Google has developed an application that allows bloggers to monitor the traffic to their website. The application in question is called Google Analytics. It is a powerful tool that gives you information on the origin of connections. Besides, it’s precise enough to give you the cities ! It’s quite funny sometimes to see that someone on the other side of the world has visited my site. I still do not think I have seen connections from Russia or China … I have to believe that my blog must deal with subversive topics and must be censored !
The most important thing in this app is the detail on the pages visited. In this case for my site, it is about the pages of blogs. There is very little passage on the portfolio part. I think it’s the blog part that brings traffic. I had discussed with a friend who was creating his website. He only wanted to highlight his portfolio on his site and nothing else. Basically use it as a showcase. I specify that he is an amateur photographer like me and not a professional. I just told him he should consider having a blog part because that’s what brings in traffic and that’s what makes people come back. With a little blog, we go from a static website to something alive. That’s why I quickly created a blog section on my site.
What is true is that it takes time. Writing articles, finding topics … To talk more specifically about my blog, I had until a while ago a target for writing dozens of articles : social networks and of course the behaviors related to those this. For a year, I left Facebook and at the beginning of the year I did the same with Instagram. Each passing day moves me a little more than a hypothetical return on these platforms. Frankly, I have absolutely no desire to return. Anyway, if it’s to become embittered and constantly complaining in blogs, it will be a holiday for everyone that I keep away from Facebook and Instagram.
When I spent a few days in Bristol, my English teacher pointed out that Blogging was also some kind of social interaction. She is not wrong on this point, but the only difference is that I share what I want, and I do not have to suffer the innumerable ads, nor the posts of others. I decide to go to blogs or sites that interest me and I do not let myself dictate what I have to see. Besides, how did one do before the event of platforms like Facebook or Instagram ? People had blogs and they were going to see other people’s blogs.
To return to my blog, it’s quite interesting to see the most read pages over time. I clearly saw a difference between when I was on social media and when I completely broke with them. The most read articles so far are those related to the Ricoh GR 3 (nearly 700 views). Those who follow are related to the gear (fuji XE2, ricoh GR or ricoh GRD4), but at a much lower level (~ 200 to 300). Clearly, if you want to attract people, you have to talk about gear. Personally, I never wrote these topics on purpose and told myself that it would make a number. It’s just a statement I make. I wrote a lot about GRD4 because it’s a camera I love. Besides, I have just cracked and buy a second hand one again … We will discuss again in a future blog ! What is amazing is to see that even after several months (even years), some blogs on the GRD4 are still read by some ! I remind you that this camera is almost 9 years old. As I told you, since I cut the bridges with social networks, my articles peak at maximum 40 readings. It’s weak I grant you but it’s like the photo, I do it for me.
My most read article to date is the interview I did with Olivier Duong, one of the co-founder of Inspired Eye. He is a guy I really like with whom I sympathized and it was important to me to do his interview. He shared the interview in his newsletter and I must have nearly 4000 views for this blog ! It was just huge but obviously it is not representative of the attendance of my blog. Other articles related to Fuji XE2 were also read a lot because of HP Chavaz, a photographer whose work I appreciate very often shared my blogs on the platform Scoop.It (If you’re using Fuji Gear, you should check this)
Two things emerge from the small study that I conducted on the attendance of my site. The first is that it is obvious that the presence on social networks increases more than significantly the traffic on my blog. Which is completely normal ; you touch a lot more people. The second thing is that articles on gear still attract many more readers. What I particularly like is that regularly I have people who arrive on my Blog from a Google search (organic). Which already means that my site is well referenced, but also that these people did not come by chance and that it is for a very precise reason.
This year so far, nearly 7,000 sessions have been recorded on my blog for just over 3,000 unique visitors. These numbers show that people are coming back to my site. My blog is a little over 3 years old today. Even if at the moment, I do not blog much, I still enjoy writing these articles and sharing with you photographic journey.
All photos were made with the Ricoh GR on Reunion Island.
