Has it really been more than a year already? At first, I wrote little more than things like \u201cI absolutely love the Panamera!\u201d<\/strong> After plenty of twists and turns, I\u2019ve spent the last few months focusing on what it means to be a Porsche blog. Then yesterday, at last:<\/p>\n I ranked No. 1 in Google for \u201cPorsche blog\u201d!<\/span><\/p>\n Thank you so much to everyone who reads this blog, Kansai dialect and all. Of course, there aren\u2019t that many Porsche blogs to compete with, so it\u2019s probably easier to rank highly than it would be for a more common search term. Still, I thought I\u2019d share what I did to reach the top. (If you write an automotive blog, I hope you\u2019ll find some of this useful.)<\/span><\/p>\n For context, I\u2019ve published 219 posts so far. As of June 20, 2018, here are the figures for the previous 28 days:<\/p>\n \u25a0 Audience<\/strong> \u2192 Men: 90.2%, women: 9.8% That\u2019s where things stand. I won\u2019t share the actual traffic numbers\u2014it feels a little tacky, even for a Kansai native like me. But apparently, a million page views a month puts you in the top 5% of bloggers<\/a>, so I suppose this blog is doing reasonably well.<\/p>\n The blog\u2019s traffic started to grow, and it began showing up in keyword searches, after my husband started helping me with the entire operation. Here are the strategies that made the biggest difference.<\/p>\n I originally started on Hatena Blog, but moved to WordPress on April 4, 2018<\/strong>. I think that was a major turning point. The main reason I decided to move was that Hatena Blog limited how much I could customize the design and site management.<\/strong><\/p>\n By then, though, I\u2019d already published around 150 posts and had more than 100 Hatena followers. I hesitated for a while, worried about the risk of a sharp drop in traffic (or so I\u2019d heard)<\/span> and the work involved in moving every URL.<\/p>\n But if I was going to make the switch eventually, it made sense to do it sooner, while the blog was still relatively small. So I took the plunge in April. This was the guide I used:<\/p>\n How to Move from Hatena Blog to WordPress: A Detailed Guide to the Process and Important Settings<\/a><\/p>\n Traffic did dip temporarily after the move, but it recovered in about a week. The URLs transferred without any problems, too. I wished I\u2019d done it sooner.<\/p>\n Most bloggers probably use Sakura Internet or a hosting service that comes bundled with a domain. This blog, however, runs on AWS (Amazon Web Services)<\/strong>\u2014the cloud services platform offered by Amazon, the global e-commerce company, to businesses.<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s servers handle an incredible volume of transactions every minute of every day, and our site loads quickly and stays online even when traffic surges. (Then again, my blog doesn\u2019t get anywhere near that kind of traffic, so for now it\u2019s a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. (-_-))<\/span><\/p>\n Site speed is an important factor in Google\u2019s evaluation, and slow pages can frustrate visitors and drive them away. (The only reason I can use AWS despite knowing absolutely nothing about servers is that my husband works in IT.)<\/span><\/p>\n Design matters a lot when you run a blog. But I\u2019m neither a web designer nor a developer, so I decided to leave that part to the professionals and buy a template from TCD<\/a>, which offers a wide range of WordPress themes.<\/p>\n TCD themes are affordable, polished, and easy for beginners to use. They work on both computers and smartphones, and I think using a theme as designed is often better than trying to customize everything yourself. This blog uses the \u201cBloom\u201d theme.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s designed with women in mind, but changing the site colors and photos can completely change the look. I also considered this one, called \u201cMAG.\u201d<\/p>\n The themes generally cost somewhere between \u00a510,000 and \u00a530,000.<\/p>\n I use Google Search Console to review the keywords bringing people to the site. I don\u2019t do it constantly, but I try to write posts that reflect what readers are searching for. For Panamera-related content, for example, I keep an eye on popular terms such as \u201ctest drive,\u201d \u201cdelivery,\u201d \u201cfuel economy,\u201d and \u201cSport Turismo.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n That kind of analysis really isn\u2019t my thing. My brain starts screaming, and I\u2019d rather not overthink it\u2014I want to write about what interests me. So I don\u2019t check the data all that often. (Though I know I really should.)<\/span><\/p>\n Thankfully, my husband loves cars and enjoys analyzing data, so he keeps an eye on it and lets me know what he finds.<\/p>\n Rather than repeating information readers can find elsewhere or simply recapping Porsche news, I try to write posts that make people think, \u201cWow, you researched that much?\u201d<\/strong> or \u201cI hadn\u2019t thought of it that way!\u201d<\/strong> My goal is to create articles that are enjoyable, useful, and genuinely satisfying to read.<\/p>\n I still have a lot to learn about writing. And I can\u2019t produce a deeply researched, carefully crafted post every single day, so sometimes I write something lighter.<\/p>\n Depending on the blog, publishing several short, light posts every day<\/strong> can be a perfectly valid strategy. But that approach doesn\u2019t suit my personality. I can\u2019t hit publish unless it\u2019s something I\u2019d want to read again myself\u2014and something I can confidently tell people, \u201cYou should check this out!\u201d<\/strong> For now, I plan to keep up a pace of one post a day.<\/p>\n I write this blog anonymously, so I rarely promote it to people I know. That means I\u2019ve had to start from scratch with Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and I\u2019m still figuring out what works.<\/p>\n Social media is gradually bringing more visitors to the blog, and I\u2019m hoping to learn how each platform works and what it\u2019s best suited for by continuing to use them.<\/strong> At the moment, I use them like this:<\/p>\n \u25a0 Twitter: Sharing car-related thoughts and exchanging information with fellow enthusiasts Of the three, Instagram is the most fun for me. Well-known racers from around the world like and comment on my posts, and photos can cross language and national borders with ease.<\/strong> I\u2019m excited to see where it could lead.<\/p>\nHow the Blog Has Performed Over the Past Month<\/h3>\n
\n\u25a0 Age \u2192<\/strong> 18\u201324: 9.06%, 25\u201334: 23.77%, 35\u201344: 29.31%, 45\u201354: 26.54%, 55\u201364: 11.32%
\n\u25a0 Language<\/strong> \u2192 Japanese: 98.27%, English: 1.73%
\n\u25a0 Average time on page \u2192<\/strong> 00:01:55
\n\u25a0 Bounce rate<\/strong> \u2192 56.52%
\n\u25a0 Traffic sources<\/strong>: Google\/organic: 49.67%, Yahoo\/organic: 28.91%, direct: 14.52%, Twitter: 2.56%, Blogmura: 0.97%, Facebook: 0.59%
\n\u25a0 Most-viewed post \u2192 Test-Driving the New Panamera Turbo Left Me Feeling Thoroughly Defeated<\/a>
\nThat post is a little over the top, so I\u2019m honestly a bit embarrassed by it. (-_-)<\/span><\/p>\n\u2460 Moving from Hatena Blog to WordPress<\/h3>\n
\u2461 Hosting the Site on AWS<\/h3>\n
\u2462 Using a TCD WordPress Theme<\/h3>\n
![\"WordPress](\"http:\/\/tcdwp.info\/tcd053\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/bloom_banner\/336_280.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"WordPress](\"http:\/\/tcdwp.net\/tcd036\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/mag_banner\/300_250.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u2463 Analyzing Search Keywords<\/h3>\n
\u2464 Focusing on Quality Content<\/h3>\n
\u2465 Making the Most of Social Media<\/h3>\n
\n\u25a0 Facebook page: Mainly sharing new blog posts
\n\u25a0 Instagram: Posting photos of the Panamera and other Porsches<\/p>\n\u2466 Blogmura<\/h3>\n