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Don’t Over-Estimate Your Traffic

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Blog Traffic

Blogging is more and more about taking advantage of what you have. Even if you have a small reader base to work with, you’re going to want to use that base to its full extent. This is normal. But this situation also demands that you handle what little traffic you have delicately.

Confused?

When you try to turn your traffic into more than just readers, you over-estimate them. Instead, you should keep it simple and not force your readers to do what you want them to do. Let it happen naturally.

Want to keep visitors on your site? Do you want to maximize conversion rates? Do you want more traffic? No problem. Just don’t expect to much of whoever visits your blog.

Keep It Simple, Stupid! (KISS)

The easiest and most effective way to get your readers right where you want them without overwhelming them is to keep it simple for them.

You can try simplifying your sidebar or minimizing your footer. Remove those ugly Feedburner subscriber count buttons and those useless Twitter follower count buttons. If you insist on bragging about your dedicated subscribers and followers, replace those buttons with real clean text that actually matches the rest of your blog. (like FamousBloggers did in their header)

Don’t Pester Your Readers

Stop nagging your readers. Don’t bug them to buy a product, subscribe, or sign-up to your newsletter (or something similar) too much, or it’ll just make it that much easier to press the close button on your website.

Instead of bothering your visitors, you should simply focus on making it easy to turn traffic into conversions, if and only if a visitor feels compelled to do so.

Only tell your readers to buy your product if they show an interest in it. For example, if a visitor is on your actual product page, you can go crazy with the nagging. But don’t when the only thing your visitor wants to do is read your content. That’ll drive your visitors away faster than you’ll believe.

Provide Easy Navigational Control

A great way to increase conversion rates is to make it easy for your visitors to navigate through your website using a navigation bar and search form. This also makes your website look much more sizable.

Search is the only way to find what you’re looking for on a blog quickly and efficiently, and I feel that it can’t be said enough to keep your search form visible. The same goes for your navigation bar, obviously.

Another way to provide a powerful navigation system to your website is to link often. Link within your content, link within your sidebar, link within your footer. Link, link, link. Links are just what visitors need to effectively do more on your website. Internal links also positively affect your search engine rankings, so that each of your pages has some link juice to share.

Don’t Provide Too Many Options

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by a blog because there was just too much to absorb? Chances are, we all have. Blogs like this are overkill and don’t let the reader easily find what they really want. Don’t be one of them. This is all part of keeping it simple and minimizing what a visitor has to go through to find what they’re looking for.

The average internet user attention span is about 2 seconds. (actually, I’m not sure what the real number is, but you better bet that it’s low) You have to capture your reader within those short seconds. So don’t expect too much of your traffic. Don’t expect them to want to read your content after being forced to face a terribly-written sales pitch. Because if you do, you’ll just end up disappointed.

Your turn! Drop us a comment. All right! Drop us a comment please.

About

Karan Singhal is a well-known professional search engine and social media optimizer. He founded the Trafficke SEO Consulting Firm. He also shares more advice at the Trafficke Blog

