Noob Question About Hits

Hiya,

This is one for the veteran writers, if you wouldn't mind, as I'm going around in circles trying to fathom it out.

I've been writing on Wizzley for eight months.  Before that, I was at Suite101 for four months, so not long to gain much authority.

In all this time, my traffic has been steadily rising, everything going in the right direction and all. 

But this last couple of weeks, things have suddenly gone yampy.   Multiple articles are suddenly appearing quite high in the SERPS; old articles have gone from plodding along to right up there in the most read pages this week (of mine, I mean); I've had a decent sale on Amazon and another on Zazzle; and Chitika has come to life.

None of this is massive.  I am talking in relative terms here.  I'm not going to retire any time soon; and it's not like the entire internet has come reading my stuff.

So is this:

a) Time of year;

b) I've finally arrived;

c) Wizzley has gone up a notch or two in popularity in some search engine somewhere;

or d) Too soon to tell

Thanks in advance.  I haven't the experience to guess!

yours

Jo

xxxxx

All of the above, and then some.  

Articles mature.

Great Articles mature, collect backlinks, and get rewarded by Google.

Higher ranking (often) means more visitors and sales.

Most importantly: give thanks and write more.

What does 'yampy' mean?

Ooops!  Yampy isn't even English per se, it's Black Country slang.  It's one of those words, along with Yam-Yam, that people affect, if they're trying to impersonate my accent.  (They can't.  They sound Brummie, which is the next city along.)

In conversation with some of my American friends, we decided that the nearest approximation in their language was 'goofy'.  But it didn't go far enough.  Yampy is one of those extremely versatile words that can mean crazy, angry, ferocious, insane, brilliant etc.  It's all in the context.

But don't fret on adding it to your vocabulary.  It's not useful outside a single area in Britain. <3
Though, of course, it's infinitely useful, when you're talking to me!

As for the actual subject - woot!  It is usual for all of these things to come together?  A natural progression or extreme luck?

Thanks!   And I'd better get writing.

Incidentally, it's not just Google.  There's a variety of sources, with different ones at the fore depending upon the article.  And the sales weren't on 'sales' articles. :D  There's hope for me yet!

JoHarrington: 08/25/2012 - 07:34 PM

---

 There's hope for me yet!

My words.

The variety of sources comes from your promotional efforts, whatever they may be. Have you undertaken any new / different promotional efforts?

Now that you are finding changes in your visitor activity it would pay you to record what you have done and try to marry those efforts to changes. That way you can determine whether increases in visitor activity correlate with a particular promotional effort. When it does, and it is positive, rinse and repeat.

Chef is absolutely right - time is a major player. If you have done everything else right, then the increment in time works, just like with geology (hopefully not on the same time-scale).

We should now be a bit more circumspect about backlinks and how they are anchored / obtained. If you do promote using backlinking strategies, there are new speculations as to how Google views them. The best mix now seems to be (according to those whose opinion I respect and based on real data) is to have a mix of URL / website name links, keyword anchor text links, and generic anchor text links (i.e. 'click here', 'best link' etc), in a ratio 25:25:50 (or thereabouts). It has also been mooted that any backlink portfolio deviating significantly towards keyword anchor text links will likely be Panda slapped. As you know I have always suggested to concentrate on funnelling traffic, rather than linking for backlinks.

As indicated in a separate forum post, it is likely that your 'authority' is being recognized (and rewarded). Regular posts, wherever they may be made, and of whatever form, all accumulate towards your standing as a writer of note and notoriety (in a good sense).

Basic suggestion: keep on doing what you are doing, and then some!

Good to see that you are now seeing some reward for your efforts. Especially as at one time you thought they would never arrive.

Thank you very much for your feedback.  It's always appreciated.

The only new thing that I've done recently is start using Ping-o-Matic.  I did that on the day that you posted about it on this forum.   Otherwise, it's promoting everything in my social networking at the moment of publishing, then running Twitterfeed at regular intervals.

In fact, I do everything that you've ever told me to do!

Thank you for being here for us noobs, Chaz. <3

Contrary to many opinions here, you seem to be reaping the rewards of regular promotion through social media and pinging.