and a host of other nifty features. You don’t have to be a statistical geek, but it is certainly helpful if you have a general understanding of these types of programs. You’ll also want to make sure that your sitemap is up to date, that Google webmaster tools is indexing all of your pages and you’ll want to check the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) to see how high your pages are appearing for certain traffic generating keywords. Make adjustments as needed and your traffic numbers should increase.

Promote Wisely – I’ve noticed that some bloggers aren’t very active in promoting their articles. I arrived on the blogging scene late, launching the forerunner to this blog in December 2005. For the first full year, my site wasn’t set up to encourage commenting (people had to register which means few left comments) and my articles were stilted, not conversational in nature. By Spring 2007, my traffic numbers began to increase sharply as I understood that making my blog user friendly would be a big help. I also joined StumbleUpon, which soon began to bring more traffic to my site and carefully chose several other social media sites where I began to establish a presence and a following (Twitter, Digg, LinkedIn, to name just a few). Needless to say, when I stoke the social media flame these days, my traffic numbers increase; if I neglect adding fuel to that fire, then my traffic gradually slides.

Thoughts For Your Day

Technorati tracks blogs and regularly issues a “State of the Blogosphere” report which offers excellent insight into the world of blogs. This report gives a fascinating and comprehensive look at blogging and what all of this means to you. The top blogs out there have been around for three years or longer but as you might guess, the vast number of bloggers eventually give up.

If you plan on being around for the long haul, then develop a strategy to increase your visibility in order to bring in more traffic. Quite a few of my blogging friends are committed to blogging until their fingers fall off, creating interesting and engaging posts on a regular basis. These people know where their blogs have been and they know where they’re going, setting themselves up for long term success.

Oh, what about my client who was worried about his traffic? He decided that a marketing campaign wouldn’t be worthwhile and is the process of making some changes to his web pages. The coming weeks should reveal whether these changes bring in more traffic, but if not I may have another gig to take on.

See Also — Is Your Work To Marketing Ratio 2-1?

What Budget Coffee Tells Us About Consumers And Branding

America’s love affair with good coffee is taking an interesting, if not delicious turn.

Over the past two decades, we’ve witnessed the rise of gourmet coffee shops — those fine neighborhood bistros which allow coffee lovers to order numerous variations on their favorite coffee theme. Espressos, cappuccinos, brewed coffees even assorted tea drinks are prized by people who are not satisfied with their Mr. Coffee home brewed coffee machines.

Better Brands, Bigger Prices

Whereas at one time we were happy to drink Maxwell House, Folgers and Chock Full ‘o Nuts branded coffee, our palates now require something a bit more sophisticated including Starbucks, Seattle’s Best and Caribou Coffee. Maybe it is the piped-in ambiance or the indoor décor that helps to drive our java decision-making or perhaps the available wi-fi access which brings us in. No matter, Americans are attracted to better brewed coffee especially hot beverages brewed outside of the home.

But consumers are also looking at price when it comes to their “coffee to go” experience, understanding that few post economic collapse budgets can still handle a four dollar a day habit. Add in an apple bran muffin or fruit stella and that meal suddenly tops six dollars. Oh, did I say that Starbucks charges for wi-fi usage unless you use their card?

What McDonalds Has Learned About Branding

McDonalds has been overhauling their coffee line up, understanding that children who were raised on Happy Meals can grow up into becoming life long adult customers if good coffee is available. It wasn’t too long ago that the Golden Arches served a truly forgettable brew, a special blend that tasted no better than what you could make at home, sometimes much worse.

But McDonalds sensed that consumers wanted something more, so over the past several years the world’s largest restaurant chain began to roll out McCafe, its inside the store premium coffee line which carries many of the same types of drinks sold by Starbucks as well as healthier food choices. Notably, even the standard brewed coffee has improved, selling for less than one dollar a cup with free refills. Oh, yes, most McDonalds now offer wi-fi access and at no charge.

Give Customers What They Want For Less

Dunkin’ Donuts, 7-Eleven, Wawa and similar stores are also getting in on the gourmet coffee trend by offering special blends for prices starting at under one dollar a cup. Wawa, which is a chain of stores serving the mid-Atlantic region, allows customers to fill up on gasoline and go inside to purchase a brew. All sorts of delectable breakfast pastries are available thanks to an in-store bakery; hot breakfast sandwiches are another favorite menu item an are made to order. Besides filling up the car, customers routinely leave Wawa with a meal priced about half that of its high end competitors.

So what does coffee consumption tell us about consumer buying habits? A few things, namely:

• No matter how bad the economy is, there are some things people will not give up. Their favorite beverage along with a tasty carbohydrate laden food item will likely remain in demand.

• People want value. Inasmuch as Starbucks is the favorite brand for many, cash strapped consumers will trade down and be all the more willing to do so if the alternative is fresh, tasty and competitively priced.

• Ambiance is still important for the person who plans on hanging around the shop for awhile. Clean tables, comfortable seats, tidy bathrooms [especially for women customers] and free computer access can lure the one-time gourmet coffee connoisseur. I have noticed that my nearest McDonalds provides a wide-screen television set tuned to cable news in one section of the restaurant along with online access. A closed-in (and mercifully separated) kids play area has another big screen set which regularly shows a recent Disney movie.

Applying This Lesson To Your Business

What does this have to do with the freelancer of small business operator? Plenty! You may not sell coffee but you do have a competitive product which may not be selling as well as it did in the past. Maybe you’ve been adverse to cutting prices or have dismissed offering a budget version in fears of harming your business.

Still, if your clients are going elsewhere you may want to include a “value added” incentive (like that McDonalds does with free wi-fi) as a way to lure in new business. Things have changed much over the past six months but one thing remains the same: people want a good product at a fair price – if you can offer that to them, expect that your business will succeed, perhaps prosper during tough economic times.

See Also: Handling Damaging Information — Include It or Shelve It?