One Year of ZacSky.com
Today marks the anniversary of when I began this site, one whole year ago. It's been a fun and exciting journey. I've tried a few different things, grown a lot as an individual, and developed my writing skills. Plus I'd like to think that I've helped a few other people with their lives and the problems they've faced. But being a man who enjoys his numbers and stats I decided today I should look back at the entire first year of zacsky.com and see how it all went.
Traffic Stats
Here are the raw stats for the past 12 months. I would say "in all their glory" but I'm sure if glory is the right word...
- Visits: 14018
- Unique Visitors: 12463
- Pageviews : 21714 (1.55 pages/visit)
- Traffic Split: Search Engines = 79% , Referring Sites, = 12% , Direct = 9%
- Most visits: 140 (January 5th 2012)
- Most pageviews: 213 (January 5th 2012)
Positive results, especially considering I went AWOL for at least 3 months of the year where I didn't write a single word. In fact my site traffic has more than doubled since my 6 monthly review despite the fact I'm writing less. Wait, maybe it's because I'm writing less...
Top Content
The top 5 pages on my site are:
- Paleo 30 day reivew (2684)
- zacsky.com homepage (1668)
- Exercise Induced Headaches (aka Exertion Headache) (1150)
- Sometimes we all need some alone time (1130)
- Self fulfilling Prophecy - Re-train your Brain! (645)
That's a pretty diverse range. Obviously paleo is the hot topic right now and as such I get a fair few hits for people doing their research on it. But the fact that the next 3 top pages (excluding the homepage) are all from different topics is encouraging. I don't want to box myself in and write about one thing and it seems my audience agrees. At least that's what I'll tell myself.
Top Search Terms
Also of an interesting nature are the top 5 keyword search terms that are directing people to my site are:
- paleo diet reviews (796)
- unknown(529)
- paleo diet review (266)
- zac sky (169)
- how not to waste time (119)
Less diversity here with paleo-related keywords dominating my incoming referral traffic. But hey, it's popular right now and I just happen to have written a good 30 day paleo review. I'm sure if I had written about some recent political hot topic then that too would dominate my search results. That is the nature of writing on the internet. Luckily for you I wont be wasting my time on politics anytime soon.
I find it interesting that my name features in the top search keywords though. I believe this must be returning readers looking to find my site again - they read something they liked and remembered the name of the site but didn't note the URL. As such they google my name and find my site. This is very positive on two points - 1) My name (and usage of it my site) is memorable, and 2) readers are wanting to return!
Summary
In a word - positive. In two words - very positive.
My traffic has steadily increased throughout the year and the good news is that even when I was absent and had stopped writing people still visited. This means I am on the right track and that the content I produce is relevant and not time-specific.
Of course there are many ways in which I could improve this site but for now I am happy as is. My life has significantly changed since I started writing here and right now I am just happy to have a place to share my thoughts and ideas so that I can encourage others to take control of their own destiny.
So let's begin the second year, which is going to be even better than the first!