www.inkthinkerblog.com — At the end of February, I announced an informal campaign to get Inkthinker into the top 25 search results for the phrase “freelance writing blog” by the end of March. This would be a big jump considering that it wasn’t even in the top 200 results when I decided to go for it.Well, here’s my confession: I got kind of overwhelmed with stuff around the middle-end of March and totally forgot to keep checking my results. But here’s the good news: As of today, Inkthinker is ranked 19 for “freelance writing blog.” Cool, right? Another post to follow describing how I accomplished this magnificent feat.
In the meantime, here’s my question to you, darling reader: Are you satisfied with your search engine rankings? What would you change?
Tags: freelance writing blog, freelance writing, freelance, writing, SEO, search engine optimization, improve my search engine ranking, better search engine ranking, SEO tips, inkthinker, kristen king
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Congrats on the move up…
Of course, you always want higher, more and better SERP (Search Engine Ranking Position) but the question becomes one of what are you ranking for and what is the result of the ranking.
I have seen clients rank well for phrases that don’t convert at all. What I usually do it test the keyphrase with PPC first to see if it is getting me the response for the market that I want. Response is optins, comments, sales, leads..whatever.
Each keyword is a conversation. Some conversations are better than others for what you are trying to acomplish.
Thanks Kristen. Your post really got me thinking about how my website and blog are positioned.
David, thanks for visiting and leaving such an awesome comment. You’re so right — being highly ranked on something that’s totally useless to you is no help at all.
For this particular experiment, I just wanted to see if I could pull it off! Now that I know I can, I have to figure out the best way to turn this skill into income. I loved what you said at SOBCon08: ” Are you making money, or are you just chit-chatting?”
Positioning is key, but then what are you going to DO with it? I need to answer that second question, I think.
Congratulations on your success. You have accomplished a thing that most people can only dream of. 19th position is not a good one for Google. In fact, you have to be at the top 10 or top 5. I guess, you will be there very soon.
Congratulations on the move up (should we play the theme to The Jeffersons for you?).
I’m certainly not all that happy with my search engine results. I show up for some things but not others. Perhaps if I really focused my blog a bit more I’d be able to move up in the rankings for more important searches. Instead I seem to get all the searches involving prostitution. Maybe that’s what I should focus on for the future.
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Honestly, I don’t spend that much time on them. I check in about once a week or so, and I’m happy at the rate my traffic’s growing..
I’ve found several sites are discriminatory when it comes to listings — because I can’t be easily categorized, they try to look down on me and refuse to link (you know, the ones that go, hey, let’s exchange links, send me the link, you add them, they don’t for months and months, you remind them, and they go, “oh, you write FICTION and I only have copy writers on my links” or “oh, you do BUSINESS WRITING, I only want novelists” — those people.
Buh-bye.
But I find that visiting around blogs and finding them and building up relationships and being active on forums that genuinely interest me instead of “what do I think I can get out of them” gets me both a higher volume of traffic and more return traffic.
I think if one just works in terms of numbers and “gimme”, one winds up turning off an audience that can be much more diverse if you let it.
I talk about a ton of different things on the blog that affect my writing life, and I get some very interesting hits from unusual sources. Many of them stick around. I’m getting quite a few who never read a writer’s blog before they came across mine, but found me due to one of my other interests and stuck around.
Just because I don’t see a financial return in a week doesn’t mean I’m not building a strong foundation and following so that, when I’ve got the relocation done and I’m traveling to do workshops and book tours and whatever — I’ll have a strong base wherever I want to go. I’m building relationships with actual, interesting, unique individuals and that is more important than any number.
To me, that’s worth more than anything.
Example: one of my racing articles last year got one million hits in the first 24 hours, and the clicks back to my blog went up by 10K that week.
I’m surprised how many people stuck around. Plenty of people don’t comment regularly, but they do email me privately.
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I like to increase my site page rank. I will follow your instruction. Thanks
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Hi, Kristen!
I used to check my numbers religiously every day. I manage two blogs, one of which was mentioned in the New York Times, so I got to be pretty obsessed with my rankings. When I had to take a hiatus for a week, though, and realized just what an unexpected relief it was to not have my ego tied to whatever numbers appeared on my stats, I stopped being so fanatic about it and am now only checking once every week or so. I don’t post as often as I used to (although it’s still at least 3x/week) but — and here’s the weird part — I find that the number of readers/subscribers hasn’t dropped at all.
I’ve no real burning desire to be a major player in the blogosphere. It began as a way to share some of my writing experiences to kindred spirits, and while sometimes I can get carried away with some of the hype about bloggers who achieve fortune and glory, in the end I have to remember that my true passion is writing, not search engine optimization.
Having said that, I sooo admire those who can make a decent wage out of blogging. I certainly wouldn’t turn down an opportunity to do so if it were offered to me! And I love reading about your own successes online and am in awe of your fantastic multitasking abilities. I suck at multitasking myself — ask anyone who’s ever had the misfortune of having to work with me — and admire those who can.
Cheers,
Marjorie
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Wow! I think this is a great accomplishment considering you were busy doing other things. :) SEO is something I still need a lot of work with (and education about). I have no idea how any of it works, but I know it is beneficial to learn.
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Congratulations. Sorry to respond so late, but I have been on a signing tour. One consideration that I find a bit perplexing: my site http://www.retirement-writing.com
has reached page one of search engines rather quickly. The problem is, however, the limited number of people who search specifically for the phraseology to which my subject limits me. The two individual words “retirement” and “writing” are great, but I would drown in the vast number of posts. Relate that to your blog. How many searchers would use InkThinker as a search phrase? We’ve really got to be creative and find right “door openers.” Apparently you’re right on that track. Good going!