One of the most irritating things about the emails I get saying my blogs’ SEOs could be improved, so I could get much more traffic, is that the sender clearly hasn’t read my blog, though they sometimes claim to have “analysed” my site(s). In the first place I don’t want “more traffic”; in the second if I did need advice on improving the SEO (I do know quite a bit about the subject) I have two delightful lady followers in Bucharest, who do read my posts regularly, to whom I would go. Anyway, I write whatever comes into my head and analysing it for SEO etc would spoil the whole blogging process for me. Of course, if my blog(s) were about promoting a business I’d have a different attitude
Why not more traffic?
Why don’t I want more traffic? Because I try to go to the blog of every blogger who follows me or leaves a ‘like’ and, even more so, who leaves a comment and, if I decide to follow them, to each of their posts; I just could not handle a very large number as some bloggers seem to do. Moreover, this gives what is, for me, an ideal way of adding to the list of blogs which I follow. As I’ve said before, I don’t put likes or comments on the summary in reader; I go to the actual blog, so it could become too time-consuming if I followed very many people. In fact I could prune the present list a bit as some seem no longer to be blogging.
Reblogs
I rarely read reblogs and even more rarely reblog. If I want to promote a post I will usually have something to say about it and urge my readers to have a look at it, giving a link to the blog. Reblogging seems to me a bit lazy.
Blog ‘chats’ rather than ‘comments’
An additional factor is that I enjoy having a ‘chat’ with the other blogger, when I have something to say. If not I might just put a ‘like’ on the post. Occasionally I may add a one word comment. However the ‘chats’ can sometimes develop into a series of ‘comments’ and ‘replies’. From time to time the exchanges can become too personal, in my view, to be public so may transfer to email. All this means that following a large number of bloggers is not possible, for me.
SEO? Mine may not be as good as they could be but are good enough for me.
September 30, 2017 at 8:02 am
Yep. As you say, someone promoting their business via their blog would need to have a different attitude. But for the rest of us, it seems like a materialistic rat-race approach: “I’ve fallen below 200! OMG! I must do something about it!” OMG? WTF.
September 26, 2017 at 1:43 pm
I’ve just been reading my spam folder looking for lost comments. I came away cursing SEO emails, particularly the ones that told me my content needed freshening up.
I’m currently struggling to read all the blogs of people who read me regularly so agree you don’t need too many.
September 22, 2017 at 2:15 pm
Great topic, Roger! Indeed, I get a lot of those, too, and sometimes they are not labelled as spam. Because I have 3 sites, I get a lot of “exposure” :). What strikes me as odd for these typical “offers” is that their own webpages are very hard to find. As for me I would write my webpages on fences 🙂 if that is possible. Of course we want more traffic, but what kind of traffic, as if I sell services on the Romanian market, I do not care about traffic from overseas…
Anyway I disregard all emails selling services from “dubious” addresses, or emails without an obvious webpage to find out more info.
If for my sites I am always with an eye on SEO and their performance, with my blog I do not employ too much SEO because it is about writing to write better, writing to meet wonderful people (like you :)), writing to feel better, chatting with people with different outlooks on life, and travelling vicariously all over the world. In one word, fascinating!
September 22, 2017 at 3:16 pm
Thanks Iulia. I summarise my blog-writing approach by saying I try to write for people, not machines. In my last job, for a charity which included creating and writing a blog to promote its services, I was of course writing very much with SEO in mind though I was never entirely happy with the result from a writer’s point of view.
September 20, 2017 at 7:42 pm
Great read. we use SEMRush at work and working in marketing I get these emails all the time. and toxic backlinks – ugh. I definitely agree about engaging with your viewers.
September 20, 2017 at 7:58 pm
Thank you. I’ve just had a short browse on your blog. It’s great, though I’m not vegan. I was in marketing, ran my own marketing communications consultancy, but that was before internet really got going. I’ll go back to your blog soon and probably have more to say there.
September 20, 2017 at 8:14 pm
Thanks for the reply. I’m not vegan either, although I do collaborate and partner with companies to showcase their products to the appropriate audience. I’m actually a flexitarian, so I eat poultry and seafood – just haven’t touched red meat since the age of 12. Nothing against anyone’s food choices though, just my own.
September 22, 2017 at 3:47 pm
I’d never heard the term ‘flexitarian’ before! We are ‘veggie’ on Wednesdays and Fridays (it should be vegan but isn’t always). I got used to it when I lived in Romania; a large proportion of Romanians are Orthodox Christians and that stipulates a ‘fast’ – no animal products – on those two days. Now I do it as I reckon it’s good to omit the meat a couple of days a week though on other days I eat pretty much anything. Tonight, Friday, it’s ‘bean stew’ – I love it.