Blogging Report (December 2019) – 14.20% Increase In Organic Traffic!

Welcome to another blogging report, this time for December 2019!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday and took some time to relax and spend time with family.

After a busy year, I definitely made sure to unwind a bit myself and rejuvenate.

The picture below is of a hike I took on Christmas Eve.

Although it was brisk, it was a beautiful day to spend outside!

In terms of my blog, it’s not uncommon for December to be a slower month organically for me.

And this is also the case in general for many website owners since most people are either busy or away for the holidays.

You may see a dip in traffic compared to the prior months and that’s okay (unless you run an ecommerce store for example that thrives around this time of year).

This is nothing to panic about and a trend to actually expect moving forward.

As I always say, you’re better off comparing your data year-over-year within your Google Analytics account.

This will give you a more accurate snapshot of how your website is performing as a whole.

You may also want to take a look at your long-term organic traffic chart (date back as far as you have data in analytics) to see the trajectory of your website visitors.

Although this month’s blogging report isn’t the most explosive in terms of year-over-year growth, I am still in the green nonetheless and happy to be moving in the right direction.

Let’s take a look at the specifics below:

Organic Traffic (December 2019)- 201 Visits

In December 2019, organic traffic came in at a total of 201 visits.

Is 201 organic visits astronomical?

No, but this is hyper targeted traffic entering my website from the search engines (and mainly Google).

I take pride in making sure that the traffic I am driving is of the highest-quality and also super relevant based on the content I produce on my website.

This results in more blog followers, blog engagement, email subscribers, coaching clients and affiliate sales.

Year-Over-Year Organic Traffic Increases (December 2019 vs. December 2018)

When we compare year-over-year, organic traffic for my website is up 14.20% (201 visits vs. 176 visits).

The two screenshots below reveals this year-over-year growth from a couple of angles.

 

I recommend that all bloggers get used to analyzing their data on a monthly basis.

When you understand your metrics, it makes it easier to strategize and plan for future growth.

Speaking of, let’s review some areas I will be focusing on in 2020.

Blogging Goals & Next Steps for 2020

The new year is always a great time to set some achievable goals for your website. It’s also a time to reflect on specific areas you can improve upon as well.

1. Get Ahead of Content Generation: A big goal of mine in 2020 is to get 1-2 months ahead of schedule with my blog content. This is a tactic that I struggle with from time to time due to being busy running other parts of my business. However, I believe as a blogger, it’s very important to get ahead of schedule and create some sort of content calendar to help you achieve this. I currently have blog content scheduled about 2 weeks out and will continue to build upon this.
2. Heavier Focus on Guest Posting: Guest posting on other websites has really been a major driver in my blog growth (helping to generate more organic traffic from increased search engine rankings and referral traffic from people clicking on my links). I do almost all of this manually, but am considering utilizing additional resources to help me scale up this part of my business.
3. Scale Up Paid Advertising: Although SEO is more my speciality, I’ve been running a few profitable PPC campaigns that have really allowed me to increase my coaching/consulting client base. Currently I am using Google Adwords, but will be exploring other paid advertising avenues as well. Also, knowing that my current PPC campaigns are performing really well, I will be investing more money into my existing ad strategy this month.
4. More Networking with Other Bloggers: When you network with other bloggers, truly positive things come out of it. Every time I make it a point to reach out, meet and talk with other bloggers, I am always amazed at the value in doing so. Not only can this result in various collaborations, shoutouts, backlinks, brand exposure etc., but you can also just learn a whole lot from the other person and process in general. In 2020, I will most definitely be making more connections with other bloggers in my general niche.

How was your December 2019?

That about wraps up this month’s blogging report!

If you’d like to follow my progress moving forward, I recommend bookmarking this page here.

You may also want to subscribe to my YouTube channel for additional blogging tips, tricks and secrets.

How was your December 2019?

Did you see any slowdown?