NOT a Guru!
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
As a “Not Guru,” I believe in showing instead of telling you that stuff works. At the end of this post, I’ll show you some amazing statistics on a site that’s barely a month old.
But first, let’s take a look at our “newbie sites.”
Over the past few weeks, we’ve taken a step-by-step look at building two brand new websites for a couple of my friends who had never had a website before. Both sites featured a static html page on the front end and a blog, using the amped up Wordpress software that Jeff Johnson gives away. The free software is called SEO Blog Software and I highly recommend it.
Absolutely no marketing has been done at this stage. We’re going to start basic marketing next week, and I’ll keep you posted. But for now, it’s quite interesting to see how well both are doing in terms of traffic, which I think has to do with the SEO Blog Software and constantly updated content.
Site #1, Completed on January 6, 2009.
The first site was finished on January 6, 2009. It has to do with antiques and collectibles and its owner, Elaine, has been faithfully blogging. The blog is also receiving content from Article Marketing Automation. You can take a look at the site at AntiquingWithDecoDiva.com.
I’m writing this post on February 7.
First of all, using the SEO Quake plugin for Firefox, you can see Elaine’s indexed page status. Her site is just a month old and already 297 pages are indexed with Google. Another 25 are indexed in Yahoo and 52 are indexed in MSN.
The following screen shot comes from Elaine’s control panel. You can see the URL on the top as proof that this is her site. She’s had 121 unique visitors in the first 7 days of February. Unique visitors refers to different computers, different IPs. It is a much more accurate depiction of web traffic than hits.
As you will see below, Elaine had 242 unique visitors in January. She has half that much already this month, so I suspect that her visitor count should be at least 700 or 800 unique visitors in February … probably more, since we’re going to start marketing this month.
Search engines love fresh content, and the way to deliver it is with a blog. Here’s a picture of the search engine bot activity so far today. Google’s bot seems to be the most enthusiastic!
Finally, here’s a snapshot of how people are finding Elaine’s site, based on the keywords that they are using in the search engines.
Site #2, Completed January 31, 2009.
Followers of this blog have been watching the second “newbie” site, CalmingFood.com, get constructed last month. It was completed on January 31, 2009. Using unique content and content from Article Marketing Automation, the site now has 71 pages indexed in Google, 72 pages indexed in Yahoo and 3 pages indexed in MSN.
Here are the unique visitors this month, as reported from Laura’s control panel. I left the URL in the screen shot so that you can see that I am accurately reporting the control panel.
So far this month, Laura’s brand new site has had 103 unique visitors, which will soon surpass her visitors from last month. Last month’s visitors were coming from this blog and, as I was integrating the SEO blog, from the search engines right away. As I mentioned before, Jeff’s SEO Blog Software is so powerful that you’ll have visitors to your website before your site is completed.
As with Elaine’s site, the search engine bots just love her blog and keep coming back for more fresh content. Google is the most active.
For a brand new site, it’s interesting to see that Laura is getting visitors from the search engines already. Here’s a screen shot of her keywords and phrases.
A Testament to Jeff Johnson’s Free SEO Blog Software.
Here’s another site, which I threw together, with a static front page and a blog using the free SEO blog software. To unleash the power of the software, I also purchased Jeff’s affiliate traffic machine. You’ll see a link for the software when you install the free blog software. I started the site two days before Christmas but didn’t have time to finish it until January 10, 2009. Back in December, I was amazed to see search engine traffic coming in before the site was even finished. Now, less than a month after completion, 1,720 pages are indexed in Google, 173 indexed in Yahoo and 73 pages in MSN.
For the first 7 days of February, the site has received over 1700 unique visitors. It’s an ugly-looking site, but is very keyword driven. It’s the words, not the appearance, that are going to deliver traffic to your web pages.
I was surprised to see a huge surge in traffic on Febraury 4 … 782 visits in just one day. Remember, this is a new site. I had “stumbled” it back in January, so I am not sure why there was such a surge on the 4th; nonetheless, this is incredible and truly a testament to Jeff’s software.
Like the other sites, the search engines love the constant updates that are fed through the blog. As usual, Google is really eating it up.
Here are some of the keyphrases that are driving traffic to the site. It receives commissions every single day. Not bad for a new site, eh?
Conclusion.
Even without marketing, Jeff Johnson’s free SEO blog software will drive traffic to your brand new website. Quite frankly, I don’t understand why anyone would not use it. Updating your content regularly is essential to getting web traffic, and using great keywords will unleash your site’s potential. Don’t waste your time dinking around with graphics and javascript on your sites … make your site reasonably presentable with good navigation, add a blog, add steady content, and research your keywords.
Resources:
- Jeff Johnson’s Free SEO Blog Software.
- Article Marketing Automation – it will feed fresh content into your blog. This link is for the free version, where you receive content.
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My sites have never been profitable. My parents owned a business around 20 years ago and I think it would have been so much more profitable had the internet been around. Which is why I make sure that my children know the importance of how to manage their <money even at an early age. Even if they only have $37 in their piggy banks it is good to talk to them about savings and financial responsibility.
What you are encourage your kids to do is good advice, Laurie. I do think your sites can become profitable. We’re going to be featuring some very basic, easy to follow “mom and pop” marketing tips and results on this blog, so please stay tuned!
ups excellent sir, reach that traffic only few time, i will try it for my blogs..
because i am a newbie too, i wish i can succes as you are, thanks alot