Driving Website Traffic: An Interview With Neil G

Andrew McCauley: On today's podcast we're going to have a very special guest who gets over 6,000 hits
to his website every single day. Andrew McCauley: Hey, this is podcast number 48! y name is !ndrew c"auley, welcome to our podcast. #ery e$cited today because we have another special guest %or this episode, and &'m going to introduce Heather 'orter, o% course. Hey, H. How are you doing( Heather Porter: Hey, !ndrew, &'m doing good, but probably a lot better than you by the sounds o% your se$y head cold voice. Andrew McCauley: & )now, don't you love it( *laughter+. ,ou )now, &'ve been spea)ing at a whole bunch o% events lately and & was at an event last night and &'m hal%way through it and & could %eel this throat thing coming on. & was li)e, oh no, &'m not going to get through the rest o% the night. & %inally did, but when & wo)e up this morning with this se$y, hus)y voice and & -ust can't get rid o% it, so & thought & would share it with everybody today. Heather Porter: .ovely. /han)s %or pulling yoursel% up and scraping yoursel% o%% and being here %or all o% us and our incredibly special guest who's -oining us. 0ow, shall & introduce who it is( Andrew McCauley: & thin) we should, but be%ore we do that, this special guest has a very, very popular website and we're going to reveal that to you soon, but one o% the reasons we wanted this person on our program is to really dissect how do you get that many visits per day and what sort o% in%ormation is he getting out there %or people that really want to )now this in%o. .et's go ahead and introduce him. Heather Porter: O)ay, so there is a website called thecoolestguidesontheplanet.com, li)e learning a guide, and it's a site created by somebody named 0eil 1., and %or the last couple o% years he's been building it up. &t's 2uite the resource %or techs and techy people all over the world to come and learn ama3ing things about acs and computers and all that. &4ll let him e$plain that more in a second, but what's ama3ing is that he's managed to get incredible sites lin)ing bac) to his site, he had great content on there and he has a whole little strategy that he's going to share with us today. 5e thought that would be really valuable, not only %or us to dissect because we love learning %rom our guests, but also %or you guys listening. !nd, what's pretty cool as we introduce him in a moment, we always start our shows o%% with what we've learned this last wee), and we thought we'd actually throw him into the mi$, too, and hear what he's learned with you guys in his business. Andrew McCauley: ,es. 5e're going to introduce him now, or do you want to wait(
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Heather Porter: .et's do it! 9o, welcome to the mic, to the podcast 0eil 1.! Neil G: Hello, hello. How are you guys doing( Andrew McCauley: Hi, 0eil, it's great to have you on the show, it's awesome that you're part o% the show. & )now that, & thin) you've heard our show once or twice be%ore, so it's good that you've -umped on in %ront o% the microphone and &'m loo)ing %orward to as)ing you a %ew 2uestions about what you do and how you do it because it's pretty e$citing stu%%. Neil G: ,eah, this is a %irst time %or me, so it's e$citing and it's nice to be called special so many times *laughter+ Andrew McCauley: & love it, & love it. !lright, be%ore we get crac)ing, H what did you learn this wee)( Heather Porter: #ery good 2uestion. O)ay, so what & learned this wee) was the importance o% having control over the plat%orms that you use in your business online, and & say that because o% two things. :irst thing & had a meeting earlier this wee) with one o% the heads o% a business that's tendering %or di%%erent digital agencies to come onboard and build up their digital brand, and she's really con%used and %rustrated and she's saying, ;,ou )now, it's so con%using & %eel li)e people are trying to rope me into their own systems.; 5e call those proprietary systems so that's essentially the whole you pay a %ee every month to use somebody else's plat%orm, which is always why & say use 5ord'ress, and open source things li)e that because the second you get roped into one o% these contract or deals, granted they might have a great service, but you're stuc), you're married, you're tied to them. 9o she was -ust tal)ing about that and how she's trying to wor) out how many people she should have wor)ing on the pro-ect, and that brings me into my second point. :or those o% you that have been chec)ing out the whole Obamacare and the launch o% a new government health website in !merica, there were something li)e 6< providers all out sourced that were building this site. 6<! &magine that, all o% them trying to communicate together. 9o, o% course it massively %lopped, the whole thing didn't even really get o%% the ground and crashed be%ore it could even launch, and that, again, comes down to the second point o% not having control over the whole situation and probably having vendors come in and try and tell them what they need and not play nice together in the sandbo$, and then they have this huge pro-ect that's a %lop, so what & learned is have control and don't be overwhelmed with your own systems in your business and online mar)eting and i% you start to get overwhelmed and %eel li)e you're being ta)en %or a ride, you might be. 9o, there you go !ndrew, what did you learn( Andrew McCauley: =ust a side note on that, 9aturday 0ight .ive over here is a very popular comedy show and & thin) the wee) be%ore this whole website was
