Our Best Hyperlocal Content in 2009
by Matt on Jan 6, 2010 in Content
In the last post here on HLB, I shared the most popular posts on this blog, Hyperlocal Blogger. What I want to talk about in this post is the most popular content on the four hyperlocal blogs that my wife and I run. Those blogs are:
Richland Real Estate Blog
Kennewick Real Estate Blog
Pasco Real Estate Blog
West Richland Real Estate Blog
I’ve explained this before, but if you’re a new reader, it’s worth knowing that these are not your typical, news-oriented local blogs. Among the different types of local blogs, ours exist in part to help promote my wife’s real estate business. We don’t chase ambulances around town and don’t report much hard news at all. We mostly report news about the local schools, local events, local businesses, and so forth. But, ironically, some of our most popular posts across the four blogs in 2009 were the ones that did report hard news.
Our Most Popular Content Types
I’m not going to list the exact posts that drew the most traffic to each blog, mainly because I know there are competing real estate agents (with blogs) that read this blog, and I’d rather not give them too many specific ideas for what they should be writing about. But I will share the types of posts that brought the most traffic to our hyperlocal blogs.
Methodology: I found the top five posts written in 2009 on each of the four blogs, for a total of 20 popular blog posts about Tri-Cities, Washington. And then I put those posts into categories as best I could. There’s some overlap, of course — a story about something important happening at school could go under “News” or “Schools,” so I did my best to classify according to the real intent of the post.
Results: Here’s the breakdown of the most popular content in my hometown:
- News / Hard News: 7 posts out of 20
- Events / Things to Do: 6 posts ” ”
- Schools: 3 posts ” ”
- Businesses: 3 posts ” ”
- Sights: 1 post ” ”
I’m both surprised and somewhat not surprised to see News/Hard News as the top content type. Surprised because we don’t write much content like that … but not surprised because I’m well aware of the thirst for local news online these days. (See Why Local Blogging Works and Why NOW is the Best Time to Start a Local Blog.)
Our Top Sources of Local Content
One more thing I’ll share: where the traffic to our four blogs came from. Here’s the chart…
I’m not at all surprised that search engines sent 73% of the traffic to our local blogs. Referring sites (like Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, Bloglines, etc.) sent 17%, and direct traffic was 9%. (The “other” category made up the final 1%.) As I mentioned in Why Local Blogging Works, local web sites are often poorly optimized and search engines love a good blog. To me, this shows the importance of knowing at least the basics of blog SEO and making sure you’re keeping search engines in mind as you create content.
(And that begs the question, would a post or two about SEO for local blogs be helpful? Please let me know.)
Final Thoughts
Even though our local blogs aren’t very traditional, I think their performance in 2009 actually helps prove some of the traditional points about hyperlocal blogging as a whole. People are looking for local news online, and hyperlocal blogs can fill a void that more and more newspapers and TV/radio stations aren’t filling (due to layoffs, lack of profits, etc.).
While I don’t see us changing the approach of our blogs, this information only piques my interest even more toward starting a local online news site, one not bound by a desire to promote Cari’s real estate business. I’m curious to see what might happen.
I’m also curious to hear from you: What types of content worked best for you in 2009? and Where did your traffic come from? Comments are open. Let’s talk.
Comments
4 Responses to “Our Best Hyperlocal Content in 2009”
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Interesting stats. I’m always curious to see where others get their traffic. Here’s my breakdown:
33% Direct
15% Twitter
12% Google
9% Facebook
I don’t think I get as much traffic from Google as I would like because the community I cover is right outside of Chicago and we have two local papers. So there are lots of people already writing about current events.
In terms of my most popular content, anything about restaurants opening or closing tends to spark a lot of conversation (I believe we’re a community of foodies). Crime is also a hot topic (with one story about a recent theft generating 47 comments alone).
Great post. I think without question hyper local content will become the mainstay of news that people consume. Aggregating all that news will be the real power.
John R. Carlisle
Hi Matt,
Very interesting post. I always try and get as much traffic as possible from Google.
My traffic breakdown for the past month is as follows:
Search Engines (59.35%)
Direct Traffic (25.20%)
Referring Sites (14.63%)
Other (0.81%)
Jo Turnbull
Jo, I’m curious to know why you want so much traffic from Google. It’s risky to rely too heavily on a single source of traffic, esp. a search engine that could change its ranking methods tomorrow. I wrote about a while ago on my other blog:
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/you-can-diversify-or-you-can-die/585/