So before we go swinging into 2017 I thought it might be nice to look back at my ten most popular posts of the past year – including some olden but golden posts from years past that are still proving pretty popular.
What’s really interesting about this (if you’re a bit of a nerd, like me) is how posts that were written two, three and more years ago are still among my top-performing content because they’re pretty evergreen, and well ranked in search.
My post about the Warner Bros Studio tour, for example, was originally published in 2013, but still brings around 500 visits a day to my site. My goal for 2017 is to get some of my newer posts performing as well as that post!
So it’s well worth investing time in making sure those useful, evergreen posts you write are well-written and have the proper SEO added to them!
Anyway, in reverse order, here’s what people visiting Who’s the Mummy were reading in 2016:
- 40 More Box Sets to See Before you’re 40, Part 1 Â (11,746 page views)
- 40 Box Sets to See Before You’re 40, Part 2 (11,756 page views)
- 5 Questions to ask when Choosing a Primary School (11,768 page views)
- Things to do at Disneyworld Florida when you’re 7 (12,835 page views)
- 10 Best Box Sets on Sky TV 2016 Edition (12,901 page views)
- 5 Things not to do at a Smear Test (15,609 page views)
- 40 Box Sets to See Before You’re 40 (18,384 page views)
- Top Tips for Winter Trips to Disneyland Paris (16,317 page views)
- 20 Movies from the 80s Your Kids Will Love (139k page views)
- Top Tips for Days Out at the Harry Potter Studios  (143k page views)
Here’s what my list shows me:
- People love reading about box sets
- People love reading tips for days out at specific attractions (more than destinations)
- People love a good list post.
What are your top performing posts? Do they have similar trends?
I reckon a good chunk of the Disneyland hits were from me before our trip in November – it was bloody BRILLIANT & so helpful so thanks!
Ah, thanks so much!
I feel a bit more confident to write about my local area now we’re not in a teeny tiny village where internet weirdos could find me (although they’d have to be super weird to want to) and as there are oodles of niche tourist places nearby I think that’ll be good. My most visited post year on year is a pushchair review. I’ve accepted that heartfelt or current affairs opinion posts are for me, reviews are for Google juice!
Reviews definitely tend to do very well in Google, I have a few for kitchen appliances that do quite well, too.
Wow lists clearly are a winner!
I haven’t looked at my own top performing posts this year as I changed platforms so it’s a bit complicated!
I don’t think I’ve actually read all of your top posts so will have to rectify that later x
10 Reasons Lists are Great…
This is really interesting! I don’t do list posts. Maybe I should?!
I just checked mine. Strangely, my top performing post is called ‘Happy birthday, 11 year old boy’. It’s a very personal post and over two years old, so I have no idea why it’s so popular. Also in my top 10 are ballet posts, Center Parcs posts and posts on acne and Roaccutane – nearly all of them written two or three years ago. I guess not many people post about acne and Roaccutane, so my blog comes up pretty high on Google.
Yes I think sometimes it’s about posting something specific – and if your site content has a good retention rate, maybe that helps?
My best read post of all time contains a template for My Little Pony which I made for my daughter’s birthday party. Most of the comments are from Bronies and they think I’m awesome. No, I’m never going to beat that! I did love your box set posts, and I only have one box set myself.
My top performing post of 2016, by a very long way, was the one showing what was in the Marks and Spencer beauty advent calendar. I was the very first person to post the full list, and it really showed because my traffic suddenly shot up and stayed up for months. Now that we are past advent calendar season it will be interesting to see what it settles down to. In general I find that it’s posts about popular but not very well covered brands or places or subjects that bring the most traffic. The less people are writing about something, the more your post gets a chance to stand out.
Definitely, and I think sometimes it’s just luck and timing, if your post lands and is “fresh” just as traffic increases for a term.
Coffee hacks and first aid for baby infographics which I did nt even write but I can handle it (sob) Happy new year you x !!!!
Ha! Take the traffic where we can, don’t we? Happy New Year x
You’re a box set geek!
It’s true 🙂
This is really interesting. I also have two particular posts that do incredibly well but sadly they are seasonal so my blog has fabulous views from September to December and then the tumbleweed hits again! Also some people have been saying it’s best to remove the date from your post links to make them perform better in SEO. I’ve noticed you still have the dates in there and if you’re getting results like that from search with them in then I don’t think I’ll bother removing them. Thanks for the insight!
Nat.x
The dates don’t impact SEO, it’s more relevant to visitors who might look at the date on a post and then consider it less relevant once they’ve clicked through, though.
This is really interesting Sally. Funnily enough, my NYR is to start writing about the things I love which will heavily include my box set fascination 🙂
Great tips and fantastic viewing stats… incredible and very inspirational for other bloggers, like me! x