Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
8
You need to look closely at your search engine-based traffic. Often commentary, which is what most
blogs offer, is not what people are looking for—and it's hard to search for even if you do want it.
People more often want to buy products or get help with a product they already have.
Try to reverse engineer the needs people have from their search engine queries that bring them to
your blog. Figure out if these are sensible needs for your blog to meet, and if so, try to improve the
tie between people's search engine queries and the answers on your site.
If not, you have to somewhat discount your search engine-based traffic. People who come in on a
referral from another blog probably know what they're about to get—and will be happy to read a
posting or two, look around, and maybe even bookmark your blog or subscribe to an RSS feed. On
the other hand, people who come to your blog as part of a search and don't find what they want
aren't achieving their own purposes, nor helping you achieve yours either.
AdWords (see the sidebar) is another way to bring in traffic. The AdWords control panel is shown
in Figure 8.7.
Figure 8.7
AdWords is a
high-wire act
that can pay
off.
