April 2016 Traffic Report: Why I'm Relying More On Pinterest

I'm excited to share another traffic report for A Relaxed Gal with you. I changed some things up in April in an effort to improve my numbers from March. I had some successes and had some things that didn't go as well as I'd like.

Additionally, since the first quarter is over I'll be reviewing where I am with my 2016 Blog goals.

I share my monthly traffic reports partly to hold myself accountable and help me keep a closer eye on my monthly stats. I’m also doing this in the hopes of helping and encouraging other bloggers who are looking to grow their online presence.

(This post includes some affiliate links. Should you click an affiliate link and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.)

   

April 2016 site stats

• Sessions: 2,505 (-35.74%)
• Users: 2,119 (-34.52%)
• Pageviews: 3,367 (-34.51%)
• Pages/Sessions: 1.34 (+1.91%)
• % of New Sessions: 74.45% (+4.84%)
• Bounce Rate: 83.63% (-2.11%)

April 2016 top blog posts

1. 5 Ways To Get Your Hair Regimen Ready For Spring
2. Why You Should Pre-poo Before Washing Your Hair
3. Why I Prefer Wearing Mineral Foundation
4. Why I do Apple Cider Vinegar Rinses 

April 2016 top traffic drivers

1. Direct
2. Stumbleupon
3. Google/organic
4. Pinterest

April 2016 social stats

• Bloglovin: 73 (+7)
• Google+: 58 (+1)
• Instagram: 183 (+11)
• Pinterest: 292 (+90)
• Twitter: 247 (+35)

Where I am with my goals

• Create and maintain a consistent look and feel for my content - Somewhat
• Publishing content on a consistent basis - Somewhat
• Promoting my content more - Yes

My takeaways

• Do the Tailwind free trial for Pinterest and compare the results to BoardBooster - Yes
• Figure out how to be more active on Instagram - Somewhat
• Spend more time Stumbling - No
• Continue boosting my SEO - Yes

What Worked

Pinterest
I saw an 8% increase in traffic from Pinterest. While this increase isn't as dramatic as what I saw in March it can be attributed to a few things - 1) trying out Tailwind, 2) continuing to use BoardBooster, 3) thinking about my Pinterest SEO.

I took advantage of Tailwind's free trial during April. The results from the trial were decent and included an increase in my Pinterest following which also translated into traffic to my blog. I haven't compared my Tailwind results to the results I saw from BoardBooster yet, but I feel the tools BoardBooster provides are better suited for my Pinterest strategy.

After finishing the Tailwind free trial I decided to take the plunge and pay for a month of BoardBooster. This has been a great decision so far. Since I started using BoardBooster again my Pinterest followers continued to increase on a daily basis.

Additionally, I decided to make changes to my Pinterest boards to improve my SEO there. Yes, even on Pinterest you have to think about SEO. To get started I renamed a few boards, removed boards that weren't getting decent repins, added new boards with topics similar to my better-performing boards, and changed the main graphic for each board. I'm hoping that next month the results of the board changes I made will really start to kick in.

Promoting my content more
I've been doing more content promotion on Pinterest and Twitter by automating my pins and tweets. I've also joined some Facebook groups and link-ups as other avenues for sharing my content.

What Sort of Worked

Create and maintain a consistent look and feel
I seem to have settled on a consistent look for my blog graphics which I'm very happy about. So I'll be using those going forward.

My photography could use some more work though, especially my Instagram photos. That's something I'll have to figure out as I only have an iPhone to take pictures with.

Publishing on a consistent basis
I created a blog posting schedule of once a week on Saturdays which has been great. The once-a-week posting schedule has allowed me to have more time to create more quality content.

YouTube, on the other hand, has been a complete failure. I haven't posted a new video in a while and may put new videos on hold until I've moved to my new place.

My plans for May

Focus more on content promotion through social media

• Continue with BoardBooster
• Continue increasing my activity on Instagram by posting more and engaging with those I follow
• Tweet more consistently

Increase my number of blog posts per week

• This is a huge change for me. I've currently been posting once a week on Saturdays. What I've found is posting once a week works if I'm not doing a series and would be great if my blog focused on only one topic. If I'm doing a series I'm only posting about one topic for several weeks and not allowing the opportunity for varied content. So I created a new posting schedule
• Wednesdays will be for Hair and Beauty posts
• Saturdays for Lifestyle and Blogger posts
• Tuesdays or Fridays will be used for more time-sensitive posts (like this one)

How was your blog traffic in April?