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{ 33 Responses }

  1. Orlando says:
    I think Google has changed their algorithm again so it is a guessing game at this point.
  2. Izwan says:
    great! i lke the part do not force reader for something that they don't to do it.. clearly example is force reader to click their ads..
  3. Tom says:
    Great post. It really gives us a good idea on how we should be designing our websites, which we tend to overlook. This is really an eye opener for me, I have to admit.
  4. abhishek says:
    The key to converting traffic in my sense and as suggested here in the article as well is to keep it as user friendly as possible at the same time provide information judiciously that it can convert the traffic. Like for example I never heard of this blog 2 days back but the way the contents are presented and interlinked I had been addicted to this site. I wish this blog all the best and i have been learning with every post so a big Thanks to the owners.
  5. Melinda says:
    I love KISS! I agree. Sometimes I get out of control on a site and add too much stuff. It's a good idea to occasionally try to view your site as if you were a first-time visitor and clear out a few things.
  6. Luqman says:
    I think is a site or blog should be simple but not too simple t the same time. You need things like tweet button and other to light up the blog or site.
  7. Colleen says:
    Very good Karan. The point on simplifying the sidebar is one we are currently doing. In fact, we moved it further down so our visitors will have limited options. KISS is a good strategy.
  8. Rommel says:
    Keeping your content organize and have an enough white space that not overwhelm your readers will improve your conversion rate. The first one you must achieve is that you give your readers useful and unique information. In that way you earn their trust.
  9. Sachin says:
    You have post a very interesting topic thanks for brief, consice and making it simple and understandable. :) ;)
  10. Julia says:
    Good option to choose, and the point is make it simple and easy for the first time visitor. Great article indeed.
  11. Kimi says:
    Great points! At the beginning of blogging, i used to have fancy stuff in my sidebar, they indeed look coolers, but then i decide to remove most of them, and only keep the most useful widgets for my sidebar :)
  12. Laura Davis says:
    Navigatability (is that a word?) is key. That's one of the things Google ranks you on. So the easier to use your page is, the higher your page rank will go. Have a friend go through your site and point out confusing navigation errors. And then fix them! Great post. Most people don't apply the first principle, KISS, enough.
    • Karan Singhal says:
      Thanks for your thoughts Laura. As webmasters, we see our sites very differently than the average user. Getting a friend that isn't as big an expert as you when it comes to making money online is the perfect solution. -Karan Singhal
  13. Bryan says:
    Karan nice post. Hmm, but on a few matters like the buttons you mentioned. I think the feedburner count button can be there. Twitter follower count buttons are subjective. I personally don't think they serve any purpose. I really can't be bothered if a person has 100 followers of 100 000 followers.
    • Karan Singhal says:
      The button is useful sometimes, but it is a good example of what can appear in a cluttered sidebar.
  14. Sandeep says:
    I agree with you Karan. Sidebar should not be a mess. Any page on your blog should be reached in 3 clicks(3 click rule: read it somewhere) which makes it easy for your reader. And @Dave is right.
  15. ashok says:
    I've been waiting to read a post like yours for a while - a lot of the blogs I'm commenting on seem to have no problem bugging me the second I'm on the page. There's already a pop-up asking me to subscribe (before the blog even tells me what it is about), and the buttons, ads and widgets are much larger than the content. I'll say this: the way you get things like conversions or subscribers is by getting your general traffic up to a certain level, and that takes more than time. It takes a little bit of luck. I think a lot of us are going through depressed traffic this summer - the effort being put forth now is not necessarily going to make one a millionaire, so a bit of patience might be required.
  16. Aaron says:
    Karan, I agree with not giving too many options. I often see blogs with crazy navigation menus and a sidebar that scrolls down 4 pages. It needs to be kept simple as you point out. Good tips and good luck!
    • Karan Singhal says:
      Exactly. People are too absorbed with making their blog look good that by adding more options for the reader, they're just making it harder for them to stay on the site.
  17. christopher says:
    Yep, I couldn't agree more. Keeping a site simple and to-the-point is the way to go. Give your readers too many options and they are going to wander like nomads through your site.
  18. Andreas says:
    For me the important part is always the content itself. If the content is not splitted into paragraphs and without any headings or bold characters and all in one piece I usually do not bother to read (even though it could be a nobel-prize-worthy article, who knows..)
  19. Nick W Bennett says:
    ahhh yes; KISS is one of my favorite principles and I am constantly reminding my self of this. Love your blog as well.
  20. Wayne Howard says:
    I think I got lucky that the people visiting my site are pretty good readers. My bounce rate is about 23% right now, I just hope I can keep it that low because from what I hear that is pretty awesome bounce rate to have. I haven't been pushing subscriptions or anything but once I get my layout the way I want it, I have make a sign-up button more prominent.
  21. Robert says:
    You can immediately tell when a blogger is out to do nothing but sell you something. As soon as you land on the site your presented with a pop up, which in my case is a no no, I don't even think twice about the site, I just close it straight away While sites may gain more subscribers, these aren't true readers, the ones you want, are the ones who didn't sign up because of the pop up
  22. Julius Kuhn-Regnier says:
    I think that there are a lot of blogs that are simply trying to sell something to a visitor. And I don't think that that's the right. The person should be able to decide for himself whether he would like to buy a product or not.
  23. Chase Brumfield says:
    Keep it simple stupid is brilliant. I think sometimes we just get so excited about what we're creating that we want everyone who visits our blog to see EVERYTHING we've done. That's just asking too much from people. Simplicity is key. It's like writing... most people can write a two page paper, but there's only about a page of it that's actually really good. When in doubt, cut it out, that's my way at least. Sometimes it can be hard to part with "your baby." But in the end, people want to feel connected and don't want to have to work very hard for the connection. Give. Get. Give. Chase Brumfield
  24. Tia Peterson says:
    Is what you're talking about here a problem with blog design in general, or in the content? It seems to me like everything you're saying not to do is everything that all of the successful bloggers are doing. If blogs were just newspapers that people pick up, read, and toss, what would be the point? I think perhaps I'm missing what you're saying but if I'm reading it correctly you're not saying to get rid of the funnel completely, but just not to make the mistake of making your content all about subscribing, buying, following, etc. And I agree with that 100%.
  25. Chandan says:
    I have been working SEO for different niche website. There are different landing page for different keywords. For get traffic to different landing page we should place link to those landing page directly from homepage. It also helpful for optimize those landing page for SEO.
  26. Ryan Biddulph says:
    Hi Karan, I am sticking to your tips. I include links on my sidebar, few images and I keep things as clean and concise as possible. Simplicity is the way to go. Clutter fills the mind with unnecessary options. Better to direct readers while letting them make their own choices. Ryan Biddulph
    • Karan Singhal says:
      It's also the key to turning your traffic into more. Providing your visitors too many options with a complex design will only hurt you and the success of your blog in the long run. Thanks for your thoughts, Ryan! -Karan
  27. Justin Germino says:
    In agreement with what @Dave Lucas said here the more clean, elegant and simple the interface the better. I particularly don't like the pestering and this is one reason why I tend to not join many mailing subscriber lists of blogs.
  28. Dave Lucas says:
    My Two Cents... Forget about traffic and PR and Alexa! Just do your thing! Blog your heart and soul out, and make those connections, solidify those relationships online... in 6 months take a long, hard look at what you've accomplished and then take a look at your "stats." If you've been true to your aim in starting your blog, you will pleasantly surprised!