launched, they did a s)it and they said ;! massive amount o% wor) has gone into it, and only si$ people turned up;. :unnily enough, it's e$actly how many people registered or could actually get the site to wor) the day it was launched. 9o, that itsel% became news over here, it was very, very %unny. 9o, &'ll tell you what & learned this wee), &'ve been using a site %or a while called 9lideshare, and 9lideshare is a site where you can upload di%%erent slides, you )now &'ve used it to loo) at other people's presentations. &% you've ever done a presentation on a 'ower'oint, you can upload it there, and &'ve always loo)ed at people's presentations. &'ve never actually used it to upload my own presentations, and & %inally did last wee), & thought &'d upload it and see what sort o% results & would get, and you )now within %ive days &'ve had 408odd views o% my presentation and & thought that's pretty good because &'ve never even told anybody about it, & never mentioned that & was putting a 9lideshare up there at all, & never announced the %act, and & thought wow, 40 views %or a 9lideshare that & was -ust putting up there as a test, and & thought this could be a really good source o% tra%%ic. 9o, 9lideshare is my new tool that & learned this wee) that &'m going to use a lot more %rom now on. Heather Porter: 1ood one, than)s %or sharing that little tra%%ic tip. &'ve chec)ed out presentations on that mysel% and & )now we've also used it to embed presentations inside o% our maga3ine, Online :ootprint, as well. &t's a good little tool. Andrew McCauley: &t is, it is. Heather Porter: !lright. 0ow... Andrew McCauley: 0eil, what did you learn this wee)( .et's start o%% with what did you learn and then you can tell us what we are going to learn this wee). Neil G: & thin) & learned this wee) not to ever be a pro-ect manager %or an !merican government agency. 5ell, &'ll ta)e that bac). /he problem wasn't really the pro-ect manager, you )now, nobody wants to ta)e responsibility holistically, so you've got 6< di%%erent vendors and it's a nightmare. 5hat & learned this wee) is something that is happening, or started to happen 2uite a lot at the moment is that "oca8"ola came out with an announcement saying the corporate website is dead, long live the corporate website. 9o, what they're going through at the moment is they're changing their structure on their main homepage, and -ust involving so much more content than they previous had, which is updated on a daily basis. &% you get a chance to loo) at it, the main actual, because there's a lot o% "oca8 "ola websites, but the main one is the "oca8colacompany.com, and it's got videos, stories, opinions, brands, and it changes every day so that what they've
done now is brought in a new editorial team that basically run it similar to how li)e a 5all 9treet =ournal or a newspaper website will appear, and the reason why they're doing this is to )eep up to date with the latest 1oogle algorithms and search engine results, you can't have a stale corporate website anymore because it's not going to wor) in the current day and age, you need to )eep your content consistently changing and evolving around your brand, so i% you even google the words to get the %ull story, you )now "oca8"ola thin)s corporate website is dead, you will see a couple o% course about it, and then have a loo) at the new site, and & thin) a lot o% corporates are going to have to loo) at this and bring in editorial teams to change the in%ormation out that goes out there. Andrew McCauley: 5ow. &'m so glad you brought that up because we've been tal)ing about content %or a couple o% years now, and we're %inally seeing some progressive businesses -ump on the content bandwagon, but to see a powerhouse li)e "oca8"ola so that, it -ust really proves that they're obviously spending a lot o% money to do this change, and they see the bene%it o% it, and &'m sure as you said there's going to be other companies that start to see the value o% content. & thin) the world is changing pretty 2uic)ly and it's good to see these big companies li)e "oca8"ola -umping onboard that way, too. Heather Porter: &t is, & thin) the success online ultimately comes down to the conversation that you have with your %ollowers, and you can't have a conversation unless you have good content that's constantly happening. /his is a big one, this is 2uite e$citing, and, again !ndrew as you suggested, it's -ust bac)ing what we've been saying %or a long time. Andrew McCauley: ,eah, de%initely. 