Our hope is that every post we publish will be loved by you, but 12 years into this crazy world of digital content creation, we still get shocked by what the Google Gods decide to “pickup” and give an extra boost of traffic to, or not. Here’s how it works – we get daily traffic from you lovely readers and then of course Instagram followers who come over for a particular post. And it all stays relatively consistent unless the Google crawlers, that comb through and analyze that day’s post, ping the Google gods to say “this one – make everyone on the internet see this one right now”. This isn’t something we actively chase but we certainly hope for a Google pickup and we do try to customize every post’s SEO to be “Google-friendly” in addition to being inspirational, educational, and personal. When we get a Google pickup (which we can watch in our second by second analytics) we all slack each other with a “Congrats ________ you got a Google pick up!!” and it’s VERY fun.
Before I tell you the hits and “flops”, high traffic isn’t always the goal for us. It’s this mix of traffic AND engagement that we strive for. For instance, I know that my personal posts won’t get a lot of Google hits (unless I put “dead cats” or ‘”vasectomy” in the title – true story). “Engagement” is actually more important to us because it means that you really read it, were invested in it, and that keeps us caring more. It means all of us are more connected – which like most relationships is far more meaningful. But Google traffic can introduce new people to the blog thus growing the daily readership to have even more meaningful connections. I sound like a marketing strategist right now doing some weird PR speech but you get it – we don’t just want anonymous randos every day that will never come back because that feels soulless to us as human ladies who care so much about this site. But we also want new people to find value here, stay a while and yes, come back. So while some of these are “surprise hits” it doesn’t mean that we necessarily value them higher just because they got a lot of Google traffic (although we very much appreciate it).
THE SURPRISE HITS
Oh and real quick – these weren’t the most popular posts of the year in traffic or engagement, just the ones that we stood out shockingly high traffic due to Google pickups. They were the ones really didn’t predict.
What Do You Do With That Awkward Space Above Your Kitchen Cabinets?
Why did this crash our site that day? Well, it’s simple solutions to a problem that PLAGUES so many of us. Good job, Mal for asking the question and giving some pretty solid solutions for this annoying and awkward problem area.
How To Make Your Living Room Look Better (The 7 Dos and Don’ts)
This was inspired by me, Googling “how to be a better mom” after a bout of frustration with myself (and the kids). I forget what article I read, but it wasn’t anything NEW. I “intellectually KNOW” what it means to be a good parent, but reading another article by a parenting expert, simplifying what I already knew, was somehow still super helpful and comforting. So I wondered what is our version of that – and thus spawned the series that has been a pretty big hit (don’t steal the idea, it will be obvious you got it here). I think we all just love the simplicity – it makes us feel safe, comforted. Reminds us we aren’t alone in our problems and wants, and empowers us that we can do this.
The One “Entire House” Paint Trick That Stole Our Hearts (+ A Bunch Other Ideas To Feast Your Eyes On)
Oh, I get it – I knew what it was and even I want to click on that title again because I love a “paint trick” that someone with a lot of experience will recommend. Jess and Ryann great job on this one.
Two Simple (But VERY PRETTY) Bathroom DIYs That Lea Johnson Executed In One Weekend
We love Lea – her posts are always awesome, but again – this one surpassed normal expectations. I think it was the words “bathroom” “DIY” and “weekend”. Jess is great at entering in what are called “slugs” to try to stand out when Google crawls over our posts. So great job Lea, Ryann, and Jess on that one.
Is Cord Swagging Back?? And Are They Part Of The Sculpture (+ It Can Actually Be A Really Affordable Trend)
I pitched this idea with little fanfare from my team, but they helped me publish it regardless (likely because I’m their boss), so imagine my excitement when the numbers were off the charts! I think it hit because of the word “trend” (yes, it works) and “affordable”. I gloated a tiny bit, but don’t worry – some of my other “slam dunks” below were total air balls. Thus the addiction…
The Posts We Thought Would Be Off The Charts, But Were Just Normal
I’m not going to pretend that we don’t get disappointed when we really put a lot of time/effort or thought into a post and it just does normal traffic (again, not bad traffic, but just didn’t meet our excitement and expectation). We do. But we are also used to it – and when you publish 365 posts a year you just move on VERY QUICKLY. Plus you get to learn something.
