Basically every blogger sees their traffic drop during the summer. This is an odd summer, and hopefully people are being careful with COVID-19, but plenty of people are still doing things. (And as long as you’re socially distancing, there’s no reason for you to not do things! But that’s not the point of this post.) That means that blog traffic is dipping, per usual. In this blog traffic report, I’m going to talk about what I did and didn’t (and should have!) do for my blog traffic in July. I made the mistake of being complacent. Don’t be complacent about blog traffic! Towards the end of this post, I’m sharing three easy blog traffic tips that I should have done, which makes them perfect for summer.
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Summer Blog Traffic Tips: Blog Traffic Report
Google Analytics Statistics
Page views: 10257 (-15.4% from July, -25% from last year)
Bounce Rate: 4.76% (+64.7% from July, -73% from last year)
Sessions: 9455 (-16.1% from July, +47.8% from last year)
Users: 6941 (-12.1% from July, +28.6% from last year)
Email subscribers: 714 (+0.7% from July, +3.4% from last year)
How I keep my bounce rate so low
Webhostinghub.com Statistics
Page views: 493,278 (+14.9% from July)
Sessions: 24,748 (+1.75% from July, -17% from last year)
Users: 11,371 (-5.7% from July, +516.9% from last year)
Social Media
Facebook: 1126 (+0.7% from July, +4.74% from last year)
Twitter: 3704 (+0.7% from July, +2% from last year)
Instagram: 3060 (-0.5% from July, +13.9% from last year)
Pinterest: 9945 (+2.6% from July, +15.7% from last year)
Tumblr: 3985 (no change from June, +0.9% from last year)
How I manage social media for my blog | How to get followers on Pinterest
Top Posts
- What Every POTS Patient Needs for the Summer
- POTS and Heat Intolerance
- The Products I Loved (And Wanted) in Grad School
- When Chronic Pain Becomes Too Much
- What Does Endometriosis Feel Like?
- 10 Things I Wish I Knew When I Received My Rheumatoid Arthritis Diagnosis
- Loving Someone with Chronic Pain
- 17 Modern Classic Novels
- 31 Historical Fiction Novels to Take You Back in Time
- Why Is Rheumatoid Arthritis Hard To Diagnose?
Top Sources of Traffic
- Pinterest (74.69%) – As always, Pinterest is my biggest source of traffic. This is due to a couple of things. 1) I treat Pinterest like a search engine because it is one. 2) I’ve been utilizing Ell’s Pinterest Course since I completed it in February. Like I’ve said before, it isn’t fair for me to share what I’ve learned from it for free. But I really suggest going through this course! It’s less than $45. And one reason why my traffic might be lower this month might be because I took a few days off for the 4th of July and then 5 days off for my infusion, and during all of those days, I didn’t do a daily task that Ell suggests you do.
- Facebook (7.27%) – So this is really interesting to me! I don’t really know why Facebook brought me so much traffic in July (749 page views) compared to June (279 page views). I did the same stuff in July that that I did in June, which is generally participating in Facebook pages for bloggers and promoting posts on my Facebook page.
- Search engines (6.91%) – This is about the same as last month, which was 6.12%. I try to use SEO in at least half of my blog posts, and it definitely shows.
This does not include direct traffic.
How to use Pinterest for blog traffic | How to use SEO to stand out
Summer Blog Traffic Tips: What I’ve Learned This Summer
What I did
- How I promote my blog posts
- Big thing: setting up blogging resources email course
- Created a hashtag on Twitter with my friend Kayle – #DisabilityIsntAShame
- Ran an ad on Pinterest
- New free printable, and my first one in a while that doesn’t require people to sign up for my newsletter
How to get the most out of Tailwind for Pinterest
I haven’t seen results from
- Pinterest ad – This is actually unclear. I did get a fair amount of hits from this Pinterest ad (more than I would have if I hadn’t done this ad), but my blog traffic still dipped.
What I can learn this month
- Your blog won’t grow in the summer unless you’re actively trying to grow it – The summer is the hardest time to grow your blog, no doubt. But I definitely was complacent about traffic. I could have done more, but I didn’t. So why did I think I would have grown my traffic this month while not doing too much? That being said, let’s get into what I should have done in July.
- What I should have done (aka my three easy summer blog traffic tips):
- Update older blog posts – This is such a simple thing to do that can make a big difference. Which is why – spoiler alert for August’s traffic report – I’ve been updating older posts this week. Just little things here and there can help! Adding more accurate information, working on SEO on a post, adding an image, etc.
- Make a roundup blog post – Another simple thing! Make a new blog post a roundup post, aka make a post full of links to other blogs and/or websites within a certain topic.
- Try joining a new Tailwind Community or leaving one that isn’t doing great for you – You pay Tailwind your money, so if a Community isn’t working for you, you should leave it and try another. Or if you’re happy with your current Communities and you have an open Community slot, try joining a new one. When you’re in a Community in Tailwind, on the left-hand side, there is a little box that says “Your Results.” It shows how many re-shares (within the Tailwind Community) you’ve gotten, how many repins (in Pinterest itself) you’ve gotten, and the potential reach of your pins from that Community. If you’re not happy with those results, do something about it.
Why isn’t my blog getting traffic?
July Goals
- 4 blog posts – Successful!
- Keep blog traffic stable – Not so much. Oh well!
August Goals
- 4 blog posts
- Grow blog traffic
Meet the Clean Beauty Gals!
I want to introduce you guys to the Clean Beauty Gals. Jessica, Sara, and Michelle run the blog Clean Beauty Gals (cleanbeautygals.com) and are, as you can tell by their blog name, passionate about clean beauty. They created their website to help you demystify the confusing clean beauty space and detoxify your routine one product at a time. If you’ve ever wondered what “clean beauty” is or why certain things are ok or not, their blog is for you. Check them out!
What has your blog traffic looked like this summer?
Like this post? Check out:
What Blogging Platform Should I Use?, The Dos and Dont’s of How To Get Your Blog Noticed, Why Isn’t My Blog Getting Traffic?, 8 Ways To Blog Better
Kate Mitchell is a blogger, chronic illness patient, and advocate who helps people understand chronic illness and helps chronic illness patients live their best lives.
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