0ow, that's great 0eil and &'m glad you learned that, but let4s share with the listeners a little bit about you, your bac)ground, how did you get into this sort o% stu%%, and why you developed this awesome website that you've got. Neil G: O)ay, &'ll ta)e it a step to the beginning )ind o%. y bac)ground is in publishing, tal)ing about editorial publishing, *unintelligible+ inside, and also %or advertising agencies. !nd then & got interested more into the digital space, the &/ space, and & got 2uite intrigued by how search engines wor) and wanted to )now how you could manipulate them as you could well do not so long ago. ,ou )now, & was 2uite interested in 9>O and at that point a %ew names came up that are in the industry, people li)e =ane *9chram)o+, =ohnathon *.eger+, who & called .edger %or some reason, ?rad :allon, and *unintelligible+. /hey used to run the competition years ago called thecoolestguyontheplanet, and the idea was who could ran) number one %or those )ey words, and & don't )now why & -ust %ound it %ascinating and & wanted to -oin in that thing, as well. >ven though they had done it years be%ore, they were still ran)ing, & thin) =ohnathon .eger was number one in ,ahoo, ?ing, and 1oogle, and it was that way the same %or the top ten o% them and & was thin)ing how are these guys doing it, you )now,
& must learn how to do it. 9o, bac) then it really was bac)lin)s, they were getting bac)lin)s %rom puppy dog training sites which are totally irrelevant, so that showed me how you could manipulate. 5hat & tried to do, it was very tough to get to number one, and & couldn't do it because & wasn't prepared to buy so many lin)s to prove a point, but when the algorithms started to change and then 1oogle started to discount those lin)s, my ran) then went up. & really didn't do the website %or that anymore, & started to blog about technical stu%% and & started getting hits based on those things and the tra%%ic started to come in. & basically %ound i% you've got your mar)et area and you can write pieces that people are loo)ing %or, you will naturally start to %low with tra%%ic. Andrew McCauley: !nd this goes bac) to your "oca8"ola e$ample, right( &% they're loo)ing at creating content, that's the same sort o% thing you've been doing %or a while now. Neil G: /hat's right, e$actly right. !nd then, the more uni2ue editorial pieces you get out there that people are loo)ing %or you will start to naturally build a tra%%ic %low, other sites will start lin)ing to you, and those are the sites that 1oogle 88 bac)lin)s are still a huge important part o% 9>O 88 and & thin) what the di%%erence is nowadays is that 1oogle )nows where the blog %arms are or you buy lin)s. &t )nows e$actly where they are, and it discounts the importance o% those lin)s. 9o you might had @00 o% those lin)s coming %rom puppy dog %arms and various bogus website, but they're not going to wor), they're -ust going to be discredited. !nd the more 2uality things you're getting %rom *unintelligible+ sites will be bene%icial. /hen your results will be pushed up in the ran)ings. Heather Porter: 0ow 0eil, you're saying that you started with ;the coolest guy on the planet;, but now you're not the coolest guy on the planet anymore in your domain, so tal) a little bit about the evolution to your new domain name, what's happened with that. Neil G: ,eah, & thin) that & didn't want to be )nown %or that )ind o% competition anymore because &'d proven a point and & could have still ran)ed number one on that anyway even though the content isn't about that at all. & evolved because & wanted to, you )now, what am & doing, &'m writing technical guides %or &/ and web development, so & -ust thought o% it one morning that all & had to do what change guy to guides, so & did that and -ust through straight domain redirection, and that was a new %ocus then to go %rom an &/ %ocus and web development %ocus to try and help people -ust starting out and give them good technical guides to set up their wor)%low. Andrew McCauley: !lright. 9o, what got you into this sort o% content, was there a mar)et out there that was as)ing %or it or did you -ust decide that it was something you wanted to share with people whether they li)ed & t or not(
Neil G: & thin) it's a bit o% both, & mean, it's something that & do and when & was starting out & %ound it di%%icult to get good in%ormation, and &'d get certain bits o% in%ormation that were incorrect or inaccurate and got %rustrated by it, so & thought well -ust let me create my own guides and technical re%erences %or my own re%erence and also %or anyone that was interested in it, so & -ust %orced it upon this is what &'m going to do, this is the direction &'m ta)ing. &t's really nice then to get a whole bunch o% other sites lin)ing to you and giving you credit, and the guides that & put out there & thoroughly test and ma)e sure they're wor)ing, and & use them -ust as much as anybody coming to the site. Heather Porter: 5hat &'d love to )now is, almost li)e a step8by8step guide, %or lac) o% a better word, %or our listeners %or how you thin) about your content, publishing, creation, so literally how o%ten do you do it and what steps do you go through to actually create and publish what you do( Neil G: /hat's a good 2uestion. & li)e to )eep up to speed with what's going on in the industry, so & might li)e a couple o% topics, & will do a /witter or a /weet %eed on those through */weet Aec)+ and see what's going on, and then i% there's an important event coming up or there's going to be a change o% your product or your business, which is going to be an e$po or some )ind o% change, you plan ahead and go, alright, o)ay, &'ll do a piece on this sort o% editorial which is relevant to an announcement that's going to be made ne$t month. 