Who doesn’t love a good recap post?
The inside scoop on what’s happening in other people’s business is too hard to resist for me! I mean those details are juicy, right?
Disclaimer: Some of the links provided in this post are affiliate links (denoted with a *), meaning K Design Co. receives compensation from the companies whose products or services are recommended at no additional expense or cost to you.
How I used SEO to my advantage to grow my website traffic this year
This year like every year in my business, I kept a close eye on my organic traffic because it’s like the gift that keeps on giving in so many ways. I mean, who doesn’t like free website traffic?
Even though I wasn’t as consistent with blogging this year as I have been in past years, I still managed to 3x my organic traffic this year. Wow! (I wonder if I can triple it next year too?)
- 2019 Organic traffic: 3,368
- 2020 Organic traffic: 10,206
Guys, I wouldn’t call myself an SEO expert, but I was still able to get amazing results. I think the reason I had such an increase in organic traffic this year is that I am finally starting to get REAL traction on my domain from backlinks and grow my domain authority. Backlinks to my site come from either 1) custom websites that I’ve designed for my clients, 2) people who have purchased one my Showit templates and launched their site or 3) businesses that wanted to feature me and my content. Here are a few of the blog features I’ve had on other websites that I’m proud to show off this year:
Several of my old blog posts are also still bringing in tons of traffic from people who type in keywords I’ve optimized for.
…And my highest ranking keyphrase is >>> color palette ideas
I rank #1 for this on Google right now (and many related key terms) and have been holding steady on it for months ladies for a blog I wrote 2 years ago. That’s pretty amazing and I want to capitalize more on this in the new year to keep growing my email list. This just reinforces how important keyword research is and SEO optimization.
Why Pinterest is still my favorite “social media” platform.
Pinterest was still an amazing traffic source in 2020 and I will continue to focus on it 2021:
- 2019 Pinterest Traffic: 24,382 visitors
- 2020 Pinterest Traffic: 38,371 visitors
All my other social channels grew as well but this one had the biggest growth! Even with all the weird algorithm changes Pinterest has had this year (and I quit using Tailwind to schedule pins), I was still able to grow my traffic from Pinterest exponentially.
This is all pretty impressive, at least to me. Traffic numbers are great to look at but at the end of the day, it’s more about the impact that the traffic made on my business, right?
Launching my website template shop was the best risk I took this year.
This year I launched my template shop which was a completely new source of revenue for me. Honestly, I had no idea where to get started with my shop but I just went for it and made it work. I started with one template and then slowly added more to my shop as time permitted. The fact I made consistent revenue, even on a small scale, was true proof of concept to me and as a result, I’m going to be putting even more consistent time and attention into my website templates in the new year.
- 2019 Product Sales: $0
- 2020 Product Sales: $12,160
A majority of these sales were driven by my organic traffic, referrals and Pinterest (not ads), so you better believe I’m doing more of that stuff in the new year. Pssst… affiliate program coming soon…
Business investments I made this year that were 100% worth it:
THRIVECART
Thrivecart* is my payment processor application. They are currently running in beta so they offer a flat fee, one-time cost to purchase lifetime access as opposed to other apps out there that cause you a recurring monthly cost upwards of $150 a month. Really, it’s a no brainer. I made my investment back after my second template sale and I made 50 total sales this year that didn’t have a recurring monthly cost associated with them (besides my website hosting which I was already paying regardless).
HIRING A VA
I hired a VA early in 2020. She was the bomb[dot]com. She showed me what my business could look like when my marketing ran like a well-oiled machine. It was amazing and I still see the return from things she created and did for me early on in the year. I am so grateful for this woman.
MAKING TIME FOR MY HEALTH
In June, I lost my bearings and got buried under stress and health issues so Q3 and Q4 I slowed waaaay down on client work to focus on taking care of myself. This was invaluable and necessary.
In the end, I didn’t hit my revenue goal, ya’ll. Not even close.
Even though I made great goals for my year, the path wasn’t clear on how to achieve them by way of actionable milestones. I had the big ideas but did not detail out week by week how I was going to make those things a reality. That was my biggest mistake. So right around Q2, things got muddy real quick. Pile on a pandemic and stress and health problems and honestly, I think I faired pretty well, all things considered.
But I’m giving myself grace because there are three things I did achieve…
- I saw and felt the momentum starting to build on my shop and my templates. In 2021, I’m projecting at least 30% of my total revenue will come from my shop. This isn’t going to happen without some major effort on my part.
- I recognized I don’t want more clients. I want the right clients. I served a lot of clients in 2018 and 2019 (and in years prior, but especially the past two years) but it didn’t serve me well. Even though I was still able to deliver amazing work, I felt burnout and stretched much too thin. In 2020, I’m taking on way fewer clients and being a lot more choosy about who I let into my life and my circle. I want to focus on clients who are ready to put in the hard work and have big goals and dreams in mind.
- I’m heading into 2021 with a very clear picture of what I’m going to focus on and exactly what I need to do to make it happen. Here are just a few of the goals I have in mind:
- Reaching 200 template sales for the year
- Launching a new VIP service and book 2 clients a month
- Launching a 1-Day website offering and book 1 a month
- Cutting my website projects completion time in half
- Giving back to a cause that has meaning to me
And this is exactly where I need to be to start the new year ahead. Guys – I am so excited for what is to come and I can’t wait to show up for 2021. Tell me what big goals you are planning on for the coming year!
