Ten most read posts on this blog in 2011

Given the amount of blogging I do on Lib Dem Voice and elsewhere, my ten most read posts on this site is not a synonym for my ten most read blog posts. It’s still an interesting snapshot of 2011 however and highlights some useful tips if you are wanting to build up your own traffic.

First, the list is backloaded towards the end of the year, reflecting the growing readership (for which, thank you). In fact December 2011 was my best month ever, beating even the 2010 general election peak.

Second, as you would expect posts which tap into interests that journalists and other bloggers have do better – hence #2 being my post about fixed-term Parliaments and snap elections which has got (and continues to get) regular traffic from elsewhere thanks to other people using it as a reference source.

Third, search not only brings in a lot of long-tail traffic to this site, it can also make otherwise unexceptionable posts into traffic stars. That is the case with #5 and #9. Both are decent posts, but what puts them in the top ten compared to my other posts is that both have hit the search engine jackpot, doing very well in particular common searches. In both cases, having spotted an initial promising trickle of search engine traffic, I have expanded the original posts and done follow-up work which also links back to them. That has given their long-term search traffic a real boost.

Finally, timing is often what matters, as with #10. It was on a topic that was extensively written about elsewhere, but I got in first with this particular story and ahead of most of the other Liberal Democrat coverage of the by-election in general. Similarly with #6, it appeared at a time when lots of people wanted to know more about what was going on and the party’s official online channels had not (yet) supplied very much in the way of information.

1. Could you edit The Guardian? Take a simple test
2. How much do the richest 1% in the UK receive?
3. How can a general election happen?
4. I really don’t think Chris Huhne should be doing that to Nick Clegg with the tinsel
5. Nick Clegg’s verdict on events in Europe
6. The new London tube map (December 2011 version)
7. Lib Dem MEP: British demands were “reasonable”
8. 14 Liberal Democrat rebels help defeat housing benefit cuts in the House of Lords
9. Dear Polly Toynbee…
10. Warmer, cheaper homes: Radflek reflector sheets

If you have been a reader in 2011, thank you and I hope you continue to find interesting copy during this year.