1et your content ready, publish it, and then it will start to get lin)ed to when the announcements are made when they change happens, and you'll be at the %ore%ront o% what's going to happen, and then your piece might then, your published post or page, get pic)ed up, get re%erenced, and get lin)ed bac), too. 5hen & put a piece out there &'m going to do research, get my editorial ready, get my pictures, my images, my headlines ready. & wor) in 5ord'ress 9>O plugin. & will do a bit o% research on what )eywords might do well using some o% the 1oogle tools, and -ust put my pieces out there. & try to update it once a wee), sometimes & might do three posts in a wee)end and other times & might leave it %or three wee)s, but you've got to )eep that content going. Andrew McCauley: Hey, 0eil, when you tal) about content, and we o%ten tal) about %inding your target mar)et and getting the right content %or the right audience and that sort o% stu%%, you )now, obviously there's an audience %or the content you're delivering. &% & go to your site and &'m loo)ing at some o% the posts you've got there, it's li)e double8dutch to me. 9ome o% this stu%% is so techy %or my head &'m li)e, wow what's my 9B. and 'H' and !pache... this sort o% stu%% doesn't, it's going over my head, but obviously there's a big mar)et %or this sort o% stu%% because a lot o% people want to )now this in%ormation. 9o, do you want to -ust tal) about the importance o% having the right content %or your target mar)et( Neil G: 9ure, & mean, it is a technical website. & do cater to all levels o% people, so there are some pieces there that you'll loo) at and have no idea what &'m
tal)ing about, but i% you're starting out and you're trying, say %or instance, you )now what 5ord'ress is, you )now what 9>O is, and no doubt you use those you )now that you have to have a good 9>O plugin. 0ow, you can go and download that plugin in 5ord'ress, that's easy, and then loo) at con%iguration o% that plugin and go, now & don't understand. ,ou might do a search and & have an article on 5ord'ress and 9>O and how to set it up properly. &'ve done it in a certain way where &'m catering to the novice, so you could loo) at that and say, o)ay now & understand what the di%%erent sections mean, now & understand that &'ve got put in these types o% %ields. :rom that one end, and then &'ll go to how to set up a web development server locally, which you'd have no interest in. Andrew McCauley: ,eah, right. Neil G: ?ut, somebody else would. ,ou've got a lot o% young people starting in web development and they want to create the right environment locally as opposed to using a hosting provider elsewhere. !nd, the %irst stumbling bloc) about setting things up is when it goes wrong they might give up. &% you've got a good article or guide to show you how to set it up, then you can move onto the ne$t stage. & target di%%erent people at di%%erent levels. Heather Porter: !nd &'ve noticed that you get a lot o% good comments. ! lot o% people really engaging with your articles. /al) about the engagementC how do you use social media and how do you use the comments on your site, and what comment plat%orm do you use, as well( Neil G: ,es, o)ay. /he one & use is Ais2us, it's easy, you can log on and manage your comments and then set up moderation, you can edit comments i% people try to put in snea)y lin)s and that type o% stu%%. !nd & engage people. &% somebody as)s me a 2uestion & will try and answer it or i% they pay me a compliment &'ll return a compliment. !nd & try to engage people li)e that. & thin) comments are very healthy %or your website. &t's good to get that dialogue going. !nd regarding social media &'m really only interested in :aceboo), /witter, and 1oogle D. & don't spend time in the other ones. & thin) that there are too many and you should really -ust pic) your battles. /he ones that want to learn and do and engage use those, don't worry about all the rest o% them. /o me, /witter is very important, and :aceboo) is second, 1oogle third. :or 1oogle, the 1oogle D thing in my mind hasn't really ta)en o%% as much as 1oogle wanted it to, but what is important is setting up the 1oogle authorship, so you veri%y you as an author on your website and you can even get your little picture i% you put in to the search results, and & thin) that's important. &'ve done that, my picture comes up on di%%erent search results, and it gives the audience a sense o% interaction with you, there you are, there's your picture, and they )now i% they've gone to your site be%ore and gotten a good result, and they see it again. /hey might clic) on it more times than not, so those are the three & concentrate on.
