I started my first blog back in 1999 (thank you Jason Kottke for the inspiration) but for the last 5 years have posted less and less for various reasons.

This is what happened in 2013 when I published just 12 posts. The screengrab from Google Analytics compares 2013 vs 2012 and if I went further back in history the trend would be very much the same over the years.

It’s also telling that only 2 of the 10 most popular articles in 2013 where actually posted in 2013. Good thing Google thinks highly of a few of my older posts.

What’s the lesson?

If you want to keep your site popular then…

• Add fresh, high quality (or at least entertaining) content on a regular basis
• Pick a niche – lack of focus means there’s no core audience, less circulation of traffic within the site
• Promote your content, shamelessly
• Pages not optimised for social sharing

Not exactly rocket science and comes down to committing to something. Always the hardest thing.

Do blogs still matter?

For me they do. When I look at where I get the most valuable content (both on topics relevant to my work or just on stuff that interest me outside of work) it’s 75% blogs. Sometimes personal, sometimes company owned.

Social media is just the discovery engine, real valuable content is almost always on someone’s blog.