Q4 2020 Blogging Report – 400% Traffic Jump from Q3

First, I’d like to greet everyone with a Happy 2021! The best news is 2020 is over and if you’re reading this, I hope that you, your family and friends, and everyone close to you (including your pets) are all doing fine.

2020 has been very difficult for most of us. It’s a very challenging year and I’m so glad that it’s over. And since today is the beginning of a new quarter, I’m here to share with you guys my Q4 2020 Blogging Report.

A Brief Background

To those who are new to my blog, I started this blog last May 2019 and one of the things that I want to share is the performance of this blog and what I have been doing to keep on improving this.

I’d like to share the ups and downs of this blog so fellow bloggers could hopefully learn from what works and what didn’t work in my blogging journey.

If you’re interested to read my past blogging reports, just click on the links below:

• First Year Blog Anniversary – Lessons and Surprises
• Q2 2020 Blogging Report – Blog Improvements
• Q3 2020 Blogging Report – Stalled in Q3 and Wake Up Call

Amazing Traffic Jump

Traffic jumped from 4377 users in Q3 to 17,829 users in Q4. I know it’s not a big number compared to bigger blogs out there, but for me, it’s already quite huge since I don’t do this full-time, and there were months that I didn’t touch this blog.

My main gig is online selling and I do blogging on the side to keep myself focused on my financial goals.

Anyway, going back to the topic, I wasn’t expecting this huge jump in traffic but I’m so glad that it did.

It means that my articles are getting indexed and people find value in what I write

Here’s a snapshot of this blog’s performance last Q3:

 

And here’s a snapshot of this blog’s performance this Q4:

 

Blog Inputs

I have written fewer articles in the past two quarters mainly because I have been so busy with my main hustle which is online selling. And again, there were months when I didn’t write anything at all.

Q3 Number of Articles

• July: 4
• August: 0
• September: 0

Q4 Number of Articles

• October: 6
• November: 4
• December: 8

My goal was to write at least 2 articles per week so that’s 8 articles per month and I only met that goal in December.

I have decided to change my schedule so I can manage both my blogging goals and my online selling deliverables.

I also have not posted anything new on Pinterest and that’s something that I want to improve on as well this 2021.

What Works for This Blog

In the past 1 year and 7 months of blogging (minus 11 months of total inactivity LOL!), I can attribute the growth to the following:

Longtail Keywords

Longtail keywords just basically mean keywords with a lot of words in them.

For example, if I’m going to focus on the keywords “credit cards”, it will be close to impossible for me to rank in Google.

I will be definitely outranked by the bank’s websites and other major players in the financial industry targetting this keyword.

However, if I’m going to target longtail keywords such as “travel credit cards in the Philippines“ then I’ll have a better chance of competing against bigger websites in the SERPs.

To be honest, when I was first reading about this, it sounded so complicated, but when I actually did it, it’s actually not. It’s not rocket science.

Helpful Content

Targeting keywords is enough to reach new readers but helpful content makes them stay.

I learned this from online selling.

One of the keys to making something successful is to retain your customers.

In blogging, it translates to retaining your readers or audience.

If people find your content helpful, then they will keep on coming back.

Interlinking Articles

I don’t have much traffic success yet from social media, but I’m noticing that readers are clicking on my other articles linked to their article entry point.

This is a simple thing that you can do to help improve your page views. This is also helpful to your overall SEO.

Areas for Improvement

High Bounce Rate

I have read that the bounce rate should be at least 70% or lower for older blogs and 80% or lower for newer blogs.

My bounce rate is always hovering around 80% – 85% which is not good.

It means that users are just skimming through my post and just closing it afterward.

I have to improve my engagement and I have to improve my writing style to make it more engaging to readers.

Low Average Session Duration

Again, this is something that I want to improve on.

I find that 1 minute is quite fast to read an article with more than one thousand words.

It also boils down again to improving reader engagement.

Diversify Source of Traffic

My main source of traffic is Google and if Google doesn’t want my content anymore then I’m doomed LOL!

I want to build other sources of traffic such as Pinterest and other social media and this is something that I plan to improve on in 2021.

Consistent Production of High-Quality Articles

This is something that I have been falling behind on consistently in the past 6 months.

As I have mentioned above, I targeted 2 articles per week or 8 articles per month. Unfortunately, I only met this target last December 2020.

Monetization

Aside from Adsense, and some affiliate links from Amazon and other products and services here in my country, I don’t have a clear plan yet on monetization. The good news though is that as traffic grew in 2020 so did the Adsense revenue.

It’s not that much though, it’s still just at the level of just a few cents per day.

But, it’s better than nothing I guess and it’s also a proof of concept.

I have decided to put on hold my goal to monetize this blog (except for the Adsense ads) until I get to consistently write high-quality articles.

I’m inspired by one of the PF bloggers that I follow on Twitter.

Don’t stress about how to have a successful year.

Instead, focus on how you can optimize your schedule and your habits to have a successful week.

Then, repeat that week 52 times.

The successful year will take care of itself.

— Four Pillar Freedom (@4PillarFreedom) December 31, 2020

If you are not following him yet on Twitter, I suggest that you do so.

 

Overall 2020 Blog Performance

The blog is slowly climbing the traffic chart and I’m so happy about it.

Here’s a snapshot of its 2020 users/traffic performance:

Final Thoughts and My Blogging Plan for 2021

I have some new content ideas for 2021 and I’m very excited about them.

My overall goal is still the same, and that is to continuously grow the traffic of this blog and to improve my writing skills.

Hopefully, after 2021, I will have a better idea of monetization.

But for now, my main focus is to keep on writing SEO-optimized, high-quality content that people will find very useful.

Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog and I’m wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous 2021!

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