Kid Mask Review – Our Kid’s Three Favorites (And 20 That We Crowdsourced From Real Parents That Fit Well And Their Kids Actually Wear)
In retrospect, this post didn’t take off as I predicted because I think most parents already had a ton of masks for their kids when we published. Well, that and I think we posted it after a lot of kids were already back in school (late August). My family was so isolated for so long that we honestly didn’t think about kids masks until a couple of weeks before school in September. I wasn’t reading the general temperature well – most of y’all already had your kid’s masks and didn’t care about the post (or maybe it was boring).
Farmhouse Update: How To Design A Kitchen With A Load Bearing Post And Beam In The Middle + 4 Unique Options
I still have NO idea why this didn’t do better. I know it seems kinda specific but I also know that so many people want to open up the kitchen in their old house to make it bigger, but they have a load-bearing post right in the middle. This could have been due to timing, bad SEO words, or maybe I needed to simplify the title – “how to open up a kitchen without removing a post”. It didn’t take a ton of time as I had already pinned the solutions when we thought we couldn’t move our post so that’s ok.
In Search Of The Best Rugs For Kids And Pets That Are Still Actually Cozy – And The 4 Rugs We Keep Coming Back To (Guess What They Have In Common???)
Again, I thought that this would totally hit and don’t get me wrong – it was normal traffic, but with “kids” “pet” and “rugs” and “cozy” I just thought it would do really well. I have NO IDEA why it didn’t. I would read that post over and over.
The Shorts We Bought That Made Us Feel Really Good (And The Ones We Would Skip) – AKA A Very Honest Review Post
This post did fine, but we were expecting a lot of people to be excited about a shorts review since it did SO WELL a couple of years before. I think that fashion reviews might be hard because so much of the fit is based on your body type, not necessarily the piece itself. But most of my team loved the same pair of shorts which is pretty darn compelling. I also think when we style out an outfit it helps give it more context?
So You Want To Put An Arch In Your House? Read This First
Another one of my pitches that I thought FOR SURE would be HUGE and it was just normal. I mean, arches are on year 4 of being incredibly popular in homes, social media, etc. Maybe if I had put “DIY arch” or “Design Mistake – The Insta-famous Arch Can’t Go in Every Style of House” that might have helped.
Hate Your Popcorn Ceilings? Albie Is Giving Us A Popcorn Ceiling Removal 101 (Plus A GREAT DIY Option)
I was so excited to read this post when Albie pitched it and we said yes immediately. It got normal traffic (and longer engagement – so those who came stayed for a while) but popcorn ceilings are such a menace that I thought Google would pick it up for sure.
Another fun year of trying to predict the internet. It’s like we are seasoned gamblers at this point – we are better at poker than most, but we are frequently reminded that it’s still a crapshoot. I am super proud of my team for enthusiastically playing this game by reinventing posts, taking risks, and really using our IT experience behind the scenes to get Google crawlers to pick it up.
So much of it is about timing, too. For instance, the first time we posted “how to choose the right rug size for your living room” was March 14th, 2020 – the week everyone was glued to the news, not reading design blogs or red dawning it out of their offices. I remember obtusely being like “what? this is such a good post?”, not totally understanding what was about to happen two days later (lockdown, pandemic, nothing rug-related AT ALL). So 3 months later when everyone was redecorating we reposted it, realizing that none of you really saw it in the first place and boom it hit then and continues to be a big traffic driver. So there are lots of factors and again it doesn’t dictate the posts, but it’s something we think about in hopes that Google will help the post do even better.
Curious about the #1 post of the year in engagement? We’ll have that coming up for you next week – along with what you pinned the most (so interesting), what you bought the most (always fascinating), and a roundup of all of our makeovers from 2021 (it was a slightly slower year than most, but still so much!!). Thanks to my wonderful team for another great year of navigating the unpredictable waters of the internet and thanks to you all for coming back and giving us a semblance of consistency and hope that many people actually care about our posts, regardless of “Google pickups”. xx
Opening Image Credits: Design by Reath Design | Architecture by Bestor Architecture | Photo by Laure Joliet
The post Our Biggest 2021 Surprise Blog Post “HITS” And “MISSES” appeared first on Emily Henderson.
from Emily Henderson https://stylebyemilyhenderson.com/blog/our-biggest-2021-surprise-design-post-hits-and-misses
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