Heather Porter: &% somebody wants to do authorship, how do they get that set up( Neil G: How do they set authorship is that they have to create a 1oggle account and then they go into the 1oogle ED side o% it, %ill in a certain number o% %ields, and then in that con%iguration area you can then lin) certain blog sites or your own websites to your pro%ile, and then once you've done that lin) you ta)e the pro%ile &A, & thin) it's a metatag that you then insert into your website either though a plugin or through the code, but you %ind instructions on how to do that %rom 1oogle. /hen once you ma)e that lin), then any results are displayed and it's got your author pro%ile on your website. 1oogle might choose to show your picture. !nd that could wor) as well, i% you've a guest author or a blogger %or a di%%erent website, you could as) the website owner, could you please include my 1oogle D pro%ile, so it gives you more coverage. Andrew McCauley: & want to swap directions a little bit and recently we had over here in the states and & thin) it a%%ected everywhere in the world, Hostgator and a whole bunch o% other hosting companies go down, and all these people are up in arms because their websites suddenly crashed. Ao you want to tal) a little bit about hosting( & )now you're really into hosting sort o% solution and stu%% li)e that. 'eople are out there, we get a lot o% people coming and saying, ;Oh which is the best hosting solution should & use,; and that sort o% stu%%, and they're telling us that there's hosting solutions %or FG.00 a month and then there's other ones that are charging a lot more than FG.00 per month. 5hat's some tips %or people that are thin)ing about either starting up their own website as %ar as hosting goes, or people that are thin)ing about changing services a%ter another disaster %rom Hostgator recently( Neil G: ,eah, that was one that really did it. & thin) we were luc)y here because when it too) our websites, which were on Hostgator, we're )ind o% !ustralian based so it happened in the night %or us, so we were 2uite luc)y. ?ut, & mean, obviously other sites were out %or %our hours & believe the outage was %or. ?ut that4s one thing that's happening there is a big corporate company & thin) called >&1 and they're -ust buying up all o% the hosting companies. /hey bought ?luehost, Areamhost, and Hostgator and one more. /hey're trying to consolidate their in%rastructure, so by doing that there's going to be outages and downtime and e$cuses made. &t's a di%%icult one. & guess the )ey thing is you get what you paid %or. Andrew McCauley: .et's touch on that, what do you get %or FG.00 a month, what do you get that's di%%erent than, say, FG0.00 a month or some other e$pensive solution( Neil G: 5ell the )ey thing is, i% you're paying FG.00 a month, you're sharing a server with possibly H00 other websites, so i% one o% those websites has a script
that -ust ta)es over and gets out o% control or gets too much tra%%ic, you're going to su%%er because you're already running on the same computer, and i% one starts to ta)e over the resources you'll be a%%ected by it. /he problem with Hostgator, what's happened now it's still not over, & mean, we had a dedicated server so our server came bac) online and everything was good. /he people that had shared hosting are still having problems with the databases not being synced and not coming bac) to li%e properly and they were having 5ord'ress errors. 5ith shared hosting comes all o% these issues where you've got to contend %or resources, you're running o%% the same *unintelligible+, and you're bandwidth and tra%%ic will be, can be s2uee3ed because other people are using it. /he more you pay and the more resources you get you're going to get a better per%ormance. Andrew McCauley: website, as well( !nd then, that can slow down the load times o% your
Neil G: !bsolutely. &% you've got H00 websites on the one server competing %or the webserver's time, it's got to serve each one o% those websites. ,ou're load time could well be slower because i% you've got IJJ other ones going at the same time... Andrew McCauley: & guess & can't remember, H, what episode we spo)e about people leaving your site, you )now when they get to a site and i% it loads too long it can be a real problem, and that's -ust another way that a site can be really ta)ing a long time to load is having a shared hosting solution, right( Heather Porter: ,eah, and one other thing, !ndrew, you're right, we did tal) about that and we tal)ed about i% your site gets hac)ed or it goes down and you're in the middle o% running ads or tal)ing about your site and it's not there, all these people, all this potential tra%%ic, you're going to lose and they're never going to come bac). 