Time for a Rebuild

So I have been doing most of my blogging on my other blog, Comparative Geeks. And honestly, the schedule we have set up for ourselves has been great – we post three times a week each, my wife and I, and so I am writing much more often than I had been. Which feels at least a bit like the answer to the question of why a writer should have a blog.

So I could just write this one off and walk away, I suppose. But that’s not what I’m thinking. Because now that Comparative Geeks has traction and is off and running, it’s time to come back here. Because people are finding Comparative Geeks. With search engines, through WordPress, through Facebook and Twitter and Google+… the things I have learned have come together to a solid 20-30 views a day. Obviously, we would like to see that reach more, but that means more thinking and research and experimenting needs to happen… and that’s what this blog is for.

Because this is a blog about blogging and writing.

Facts. Found on http://www.geek.com/geek-cetera/social-media-explained-with-donuts-1466613/

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

So first, this blog seems not to come up in any searches. And from the meta-data work I have put into Comparative Geeks, I think I can see why. The tags I use on this blog are few and far between. My categories don’t mean much of anything.

This needs to change.

I’m curious whether I should go back and edit my old posts? Actually thinking I will. I am thinking that tying this blog far more into being my brain-child is what I need. And that is something I’m thinking of literally. I’m thinking my categories – and top menu options – should be my Myers Briggs categories. Then, my column items should lead out to my other projects – my writing on Tumblr, my writer’s Twitter, Comparative Geeks, these sorts of things.

Then, for tags, these need to be descriptive of the topics I am covering. Like Comparative Geeks, that means that sometimes there will be a ton of them. I will also aim, here especially, to play into more of the common tags from WordPress, and maximize referrals from that source.

So what do I think is helping our SEO on Comparative Geeks?

• Descriptive and many tags and categories
• Descriptive titles – some of my less-descriptive titles for posts have led to fewer reads. Then again, one of my most obtuse is my most read post – Character Studies Truncated. No joke. I think maybe the titles lead more to reads once someone is on the blog, and maybe less for web searches?
• Plenty of headings – these are important items in the post, right? I learned these matter, and they don’t seem to be hurting.
• Using pictures – because I’ll bet you that post I mentioned earlier is being found in image searches, not word ones.

So here’s the thing – I’m not doing much of any of that here. Thus my thoughts on a redesign – start to do these things, and see if that increases traffic here on DBCII. Because then, I can report back and talk about what, of these things, is working.

Also, as I go back through posts, I’ll need to add the “more” function – so I can track which posts, if any, people are reading. Because I had not found that earlier, and so often it looks like people are just on the home page – where they could be reading anything and everything, and I wouldn’t know it!

RELATED ARTICLES

So this is something I have seen recently, and in particular found because others had linked back to us! Including related articles at the bottom of your post. Now, in some ways, this feels like I would be increasing my reading work rather than writing work. However, it can also help make my posts more relevant and informative, and it helps build community. Since for right now, this blog is for musings, I may not include this here. However, it may not be a bad idea for Comparative Geeks on occasion, to tie-in with the things we are already seeing other blogs reading and writing about. So we may start doing this, and I’ll report back later!

UPPING THE ANTE NOT ONLY HERE, BUT ON TUMBLR

As I increase my activity here, I want to also return to my largely neglected Tumblr. Now that I have a groove writing blog posts, it’s time to get back in a groove – several years gone – of writing fiction. I have my short fiction plans which have not yet gone anywhere – although I do have the pictures I wanted and needed to do what I want with my first Tumblr short story, The Mists of Juneau.  So I want to start there.

However, I’m also thinking of linking this blog and my Tumblr more closely together, and posting my blog posts there. Feels a little useless, since I don’t think I have any followership there yet. However, it will increase content there, and frequency of posting, which will keep it more active and interesting. Speaking of, I will likely do some re-blogging here on this blog, both full texts of posts I have written on Comparative Geeks, and link-style of posts I find on other blogs. So expect more here on DBCII!