Ayup! This one’s for any fellow bloggers: a few notes on where my referrals come from. Full disclosure, I’m no big player. In the last month, my daily page views have ranged from 24 to 276 (averaging 80). Small potatoes, but for a personal blog, it could be a lot worse.
Good to know: The data/stats in this article are from a handy little WordPress plugin called Koko Analytics.
Google remains the primary referral source by far. Most days, it sends the bulk of traffic to the site. Although they have some minor competition, they retain a huge majority of the market share.
This is an interesting one, as I no longer write with any regard to search engines. Natural writing, as it turns out, also has a place.
I submit all of my new posts to Google Search Console as soon as they’re published. That way, they’re usually indexed within a matter of hours. Certain posts do most of the heavy lifting. My Affinity review being one example. Others often won’t bring in any search engine traffic whatsoever.
Social Media
On days when I publish blog posts, social media platforms are the number one source of traffic. A quick and easy win. Let folks know there’s a new article, then direct them to your website. These are usually the busiest days.
I’m currently active on Mastodon, Bluesky and LinkedIn. That’s also the order in which they send the most to the least traffic. Honestly, I can’t recommend using algorithm-free social media platforms enough.
For bloggers, they’re one of your most important assets. Your links won’t be hidden or obscured. Far from being the case on Facebook or X, etc. Quite ironically, LinkedIn will also reduce your reach when you include a link. A small trickle of traffic still comes through, though.
Other Referrals
Lastly, I’ve grouped together:
- Mentions on other blogs
- Mentions in newsletters
- Unsplash
- RSS Readers
- Other search engines
Folks who are kind enough to link to my posts in their own articles or newsletters bring in a healthy amount of traffic (thank you). Sometimes Unsplash users click through from my profile there. This seems to be on the rise recently, thinking about it.
Although you can’t view visitor stats from most RSS readers, if it’s web-based, sometimes you can. A lot of Inoreader users either click to read the article on my website or visit an internal link from the post.
Lastly, a few visitors rock up from smaller search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Brave, and Bing. Even fewer from AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini.
Just Write
For a personal blog, like this one, page views are an added bonus. At the core, though, I write for expression, headspace and untangling ideas. I didn’t receive any traffic other than social media referrals for about five months. Didn’t matter. Still wouldn’t matter.
As you write and publish more, it becomes a source of serenity and calm. A mindful process. Consistency certainly helps to grow your views, but you don’t need to stick to a rigid schedule. In fact, that can be off-putting. Just write when you feel like writing.
Do it for yourself, primarily. Eventually, your people will find their way to you. In the meantime, you can always give folks a gentle nudge via your social channels.