How Breaking News could SkyRocket your website Traffic
Today I am excited to share a case study or rather an experiment I had tried out on my blog and could really make sense if I get into the details. Basically it’s all about how posting a breaking news sent thousands of new users flowing into my website like crazy!
I planned to try out this experiment on 2nd April 2011 as it was the Cricket World Cup finals at Mumbai, India. As the match progressed and I was almost sure that India was going to win the world cup, almost 30 minutes before the match ended, I published an article on my blog and that was India wins 2011 Cricket world cup
After publishing the post, I quickly checked Google and confirmed that there were no other blog or website articles confirming India’s victory of the world cup finals.
Finally the results were out and it became News
As soon as India won the world cup and the news was published, the search results pattern started changing. Google news and Twitter feeds also started appearing in the search results.
Even though my article was pushed down by 1 position, still it maintained the second rank on Google search for long. The reason it was pushed down was, SERP ranking depends on many factors like:
- Domain Age: The age of the domain as per the first record of Archive.org
- Google PR: The Google Page rank of the domain
- BLD: The number of back links to the domain
- BLP: The number of back links to the page
- Index Count: The number of pages indexed on the domain
- .Gov or .EDU back links: Back links from a government or educational websites
- DMOZ: Is the site indexed in the Open directory project (DMOZ).
- Google Cache Age: When did Google last index your page?
- Does the Head, Title, URL, Description contain the keyword?
The above factors impacted the SERP position even though I was the first one in the world to publish the news. I was still happy to see the result of being first to report this news and to be the second search result.
The effect of this SERP ranking was mighty and huge! Soon I could track around 300+ visitors online at my website from my GetClicky.com dashboard. I observed the traffic for few days and here I have included few snapshots from my Google webmaster and Google Analytics dashboard and the metrics were soaring sky high.
Take Home: This case study simply proves the importance of Uniqueness of content, Value of content, the “breaking news factor” and SEO. All these play a major role in your blogging and content marketing business. Stick by the rule: Be the First to be the Best.
Super cool Article.
Its really amazing to see how you tried out this and it was really successful. Great share..
Joe
Josh,
Great case study. In fact what you have said here is really true. It totally drills down to who does it first. If it is something that makes to the news, then your website will certainly be blasted with traffic.
But don't you think by posting something off topic would affect your blog's Rep? waiting to know your thoughts on this..
regards
Aaron
Great information here, I havent yet thought of this man. It is really amazing to see the results you have attached and its very huge too..
550,000 Impressions (WOW)
27,000 new clicks (super wow)
So this should have helped your blog with loads of pageviews this month ha?
Mani
Very very impressive case study here josh! It is true but often we do not get hold of much breaking news in our industry to make that entry. But I sure do agree that uniqueness is that one stuff that gets rewarded like hell in this content business..
Cheers to you and your cool blog.
regards, Smith
@ Smith,
I couldnt agree more to what you said. Yes uniqueness is really darn important in our niche where content is the king.
40k Impressions and 2k clicks on a daily basis is like very awesome. cool case study here and thanks a ton for sharing as well..
and congrats to India on winning the WC.
Cheers
Seleema
thanks brother to share the information, i really like it and i find it very help full and very informative, hope that you will keep it up and will share more information as like this
Dear Friends,
Am really glad that you guys enjoyed the case study and its stunning results. In fact, I too enjoyed sharing this to you all.
@ Aaron: Yes, posting some content outside your blog niche can spoil your blog's credibility and expertise. It is not advisable even though it might bring traffic.
@ Mani: He he Yeah it might have helped improve the page views, but personally it was a big news for me and my country so was happy to share it as well.
warm regards
Josh
Of course breaking news will catapult your blog visits to a peak, well piggy back riding is good. I just posted a photo on my blogspot to commemorate Indian victory.
That is amazing Post!
Great to see your case studies and experiments. The best part is when you share the results.
Thanks again.
Stacey
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