9crimping on something li)e hosting is really not a good idea because it is the %oundation as is your website to your entire online presence. 5hy would you pay FG.00 and have a site which could potentially get hac)ed every day or go down when you might pay FH0.00 to F60.00 a month and )now that you have more o% an air tight environment( &'d love to hear 0eil's thoughts, actually, on hac)ing because it's happening so much and &'d li)e to )now how much is it actually happening, and what does hac)ing mean, and how are people getting in websites nowadays( Neil G: /hat's a good 2uestion. & thin) with hac)ing it's everywhere, it happens to everybody, even the most secure systems are being hac)ed into and credit cards are being accessed. ,ou hear it all the time. /here's a group called !nonymous who are the top level that really go %or the corporates, but that4s more o% a glory type o% thing, and then lower down on the scale you've got what they call the 9cript Kiddies that basically download scripts written by other hac)ers and then run them. One thing to )now is that it's not personal, a lot o% people get upset when they get hac)ed and they thin) it's about them.
&t's not, it's an automated process where a script can try and connect to thousands o% web servers and what they loo) %or is an e$ploit in so%tware which has been e$posed. How it is e$posed is through people not updating their so%tware, so you've got " 9 systems li)e 5ord'ress, Arupal, and =oomla that are updated on a regular basis, and the reason they are updated, one o% the big reasons, is %or security, and that also happens on any plugins that you have in themes, you have to )eep things up to date or otherwise you will get hac)ed. !nd that also goes %or your hosting provider, as well, i% they don't )eep their plat%orm up to date, it's more than li)ely you would be already hac)ed and don't even )now about it. Andrew McCauley: 5hat the point o% these scripts, why would someone do that( 5hat's do they get out o% doing that( Neil G: 5ell, there is a commercial gain here, as well. One o% the commercial gains is that the scripts can create an army o% what they call 3ombies, or a bot net o% 3ombies, and these 3ombies are basically controlled by an administrator and they can then use them %or spam, you )now, #iagra type sites, that type o% thing. "loa)ing search engine results, and giving out %alse lin)s and all sorts o% things, so there's 2uite and actually advantage to commercially do this. Heather Porter: 9o what this means is these hac)ers can essentially put up a #iagra webpage on your website, but also use your website to send out #iagra emails, as well. &s that right( Neil G: >$actly, so i% somebody does a search %or cool cameras and up comes a camera website but when you clic) on it it goes to a #iagra website, that is manipulating your site by the server, and then they're trying to get sales so that's where the commercial access comes into play. !nd then you've got people who maliciously try and do some damage to your site because they thin) it's %un, and those ones are more easily caught because you can use certain tools to scan %or malware %iles and malicious code. Heather Porter: 5ow. !ndrew, &'d love to )now, li)e %or those listening, 0eil's advice to somebody that has a site and now they really get the %act that they need to publish content ongoing, i% you could provide out listeners with a %ew steps that somebody could ta)e into account to improve the tra%%ic on their website. Neil G: ,eah, o)ay, that's good. & thin) %irst o% all what you need to do is )now who your mar)eting is and where your content is getting hits, what are the important pages, which are the ones getting more hits that the others, what are the words people are using to %ind your site( !nd you can get all that in%ormation %rom 1oogle analytics. & use another tool called *unintelligible+ analytics, which is an open source statistics and numbers and it tells me everything. &t's the same
