Monday, December 31, 2012

My Best Articles of 2012

“Best” is such a subjective term. Says who? Determined how?

Depending on the nature and goals of your blog, there are a few different ways you could determine the “best” articles. I’m not really selling anything here and don’t bother tracking conversions through to the How to SEO Your Site ebook page, nor to the SEO consulting page (which is likely going to come down soon since I’m too busy to offer phone consultations these days).

For me, success is primarily about page views, i.e., which articles caught your eyes enough to click through and read, to share with your friends, etc. So I was just checking Google Analytics and decided to make a list of the articles that I published in 2012 with the most page views. And then, just for fun, I made my own subjective list of what I thought were the most important articles that didn’t make the top five page views.

Most Page Views

Rethinking the Title Tag for 2012 (and beyond) — my thoughts on the ways that Google, in particular really started changing how it displays title tags in search results, and what it means for SEO

Why A Website Is More Important Than Facebook & Twitter — I really didn’t expect this article to take off like it did, but readers shared this one far and wide — thanks!

Google Places Marries Google+, Gives Birth To New Google+ Local Pages — a look at Google’s big change on where it sends local searchers

Better Than Link Building: Authority Building with HARO — in my mind, this one is as important as any article I wrote in 2012 because I really want small business owners to be smarter about how they create trust and authority (which then helps get high-quality links)

Here’s What Facebook’s Timeline Looks Like for a Local Business — there was obviously a lot of interest in how Facebook was changing its main interface for the millions of small businesses with Pages

My Picks: Best/Most Important Articles of 2012

Heh. The first version of this list had about 15 articles on it. We all think everything we write is great and super-important, don’t we?

It was pure torture, but I managed to whittle it down to these eight.

Best Time to Publish Blog Posts? Sunday at 2:37 p.m. [Proof] and its sister/predecessor, The Fallacy of Timing Blog Posts & Social Media Updates — it’s nails on a chalkboard when I see “experts” giving small business owners blanket statements about when they have to post or tweet, with no regard for the unique nature of every business, every customer base, etc.

How to Create Local Content for Multiple Cities — another one that struck more of a chord than I expected, which suggests to me that there was a need for some ideas on local content

SEO for Small Business Blogs: The 5-Part Series — rather than put all five articles in, here’s the introductory post with links to each article

You Want New SEO Tactics? I Got Your “New” SEO Tactics Right Here — I wrote numerous articles about how I hope small business owners will approach SEO now and in the future, and this one probably says things as good as any

Google’s Big Risk with Reviews: Using a 30-Point Scale — a rant against that God-forsaken Zagat rating scale that Google stubbornly continues to use

How Followable are You on Twitter? — with so many small businesses struggling to make Twitter work for them, I think tweet variety/quality is an important concept to understand because no customer wants to follow a self-promotional spammer

How to Find Your Customers on Social Networks — another important social concept for small business owners, this one’s about making sure that you’re active in the same places as your customers

Most Important Content of 2012

Ultimately, though, the most important thing that happened around here in 2012 was YOU. Beyond the articles above, we’ve had some great discussions on many other articles (here, here and here, for example).

So as 2012 wraps up, I’m grateful that you read what I write and always make it better with your excellent comments and discussions.

Thank you. And Happy New Year!

(Stock image via Shutterstock.com. Used under license.)

This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing.

My Best Articles of 2012

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