It's time to reflect on my top articles for 2016, so I can learn and improve for next year. Yes, there are still another 11 days left in the year, and I'll update these numbers (as they will be a bit higher) soon.
In the meantime, below are my top 5 articles for the year (measured in clicks). Note these are clicks accumulated between Jan 1 - Dec 20, 2016 and these articles were written in various years.
By far, my #1 article was my 2016 Hardwood flooring trend post. This article has generated around 111,000 clicks. It did even better than my 2015 trend post (which generated around 64,000 clicks in 2015). As my website gains more traction, its authority in flooring builds.
1. 12 Hardwood flooring trends for 2016 111,000 clicks
2. Dark vs Light hardwood flooring - pros and cons 75,000 (written in 2015...took off this year)
3. Oil vs water borne polyurethane - which is better? 72,000 (written end 2011 and has over 205,000 clicks all time)
4. What type of sheen is most popular for hardwood? 63,000 (written in 2014 with 113,000 clicks all time)
5. Can you change the color of your hardwood flooring? 59,000 (written in 2012 with 160,000 clicks all time)
This really shows the power of writing evergreen articles (and epic posts) as they have real staying power. Some of these articles took a year or two before they gained traction and accelerated in the market place. I now have 10 articles that each have over 100,000 clicks. Hopefully, by end of next year, that number will be even higher.
Some tips:
1. Write amazing epic content. Write awesome key word rich titles.
2. Interlink articles - connect to other related articles (keeps people on your site longer and helps both articles). Link to them in new articles (just like I did here).
3. Update your top 5 to 10 articles every 6 months.
4. When you write an annual article (as I have done for my trend posts), go back to the previous year's article and link to the 2 one. The old article already has traffic and credibility in the search engines. Use this power to accelerate the success of your new one.
5. Include good images in your article. Break it up. Use alt tags on the pictures to help the pictures rank well. Include a featured picture (horizontal) and a vertical picture (for pinterest) - like the one on the right. And, pin these images on pinterest. Read this article for some tips on pinterest: 8 Insider pinterest tips to drive more traffic to your website.
6. Share your best articles on social media. And, reshare them over time. By the way, my top 2016 article has 1,900 social shares (1,200 of them on Pinterest).
It looks like I now need to get going on my 2017 trend article and see if I can out do myself.
What are your top 5 articles?
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