thing as 1oogle, & -ust pre%er it. &t tells me where the audience is, the demographics, what )eywords are searched and what pages they're hitting. 9o &'m going to hone in on what is the most important content and &'m going to e$ploit it %rom there, so i% &'ve got an article that's been hit 2uite a lot, &'m going to then create another article that relates to the %irst one and -ust grow it %rom there, and then -ust loo) at the stats again and see how it goes. !nd then you loo) at pages that you thin) aren't and wonder why is this page not doing so well, & thin) it's got really good content but &'m not getting any hits on it, then loo) at the article, loo) at the tags, loo) at the way it's structured. ,ou may have to change a page titles, your images in there, your actual content might be too short, or too many pictures, too many lin)s on the page, and try to re%ine it. /est a %ew di%%erent ways to write the article to test it out and then its ebb and %low. ,ou've -ust got to )eep trying at your content. Heather Porter: 9o you can actually go bac), and you're recommending to go bac) and twea) your content a%ter you've published it. Neil G: !bsolutely, twea) it, update it, and when you update it re8publish the date, so in 5ord'ress %or instance, once you publish a page or a post and you need to update it you can change the publication date. 9o i% you've got more in%ormation on the article it ma)es more sense to update the publication date because when & search, & actually search using some o% the 1oogle tools to say show me the results in the last month, or the last year. & don't want to see things that are %our years ago, & want to see more recent things, so you can do that when you're searching. &% you change your publication dates and people also search by date, you'll bene%it %rom it. Heather Porter: /hat's a cool tips, actually, and & didn't even thin) about that. /hat's easy to do in 5ord'ress in the publish bo$, you can change the publish date directly in there. Neil G: /hat's right. Andrew McCauley: &'ve got a 2uestion %or you, 0eil. &'ve -ust been loo)ing at your website and one o% the things that & only learnt recently and you might want to e$plain this is anyone goes to your website to chec) it out is that you've got a lot o% tra%%ic going to there, but there's not a lot o% interaction on the social share buttons that you4ve got. Ao you want to e$plain why there's not much going on there at the moment( Neil G: 5hat &'ve done there is changed the domain name twice, so & had the original domain name, changed it to shi%t direction, and then & changed it again, and by doing that, i% you do change domains, you can )eep all o% your content, all o% your images and things and that all stays in place, but what you do loose is any :aceboo) li)es on each page and you lose /weets and & thin) 1oogle D has
actually stayed, but the other two you lose because in e%%ect it's going to a new LM.. 9o that's what happens. ,ou also lose your page ran) %rom 1oogle, as well, so that has to be built bac) up, but what you don't lose is your tra%%ic because i% you set the re8direct properly the results in 1oogle, once clic)ed on, will go to your new domain once you re8directs are set up. !nd it's -ust a matter o% time be%ore you build that social scene bac) up, and it's also a matter o% time be%ore 1oogle then does its page ran)s. & thin) it does it every 2uarter o% each year, and it *unintelligible+ what your page is li)e and then it ran)s it %rom one to ten. ore li)ely it's going to be not higher than %our because a%ter %our it's pretty hard to achieve. !ny )ind o% ran) is better than no ran), and that will happen, as well, actually. Andrew McCauley: ,eah right, well that's good to )now because & )now a %ew people that wanted to move their domains around and they didn't )now about that whole, they wor)ed hard to ma)e sure that they're sharing on social and they're getting shared around on social, but it's good to )now that i% it's not there that word o% mouth could a%%ect a %ew things, so that's good to )now. Heather Porter: 9o & -ust have one 2uestion here that's probably more personal than anything, but you mentioned that you love /witter. 0ow, most people, and !ndrew you will agree with me on this one, whenever & go spea) and & tal) to people, the ma-ority o% them say, & hate /witter, or & don't understand /witter, or why do you use /witter... &'m really interested into why you thin) /witter is the )ey tool %or you and why do you use it in that way( Neil G: 5ell & used to be in that band camp as well where & thought /witter was a useless tool. 5hy would you use something li)e that( ?ut then & got into /weet Aec) and & do li)e the %act that you can setup a bunch o% column, put in a certain )eyword, and it will -ust update in %ront o% your eyes, so i% there were some part o% industry that you were interested in and you set your columns up to do a search on a certain word, it's ama3ing how 2uic)ly news -ust spreads through /witter, & mean, you can get updates on everything, and in %act now & thin) & learn things more that happen via /witter than anything else because it's li)e a bush %ire. &t spreads so %ast on that plat%orm. 9o many people giving you in%ormation, it's wild %ire. Andrew McCauley: 5hen Hostgator went down the other day & went searching on 1oogle to see i% it was, you )now, what the deal was and & couldn't %ind much but & went straight to /witter and typed in Hostgator and it gave me my answer instantly. !ll sorts o% news that & needed to %ind out on that minute. /hat's why /witter is great. Neil G: &t's %unny that Hostgator e$perienced because we have a Hostgator account and & created a tic)et, & logged in, & did a whole lot o% things, and what & should have done was go straight to /witter because then when & went to /witter
