Blogging Report (December 2018) – Highest Month All-time for organic traffic!

We’ll cut right to the chase in this blogging report.

December 2018 was my highest month all-time in terms of organic traffic at 176 visits!

After 4 months or so of monthly fluctuation, December traffic came in strong even with the busy holiday season.

I’m not surprised though as I’ve implemented a lot of strategic SEO work all throughout 2018 to get me to this point.

Now my goal one year from now in December 2019 will be to at least double this number and get my organic traffic closer to 400 visits per month.

Remember, SEO and organic growth of your blog is a marathon and not a sprint.

And although these numbers may seem a bit small, looking back over the course of my blog analytics/metrics, I’m very happy with this progress.

Let’s look at the details below together:

Organic Traffic (December 2018)- 176 Visits

As stated above, organic traffic in December 2018 came in at 176 organic search visits.

A new all-time high for my website!

When checking my search engine rankings recently, I noticed a few of my blog posts shot up to the first page of Google, which in return helped me generate additional organic traffic.

These blog posts were written months ago, and Google is finally starting to take notice/reward me for my efforts….And especially since these were really well-written and longer-form style content (over 1,000 words in length for each).

Year-Over-Year Organic Traffic Increases (December 2018 vs. December 2017)

When comparing year-over-year organic traffic is up 61.47% (176 vs. 109).

Below are a couple of screenshots from my Google Analytics account to give you a better visual of my results.

The screenshot above is more of a birds eye view of my organic traffic over-time.

Looking at your data from different angles is always helpful and can help you identity certain trends.

This particular screenshot shows the difference in organic traffic in December 2018 (blue line) versus December 2017 (orange line).

You can see that there was much more action in regards to organic traffic in December 2018.

Comparing the full year of 2018 to 2017

The last metric I’d like to compare is the full year of 2018 versus the full year of 2017.

This shows me even further the progress that I’ve made for the full calendar year.

I highly reccomend looking at a comparison like this for your own site if you’ve been blogging for long enough. It really helps to see if your marketing efforts (in my case SEO), is paying off.

As you can see in the screenshot above, organic traffic when comparing 2018 to 2017 is up 293.29% (1,817 vs. 462).

Sometimes it can be hard to stay motivated when it comes to blogging, but when you start seeing increases such as this (over the long-term), you realize that all of your effort are truly paying off.

Reflection of 2018 and Next Steps

I must admit, I was really happy with my overall results in 2018.

I saw noticeable growth in organic traffic, grew my email list, increased my blogging income and learned a lot along the way.

With all that being said, I will not be “taking it easy” in 2019.

In fact, I plan on pushing even harder and implementing new tactics and techniques to my website.

Let’s take a look at some of my core strategies moving forward.

Consistent Content Creation & Long-Form Content:

No surprise here, increasing your organic traffic and online influence truly comes down to generating consistent and quality content. I am really good about publishing content to my blog on a regular basis (I average anywhere from 4-8 blog posts per month). Something I have really focused on in 2018 and will continue to do so in 2019, is writing long-form content. Meaning crafting blog posts that are over 1,000 words long. Google loves in-depth and helpful articles and will favor these websites heavily compared to sites that publish shorter content. The combination of publishing content consistently and ensuring that it’s fleshed out over 1,000 words long should produce excellent results in the new year.

Build Quality Backlinks From High Domain Authority (DA) Websites:

This is an area I feel I can ramp up a bit. The focus here would be to write quality guest post articles on other high domain authority websites in my niche. This means researching other influential bloggers that have a domain authority of at least 50 or higher and submitting well-written content for them to publish to their website. In return, you are usually allowed a link back to your website which eventually helps with overall search engine rankings, increasing organic traffic and referral traffic.

Upload 2-4 YouTube Videos Per Month:

My YouTube channel has been more of a secondary focus in the past but I’d like to prioritize this powerful platform just as I do my blog. There is so much traffic “hanging out” on YouTube on a daily basis, it’s incredible. More and more people are using YouTube as their main search engine than ever before and video marketing will only continue to be more important in the years to come. Currently I average 1-2 videos on my channel per month, but I’d like to double that to around 2-4 videos to start. My YouTube channel is small but it has been growing steadily monthly which gives me incentive to keep pushing.

Monitor/Improve Website Speed:

I believe a big reason for December 2018 being my highest month in organic traffic is due to the website speed improvements I made in late November 2018. I shaved off 3 seconds overall in total loading speed which can be extremely beneficial from an SEO standpoint. I will continue to monitor this in 2019 and also work on making my site even faster, if possible.

Network with other Bloggers & Entrepreneurs:

By networking with other bloggers and entrepreneurs, you never know what type of opportunities can open up. It’s even good to connect with people who are a step or two above you, as there’s always more that one can learn in this ever evolving digital world. I will really be looking to build more quality relationships in 2019 to expand my reach and refine my skills even further.

The start of a new year is always a great time to reflect on your past efforts/results and also a great time to set new and concrete goals for yourself moving forward.

How were your results in 2018?

If you’re looking for more guidance on how to generate more traffic and exposure for your blog, please connect with me here.

Below is the video version of this post: