How I Increased Clicks On a Random Article By 1,000%
With proof and explanation
I’m thrilled to announce that one of the latest articles on my website has seen an incredible spike in clicks over the last 30 days.
To the tune of a 1,000% increase (per day).
What started out as just another article I wrote discussing an interesting topic, ended up becoming one of the most highly viewed content offerings for me this past month.
I’m truly honored and humbled by this unexpected surge in popularity and want to share some of the insights I learned from this experience.
First, Here’s the Proof
The proof is in the pudding, as they say.
Last week, I was excited to receive an email in my Gmail account that showed a screenshot of the trending article clicks.
It shows the potential power of content marketing.
Looking deeper into the data, the article is now getting over 1K searches per month.
It’s always good to have proof of your efforts, and this particular screenshot means a lot to me. Sure, anyone can fake an image but this screenshot is the real deal and the best evidence I’ve got of my successful endeavor.
With that said, let’s talk about how I think it happened.
What’s the Article About Anyway?
I won’t share the exact article — I don’t want competition — but I will say that it’s related to the proper way to say a common phrase.
For example, something like, “is the phrase home in or hone in.”
So, it’s about words, language, and simple expression.
You might be surprised at how often people look up this type of thing every day.
And how much money you can make as a consequence.
What Caused the Sudden Surge in Clicks?
According to the same email, Google suggested the reason might be twofold.
Here are the possible reasons:
- Modifications I made to my page’s content
- Increased interest in the topic
The first is that an edit I made to my page’s content may have caught readers’ attention and encouraged others to click through to my piece.
With some thoughtful changes, such as taking extra attention to keywords and reorganizing ideas, readers may have taken more interest in my article than before.
Similarly, a greater general interest in the topic of my article could be driving up the number of clicks because people found their way organically to my webpage.
Now, here’s what I think is the real reason.
Here Is the Real Reason (I Think)
It’s unlikely I’ll ever find the exact reason why my article had such a sudden spike in traffic, but likely it was the combination of factors.
Factors including:
- Age of the article
- Google search ranking
- Sudden topical trend
After writing the original article, I hadn’t made any recent modifications or updates; that wasn’t what brought readers to my page.
The content began as a simple piece explaining how to say something.
But with lots of examples and facts included — making it very thorough.
Initially, the topic was searched infrequently, and without much interest in the colder months (in particular now) as people were not looking for the information.
But articles tend to reach their max search volume somewhere within a year of publishing.
This article happens to be under a year old.
Meaning, it’s not too old and outdated but still not brand new or untested. It seems there is a slight upward trend which has caused more visitors to discover my article rather suddenly.
One can only hope that this newfound popularity continues.
Takeaways
There are a few takeaways to consider when it comes to creating successful content marketing campaigns.
To start, you want to make sure you identify a topic that has low competition but high search volume — look beyond the basic topics and think of more niche-related phrases that people may be searching for.
I like to use:
- Ahrefs
- RankIQ
- SearchResponse.io
- AnswerthePublic
- AnswerSocrates
- Google Autocomplete
Furthermore, you’ll want to write a helpful resource that covers the topic from top to bottom with lots of examples.
Anything you think people want to know, include it.
It’s also important not to get caught up in fluff or clickbait titles, as search engines tend to prefer quality content over flashy headlines.
Lastly, remember not to forget about the post after publishing.
Even if your post is doing well upon release, it’s generally recommended that you allow it time to age for up to a year before refreshing it with any new information or updates.
Final Thoughts
The Google algorithm changes constantly so there’s no telling which articles might take off and which ones may plummet.
The best thing you can do is to keep searching for good topics.
And then write the best damn articles you can.
Related posts:
- I Use the “Scary Hour” for Ultra Productivity in My Blogging Business
- How I Use Dark Horse SEO to Destroy My Blogging Competition
- The Image Tools I Use To Drive 120,000 Pageviews Per Month
Don’t miss my next writing article — sign up for my Medium email list