at the end & got my in%ormation immediately, so & )ind o% wasted IG minutes but & could have had it in %ive seconds because & thought the technical issue was on our side, but it wasn't. ?ut, /witter gave me that in%ormation immediately. &t's very instant. Andrew McCauley: ,eah it is. & thin) & wrote a post how ichael =ac)son )illed /witter a%ter he died there was so much in%ormation going on about ichael =ac)son on /witter & thin) it bro)e, it nearly bro)e /witter. ?ac) then in @00J they weren't ready %or the amount o% in%ormation that was going to be /weeted per second. ?ut certainly it's a great news source and that's why & love /witter. Heather Porter: *laughs+ 9o 0eil, do you have any other %inishing thoughts that you -ust want to share in general about the, & would say the environment o% 9>O and tra%%ic( Neil G: & thin) 9>O has completely changed the old ways o% manipulating search engines to not wor) and the way %orward is really content. >verybody says content is )ing and & thoroughly believe in that. &% your content is good, i% you do your research and get your editorial out, people will come. 'eople will lin) to it, and then, because at the end o% the day, people say 9>O is dead, it's not really, & mean, my tra%%ic personally is li)e, <0N o% my tra%%ic comes %rom 9>O. &t shows you that it's *unintelligible+ di%%erently about it. Andrew McCauley: &t's dead the way it used to be, it's -ust changed the way it's done now pretty much. Neil G: /hat's right. Heather Porter: !nd what's your website again %or those that want to go chec) it out( Neil G: &t's called coolestguidesontheplanet.com. Andrew McCauley: !ndrew, & have something & want to share, as well. 0eil 1. )eeps mentioning our server, and he's mentioning our server because, yes, he is on our team. He's on the !utopilot ,our ?usiness team, and we're really luc)y to have him, he loo)s a%ter our server, he's a web programmer on our team, and all o% our team members are ama3ing because they do their own stu%% online, so li)e, he has his own website and he's constantly testing and improving stu%% and constantly bringing it to our mi$. Neil G: He's our secret hosting weapon. Heather Porter: He is! Andrew McCauley: !nd a lot more than that. *laughter+
Heather Porter: ,eah, so it's good to have him on our team. Andrew McCauley: He doesn't get out in public much, so we thought we'd bring him out and share the love because he doesn't get out in %ront o% people as much as you and & do, that's %or sure, and it's always good to hear how people are really doing this sort o% stu%% %or their own business, too. Hey, than)s %or coming on, 0eil. Meally appreciate you sharing that in%ormation today, it's been great, and &'m sure our listeners got some great things out o% it today, too. Neil G: ,eah, no worries. /han)s %or inviting me, &'ve had a good time. Heather Porter: /han)s %or being here... Andrew McCauley: podcast( H, where do they go and get the in%ormation about this
Heather Porter: /hat's e$actly what & was going to say, than)s %or beating me to the punch. 0ow here's where you go6 autopilotyourbusiness.com7podcast, and once you're in there hop on over to our latest episode and our show notes and we have some nice little goodies in there, and you can sign up to stay on top o% our releases each time we release a podcast we'll let you guys now, and as always we'd love to hear what you thin). &% you have 2uestions or comments about what 0eil's tal)ed about today please drop us a comment on our site, or pop on over to i/unes and leave us a review. Andrew McCauley: ,ay! /han) you 0eil, than) you Heather! .oo) %orward tour ne$t show whenever that is in the ne$t wee) or so. /al) to you all soon. Heather Porter: /han)s, guys! Andrew McCauley: ?ye.

Driving Website Traffic: An Interview With Neil G

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Driving Website Traffic: An Interview With Neil G

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Andrew McCauley: On today's podcast we're going to have a very special guest who gets over 6,000 hits

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