With the year drawing to a close I’ve been taking a look at some of our search traffic over this year, as well as how our blog has performed. The two are quite closely linked. Why? Because a blog post, which is written with relevant keywords in mind, as far as titles, excerpts and content goes is a great way of getting traffic into the site. As a business, we may not have found our niche yet as to what we want to blog about, but it’s clear some things work better than others. So what are they?

Sharing knowledge

Ian has written a couple of posts this year on his experiences with both Cufon and BuddyPress. These have attracted a lot of traffic. They help establish a level of authority in an area and they open up an opportunity for dialogue. We should do more of this sort of writing.

Commenting on current events

Two of the most successful posts we’ve written this year are on the back of two pieces of news, neither of which are directly related to our business. The issue of whether businesses need TV licences for their PCs and the effect of Swine Flu on business continuity. When there is interest in a specific area, weighing in with our opinion adds to the overall commentary and again encourages a dialogue.

Establishing our own voice

Blogging for miggle is not really a core activity. Yes, there’s a real value in it, but it’s part of what we do to talk about our work, our business, our opinions and experiences. All stuff which is good to write about, but which needs to find its rightful place alongside getting client work out of the door. So, finding our own voice as part of that takes a while, especially when we have more than one contributor to the blog. However, when we’ve written from the heart, the posts have done well. Like when I wrote about the person who tore down our sign!

Our traffic from search (well, we only looked at Google….)

In terms of what insights our search traffic has given us as to what potential customers are looking for, there are two big things we’ve seen, each of which have been supported by enquires coming directly into our office.

Monetise my website!

Firstly, site owners want to find ways of monetising their web traffic and online audiences. There’s a big ‘moon on a stick’ element to this in that they want ‘A list’ advertisers via a solution where the inventory is sold directly on their behalf in a way that gives them control over copy. Even so, its a legitimate business objective which there is a big demand for.

I think I might plan my next bit of web development!

Secondly, the number of businesses that are showing a desire to understand their audiences and align their product requirements against the market objectives they uncover via a process which plans iterative developments is growing.

And finally….

The best, completely unrelated search term, on which we got a click this year was ‘Where can I find a bedroom in Hove I can rent by the hour.’ It’s reassuring to know, that if miggle were to go belly up, that there is a business opportunity here I can investigate.

Beyond that, our ten most popular blog posts this year have been:-

1. .tel domains: time to get excited (We’re still waiting for that excitement!)

2. Part time Production Assistant (Blogs are a great way to get company news out like this)

3. Building .tel websites

4. Why needing a TV licence for your work PC is a nonsense (a follow up post ot a bit of news that could affect businesses like miggle)

5. Recycling your audience (One of a series of web tips from miggle – althogh it got traffic from people looking for recycling websites)

6. Peopleperhour – the good the bad and the ugly

7. Building social networks in open source CMS

8. Use any font on your website with Cufon

9. Vacancy for a web producer

10. Online advertising space

Thanks for reading and commenting.

Based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.

The first of our miggle website fundamentals is: “The key to online success lies in understanding the audience for your business”. If you can crack this, then you’re onto a website winner.

Contrary to popular opinion, the streets of the superhighway are not paved with gold. Long gone are the days of glaring gaps in the market and websites that simply ‘manage themselves’. We’d place money on the Pareto principle striking here: with just a few well-managed e-commerce websites hoovering up 80% or more of online business, with most websites left out in the cold.

So why is this? Many site owners make the mistake of putting the cart before the horse online business-wise: coming up with an idea for an online business and immediately commissioning web design and development, without considering whether there will be a profitable audience for their business.

Avoid being an Internet also-ran

If your online business is going to actively compete in the race for ‘Net establishment, then you first have to know WHO you are trying to communicate with, e.g. persuade to buy your products or subscribe to your services, before you can work out HOW best to communicate with them through your website.

Internet megastars like Amazon and eBay have cornered their particular markets by being savvy about what their online users want. How did they find out what their potential users wanted? They asked them.

While smaller site owners may not have millions to invest in audience analysis; small scale market research and usability tests can reveal a lot of tendencies, common assumptions and even eccentricities within your target audiences and allow you to change and develop your site accordingly.

You may be wondering how this affects the bottom line. Well, in a recent study, online test shoppers were only able to complete half of the shopping tasks given them, due to confusing or inefficient websites. If you’re losing 50% of your potential sales, that’s a lot of revenue down the pan and, also, a lot of aggrieved customers who won’t be returning to your site.

How migglemedia can help your online business succeed

At migglemedia, we pride ourselves on our understanding of online audiences and spend the extra time getting to know all our clients’ networks and audiences, so we’re well placed to offer strategic insights. We can analyse your website statistics, conduct user surveys, focus groups, ethnographic research and usability studies: all designed to give you a clearer picture of your audience and how your site is perceived by your current and target audiences. This then allows our team to advise you on exactly how you can improve your online properties to meet the aspirations of your current users and build a bigger, and more profitable, online audience.

Based in the UK’s silicon city – Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.