Taking a look at my traffic count over the last thirty days, I’ve discovered that more than 50% of my traffic for this domain name is coming from StumbleUpon. That’s highly unusual so I thought I’d ask, “Why is that?”
I’m 100% sure it has something to do with the way that I’m blogging. My daily routine, Monday through Friday, is to write and post to this blog, then I Twitter, Stumble, and share the post on Facebook. And then pretty much forget about it.
It’s interesting that more than 50% of my traffic is coming from StumbleUpon while less than 3% is coming from Google. For most websites, the search engines are delivering at least 80% of the traffic, and Google usually delivers 70% of that. So why aren’t I getting more Google traffic?
My StumbleUpon Reputation
First, I’d like to examine why I am getting so much StumbleUpon traffic. I think it can be narrowed down to one reason: I have a great StumbleUpon reputation.
My followers are highly engaged with what I’m doing and like it. But SU users also like to search for new sites and I’m seeing that a lot of my SU traffic is coming from new visitors to my site. So StumbleUpon works for getting new visitors to your site.
The problem with SU traffic is that it has a high bounce rate. So StumbleUpon users tend to read what they came for and leave. That’s exactly what I’m seeing.
In particular, one blog post – “Time To Get Blitterated” – has a high traffic count from StumbleUpon. And I think that can be attributed to one thing: It’s an awesome title. It sparks curiosity in the reader, who undoubtedly wants to know what “Blitterated” means, and the sound of the word being close to “obliterated” adds to the curiosity factor.
Summary: If you want to get some quick StumbleUpon traction for your new website, you need a strong SU reputation, good blog titles, and a consistent Stumble strategy.
The Google Connection
Google traffic at 2.97%? Yep, that’s it.
Google traffic doesn’t work too fast. I’ve got pages indexed, but only 59, and in a highly competitive field at that. The upside is this: My PageRank is a 2. Not bad for the amount of time the site has been live. However, full disclosure, the site is aged well beyond what you’d expect from public appearances. My first blog post was published on May 10, 2011, but the site is actually five years old (there’s a story behind that too, but we’ll save it for another time).
With only 43 blog posts indexed at Google, this website is just barely getting its search engine traction. There’s still a lot of time to go and I believe that over time I’ll see the Google and StumbleUpon traffic numbers reverse. Even if I continue my Stumble strategy, Google will eventually become my largest referrer. That’s because search engine traffic, unlike StumbleUpon traffic, is based on building momentum.
But What About Facebook And Twitter?
I’ll be honest with you. I expected more from Twitter, but Facebook hasn’t surprised me.
Both sites have delivered less than 2% of my traffic in the last 30 days. The reason is pretty clear. My followers on both sites are not very engaged with what I’m doing. At one time, my Twitter list was pretty responsive and when I published a link I could expect some traffic. But I took a long hiatus and that has had an effect on my Twitter reputation.
Facebook, on the other hand, has a different makeup. I don’t use it much for business. Rather, I use Facebook for keeping up with family and my literary and political interests. It’s more of a personal forum for me whereas Twitter is a micropublishing platform that I use for all things.
I will be taking a look at how I use both of these social networks in the future and see what kind of changes I need to make to be more engaged.
Digital Point – The Wild Card
The one thing I didn’t count on was Digital Point. This is a webmaster forum that I’m a member of, but use moderately. It has delivered 2.64% of my traffic in the last 30 days, slightly less than Google.
I am not a consistent poster at DP, but I do post often enough and maintain a signature link that points back to Taylor and Associates, and because of that signature link I have been able to attract some traffic. I might have to see about using Digital Point more.
Conclusion: Use StumbleUpon For New Website Traffic Surges
If you want your website to gain traction quickly, build some back links, and get an initial surge in traffic, I recommend the following strategy:
- Blog every day.
- Stumble every blog post.
- You can also subsidize your Stumble bookmarking with Twitter and Facebook posts. For business, add some LinkedIn love as well.
- Write interesting titles for your blog posts.
- Be consistent in your blogging and daily bookmarking.
- Find a popular forum in your niche and be a regular contributor.
- Consider these points to be a minimum.
When you take on this strategy, don’t bookmark your blog posts for the links. Do it for the traffic. You should use high traffic websites like Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, and any niche sites where your target market would hang out.
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