If I think back to one year ago today, I was starting to wonder if my new wordpress blog (TheFlooringGirl.com) was even worth it. I did a bunch of work to it during December, but it was the holidays, so traffic to the site was low and there was no way to tell if I was even going in the right direction.
When December finished, I had a whopping 235 unique visitors for the month. Well fast forward about 1 year later and I'm now getting around 13,000 unique visitors a month (a bit lower this month due to the holidays and being offline for 24 hrs as we switched hosting companies). But, overall, some pretty strong results. (and even stronger when you consider the phone calls...leading to about 5 appointments/week for the combo of my efforts across Active Rain, The Flooring Girl and my old site (about 2,000 visitors/month).
Looking back at 2012, I wanted to note my top 10 posts. These are based on clicks to my wordpress site, the majority coming from google searches (and without the help of an active Active Rain community nor features.
My hardwood flooring posts tend to do the best (and this is my focus) and apparently, I tend to do my best writing in the winter months and July. This probably has to do with having more thinking time during those time periods.
1. Red Oak Flooring vs White Oak Flooring - What's the difference? 15,446 clicks (written 1/8/12). This post is now getting around 2,000 hits/month, so if I project that out for 2013, I might receive around 24,000 hits for the year...I'll have to check next year to see the actuals. The article explains the 2 different species of oak hardwood.
2. Oil vs Water based polyurethane - what's the difference? 11,957 clicks (written 12/4/11). This is now getting around 1,900/month, so it might get 23,000 hits for 2013...if nothing else changes. This post seems to generate the most phone calls and emails - both local and out of towners. It really helps customers understand the pros and cons between these 2 types of polyurethane. Apparently, many flooring contractors don't explain this to their customers. I believe in education.
3. Can you change the color of your hardwood floors? 9,320 clicks (written 2/22/12). This is now getting a bit over 1,000 hits/month. Many don't realize that you can go from light to dark on the wood...once it's sanded, it's like raw hardwood again!
4. How long does it take to refinish hardwood floors? 7,946 clicks (written 6/3/12) showing results for a bit over 1/2 the year and is currently getting 1,400 hits/month. This explains how long it takes to refinish hardwood floors - most people don't realize and they really should plan ahead!
5. Hardwood Stain color trends 5,643 clicks (written 12/24/11) and now a rate of 750/month. Shows the hot stain colors especially for the Westchester market.
6. Should I refinish my hardwood floors or replace them? 4,803 clicks (written 1/21/12).
7. Kitchen flooring - Is hardwood or tile better? 4,631 clicks (written 2/5/12).
8. Hardwood flooring that is best for pets 4,008 clicks (written 7/26/11). This one wasn't doing as well as I thought it should (and it was from a year and a half ago). Part of it is because it was competing with another similar post I wrote on Active Rain 6 month earlier (and that post has over 9,600 hits. I knew it was an important question since many customers ask me about it, so I did a bit of research and I discovered that they search more often for "dogs." And, hence, the birth of the next post - new and improved.
9. Hardwood flooring that is best for dogs 3,986 clicks (written 7/22/12). This is the new and improved version and I used the term most often searched in google and it seems to be working. It's getting over 1,000 hits/month and is projecting to my top 5th highest post.
10. Dark hardwood flooring in westchester? 3,952 clicks (written 7/2/12). This is projecting to be my #7 post and I love this post because the customers that prefer dark hardwoods tend to my better customers (and those that are doing more renovations in their house).
If you like any of these flooring articles, and if you want to help me a bit with my SEO, it would great if you can +1 them or give them a thumbs up.
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