There’s a certain benefit to having ‘timely’ posts, or posts related to current events. You can often get a nice bump in your statistics if you manage to work in a hype, an issue that’s in the news or a trend.
But who will read that post a year from now?
Take Gangnam style. Personally, I don’t get what the fuzz is about, but no one can argue it’s not ‘hot’. So everyone who’s blogging is writing about doing something ‘Gangnam style’.
But do you really think that a year from now, anyone will even remember what that was about, let alone read posts about it?
A substantial part of your long term traffic should come from search engines, organic traffic. The older your blog is, the more growth you should see in organic traffic because people should be able to ‘find’ more posts.
But that means you will have to write posts that people will still be searching for a year, or even two years from now. How much do you want to bet that Gangnam style won’t be included in the search terms in a year?
Writing timely posts on stuff that’s hot right now is a great way to drive new traffic to your site. But the best way to keep them there and to consistently build on your search engine traffic, is to make timeless posts the core of your blog.
Think about the middle long term and long term, what are topics and search terms people will still be using in a year or more? That’s what you should write about the most. Then throw in some trendy posts to attract some new people to your blog.
How is the mix of trendy and timeless posts on your blog?
[Editor’s Note: Be sure to read more awesome tips and tactics in the Focused Blogging series!]
[Image via Stock Exchange]
Marcus Williamson says
Solid post 🙂
I think my mix is fair.
Trendy: Inspirational styles that I post. Even my own design style – It’s still changing.
Timeless: I post things I’m learning as a design blogger. Anyone at any level should be able to still relate down the road.
I also do what’s called Interview Friday. I see it as timeless, but it could easily be lumped into the trendy, what’s hawt now, deal too.
Rachel Blom says
I think you have the type of blog where writing timeless posts is a bit harder, as design is often very time sensitive…Still, I had a look at your blog and I do agree that your mix is good.
Marcus Williamson says
Why thank you 🙂 It’ll evolve with time and hopefully continue to get better with time