So hopefully you read the post just prior to this one about how I adjusted my direction and intentions on a blog and how it worked out for me. If not check it out as it will show you why adjusting your sails is important. If you don’t feel like it though – this post could be semi sufficient.

This is day two in a short two day series, the post was way too long so I decided to split it up into two readable chunks for you guys. You can find the Story Here

Adjusting to your readers is a fairly simple task when compared to actually writing great posts people want to read. But it can turn into a lengthy one – so try setting aside a day or so for this – plus take notes as you go through the process to guide your changes in the end.

1. Find out where you readers come from

Go into your stats system – in my case Google Analytics – and take a look at things like referring traffic. What sites are giving you the most traffic and what are those sites saying about you. If you have a blog about dishwashers and they are telling people you have stuff about ovens and refrigerators you need to work on that.

Go ahead and expand your post topics to what people are looking for – and I can almost guarantee more success. But legally I don’t think that would be a good idea.

2. Find out what your readers are searching for

This step can go two ways – you can check your stats and find what people are Googling when they come to your site or you can figure out what people are searching for through your search box.

Either Way it’s the same concept and I’ll let you twist my example to fit both. You can usually do this through your stats program – find what people were searching for when they landed on your page.

Sticking with the appliances example above – your visitors may be looking for posts on counter tops to match their dishwashers. If this is the case you now have a whole new field to expand on. So go at it by writing how certain counter tops react to acids – you get the point.

3. Find out where your readers live

As far as my blogs go they mostly get native English speakers or people that need English for what they do – like Internet stuff. But for the sake of example lets say your writing about cooking and recipes – and that 50% of your readers are from German speaking countries.

We’ll I know you don’t want to want learn German or exclude your English speaking readers. The simple solution – if you use Word Press – is to get the Global Translator Plug In or something similar. Then make sure you have both standard and metric measurements for things like recipes.

Bam you can now reach out to a wider – international – audience. The only thing you can do to make it better now is to direct some posts specifically to your international audience. Maybe with some German dishes.

4. Acting on it

So if you took notes on what you found when doing the research – the only thing thats left now is to act on it. Change your logo and fix your theme if necessary to match the new expanded topics. Create an update post explaining the addition. Add the new categories your blog and fix your about page if needed.

Cause without action reading this was useless.

What do you think about changing your directions to fit your visitors needs? Is it worth it to you?

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