Is it just me, or does it suddenly feel like there are more search conferences this year than there are weeks in the year? For those of you who attend most or all of them, when do you get any work done? I don't expect an answer to that, btw, I'm really just thinking out loud. In any case, what am I doing instead of attending SES-NY today?
Today's task is one that I think everyone should be tackling on a regular basis. Today, I'm creating new content solely based upon what my visitors are apparently extremely interested in. (No, not this site, I'm currently working on a new-ish site that has nothing to do with SEO). I casually noticed one day that my visitors seemed to flock to certain topics that were covered, and were not so interested in others. To verify this, I began looking at the analytics very closely to see if my "casual notice" was real, or just a figment of my imagination. As it turned out, I was right. Visitors seemed to just lap up certain content like they were starved for more. So what should any good SEO do? Give your visitors what they crave. If they want more content on a particular topic, shower them with that kind of content.
Speaking of analytics, I've recently begun testing Clicky and so far I'm impressed. Keep in mind that I'm a cheapskate, and I have a fair few sites, so what I really want is an analytics package that lets me use it across all my sites, for an affordable price. (Yeah, I know I could use Google analytics, but really, doesn't that just bother you? No? Well, it does me). At the same time, I want reports that give me good, easy to understand analysis of the data. So far, Clicky is exactly what I need, but I'm not yet finished with the trial period, so I still may change my mind. (I doubt it though...I'm pretty much sold on it). However, if you have used Clicky and want to convince me not to use it, I'd love to hear why.
So now that I've rambled and gotten off-track, let's pull this baby back to what I was originally talking about. Content. Giving users what they crave. Right...now we're back. I'm going to spend a fair amount of time on just this one topic, and I'm going to give my visitors lots of content to quench their thirst for information as well as great graphics to please their visual souls. Once I've satisfied this craving, I'll go back to the analytics reports to see if they are craving something else that I could provide more of. And that, my friends, is what I'm doing instead of going to the never-ending carousel of search conferences. What are you doing?
Instead of attending SES I’m glancing at the sessions over seroundtable (Same stuff, different location…) while visiting blogs and websites I’ve kinda neglected from my RSS reader. “Amazingly”, I can actually learn something from visiting such web pages, not less and probably more from attending SES… 🙂
thanks for the tip on clicky. i use goog analytics now and am pretty much ok with it but clicky does look like it has some cool features. i think i will check it out. thanks donna!
Yes, I am *this close* [holds fingers together closely] to building my own solution, but, really – I have more profitable things to do with my time.
Looking forward to your conclusions, as cheerily letting Google in on all my traffic doesn’t seem the wisest thing…
What am I doing? I’m blogging about you, dear!
Thank you for sharing your sunshine, Donna.
LOL. I often wonder the same things about all those conferences. I only go to about 2 or 3 per year and it always seems like a bit of hardship when returning to the office.
Today I am building links, fixing a botched press release, having a lunch meeting, writing a couple proposals…. hey wait, NYC is sounding good. In fact, I love NY in the spring!