Here are the 5 most popular articles that I’ve written this year. This is according to google analytics and is based on pageviews. I selected the time period January 1, 2009 to April 20, 2009 for top content and then scanned the list.
Some of my most viewed articles were written last year. I have skipped over those and am only including the popular ones from 2009.
- 4 Sites To Help You Decide What Book To Read Next – At the time I just threw this article together from some bookmarks I had and because I like to read. It got stumbled and the stumble traffic on it has not subsided. It goes up and down and then someone else discovers it and the traffic picks up again. Unfortunately, stumble visitors rarely (never) leave a comment so I don’t get the chance to interact with any of these visitors. And, apparently, trying to decide what to read next is a bigger issue that I realized. ;-) Sometimes I really like a book and want to read something similar but generally I select my next book my grabbing one off of the teetering piles in my room.
- 6 WordPress Book and Notebook Themes – Most of the traffic to this article has come from search engines. People are searching on wordpress book theme, wordpress notebook theme, wordpress themes notebook, etc. Again, based on the search interest more could be written on the topic and there seems to be enough interest it create this type of WordPress theme.
- 7 WordPress Photoblog Themes – This article is almost as popular as the one on notebook and book themes and again, it is from search engine traffic. I suppose if I ever create themes to download on this site that I will either do one for photos or for books. ;-)
- WordPress Login Security – Ok – I’m surprised by this one because the article is just one week old. Looks like security is a hot topic and can definitely be expanded upon.
- 8 WordPress Plugins for Building a Videogame Site – This article is also getting traffic from search engines. There didn’t seem to be all that much interest in it when I first published the article but that may be because most of my regular readers aren’t interested in the topic. I definitely need to analyze this in more detail because I love video games and would really enjoy writing more on the topic.
There are couple of interesting things here. 4 out of the 5 articles are lists. I’ve frequently read that people like blog posts with numbered lists and this seems to show that is true. Another thing that intrigues me is that what I consider to be my best articles is very different than the articles that are getting the most pageviews. And, the articles with the most comments are also quite different than the ones with the most traffic.
Do you find this to be the same on your site? Maybe not. I don’t write with SEO in mind – I just write about what I’m thinking about or what I’m working on.
photo credit: neil-san
Interesting. I don’t think I would have guessed these. I think like you were saying my mind was going towards the ones I remembering having the most comments.
You’re right. People love lists. I’m a sucker for them. :-)
Hi Jim – The results were surprising. I knew, however, about the 4 books sites article because that is getting a lot of hits everyday.
I think you could make a list about almost anything and people would read it.
That’s how i write Kim. And traffic comes through search engines mostly on posts that i just wrote. Posts that i really put some effort to it don’t get as much attention… Anyways keep writing what you like and forget about SEO… :P
stratosg´s last blog post – Make your #FollowFriday easy!
Hi Stratos – I don’t really think too much about SEO when I write. I try to put keywords in the title and the beginning of the article but I am also aware that what I’m writing about has a very narrow audience. Plus I firmly belief that the best SEO tactic is to write quality content.
When you say “popular” you mean on the basis of raw visits to the posts on your site, I presume? You’re not including the many who will read your posts in a news aggregator or “syndicated” on other sites or grab the gist of each from a social media update etc…you could be even more popular than you know. But, for a neat twist on this kind of post how about a side-by-side top 5? Top 5 based on web visits vs Top 5 based on RSS?
Hi David,
I asked you about this a little but on Twitter today but I have to say this didn’t even occur to me. I guess I don’t think about RSS viewers too much because I don’t have many subscribers. I’m stuck at 250 like I was stuck at 100. Maybe you should write the article ;-)
I tend to get the most search engine traffic on posts I do about food. Lots of people searching for the calorie content of dried cuttlefish.
I think my most trafficked blog post is the one about the Slanket. I wrote that in October before the Snuggie became ubiquitous. Looks like I bet on the wrong blanket with sleeves. Sniff.
Tracy´s last blog post – My values are what motivate me
Hi Tracy – Really? I wouldn’t have thought many people would be searching on cuttlefish at all. It’s a bizarre world that I just don’t get.
Sorry about the slanket experience.
I absolutely agree. My favorite posts are very different than the most popular posts. I wrote a post a few months ago about funny ads – it got 100,000 page views. It’s a silly post, really. But it worked on social media.
Vered – MomGrind´s last blog post – 54 Tips For Green Living – Earth Day 2009
Hi Vered – Wow! I think your one post has had as many visitors as I’ve had total ;-) It’s funny though – I’ll write something that I think is so great and no one responds to it and then I write what I conside a filler throwaway article because I didn’t have a lot of time and people really like it. I don’t think I could write for the masses consistently.
Great too see that the recent article on wordpress security is on the top 5 popular articles.
Nihar´s last blog post – Download Ashampoo Music Studio 2009 – FREE
Hi Nihar – Yeah – that one shot up to the top very fast. It makes me think that I should write more about security.
Maybe I will, although it looks like you cannot constrain Feedburner stats to a particular time period, which is a pain…
Hi David – Ugh … ok that would be a huge pain.
I think these lists articles gets a lot visits from social media sites as well as from search engines. WordPress themes is a nice search topic for many. Good to see that you are getting lot of search traffic from these
Madhur Kapoor´s last blog post – Optimize Your PC for Games with Game Booster
Hi Madhur – I haven’t done a themes article in a couple of weeks – I guess it’s time to do another one.
These look like some great articles that now I need to find time to read. Thanks Kim for the good links.
Sommer´s last blog post – What do you Know about Energy Circle?
Thanks Sommer :-) Time is always a problem …