How many hits do you get at random from search engines?

[YoungDebbie]

Just wondering because I get very few - about 10% of my total hits come from search engines, though my blog is huge (nearly 200 posts over two years) and I tag every post with keywords. Having said that, my topics cover a very broad range - maybe that's why I don't get so many via search engines. It's not as if every post is about knitting or cooking or whatever. Trying to post more frequently (2-3 times a week instead of 4-5 times a month) to see if that makes a difference - but am nervous of sacrificing quality in order to get quantity - and of boring regular readers who really don't want to hear from me every day, I'm sure! What's your experience? I'd be really interested in comparing notes! I'm at www.youngbyname.me, by the way.

Hi Debbie

I'm a relatively new blogger but I have had very few hits from search engines. TBH though I'm still not totally up on SEO and I thought that the blog would come up only if people were searching for the actual name of the blog?

I don't think people are bored if you blog regularly as they can always pick and choose which posts they read. I did read somewhere that you are meant to blog 50 times a week to optimise readership but if I did that my family would starve as I'd be on the computer 24/7.

I blog at hertfordshiremummy.blogspot.com

Have you researched keywords in Google? There are specific phrases that are more frequently searched for than others. Also you need to include those keywords in the text not just in the tags for search engines to pay attention. All this would have passed me by but my husband is a bit on the techy side and keeps nagging me about researching keywords and adding them to my posts. Tis tricky though! Also, you probably already know this but search engines pay more attention to sites that have 'trusted' links from other high SEO scoring sites. Get links to your blog in as many places as possible. Sorry, if I've just told you a load of stuff you already know!

hertfordshiremummy - 50 times a week! eek! Can't begin to imagine getting close to that!

hz - I'm reasonably au fait with keywords but just about every post I do is on a different subject so I won't get that many mentions of specific keywords across the whole blog, even if I try to mention the same keywords a lot in any one blog post. (It would be SO much easier if all I blogged about was gardening or crochet!)

But I will pursue the inward links idea. I've already started emailing links to appropriate people about any given post e.g. I contacted the Roman Baths at Bath with a link to a post I did about a visit to said Roman Baths and they reposted it on their Facebook page. Same thing happened with another post about a tourist attraction too. Not sure if that counts as an inbound link as it's on FB rather than on their actual website, but it still felt good! Thank you!

I get quite a large percentage of hits from search engines, but I don't think it's bad at all if you don't. Search engine readers tend to be very hit and run and less likely to stick around and become regular readers or leave a comment. So at least be assured that the people who do visit your blog actually want to be there and read what you have to say.

Like you I blog about a wide range of stuff, though when I do reviews I think about the SEO potential and mainly only review stuff I think people will be searching for. As a professional writer I often use my blog to sharpen my SEO skills, and will sometimes write posts with that in mind, ie last year I had a lot of fun writing about stupid royal wedding merchandise and ended up on top of page 1 of Google for that. What an achievement!

But ultimately I think you could drive yourself mad over-analysing it too much. If you're enjoying your blog and it's doing what you want it to, that's the main thing.

Yes, my blog is about camping so it is pretty easy to get a range of camping related words and phrases in! Good luck!

Not nearly enough is the answer !!!- my blog is Nr 3 on Google for the keyword "how I lost weight" / no 4 for "how I lost weight blog" and I reckon out of the 46 people a day who visit my site (on average) only 6 or 7 come via Google - pretty poor result really and looking back on it not worth the keyword SEO effort that I put into it. I blog on average 5 times a week and am going to concentrate on getting good links now as they serve two purposes - referrals to the site and have an influence on SEO. Still, site is now read in 42 countries so that's not bad for a month's hard work I guess, even if i did go up the wrong garden path with the keyword I chose! One thing I still do though is to focus each post very specifically on a particular topic (within the weight loss remit).

I get most of my views from search engines - between 60 and 80 a day, and it is mainly due to three or four of my posts that are tutorials on how to make your own whatever that is very 'in' and 'designer'. I think the post that brings in most traffic is my tutorial on how to make a Chan Luu style leather wrap bracelet. I think people google that a lot. It certainly has been the most viewed page since I posted it. I don't think it is always about churning out more and more posts. If you are writing about something very popular but also very specific and not very often written about (hard I know) then that will increase your hits too.

Another thing people come to my blog after searching is 'How to make a shoe cubby'. That is a very popular post of mine

The third most popular search term to bring people to my blog is 'how to make a lampshade out of string and pva glue'

Keep on blogging and keep on enjoying it, that's what I say.