Thought for the day….

As many of you know, I’ve been dealing with the nasty WordPress Pharma hack here on Sheila’s Guide (don’t worry, it’s safe for your computer or mobile device to be here; the hack only messes with this blog’s search engine results.)

After running after it for weeks and weeks, I’ve called in some more help, but this is not keeping me up at night. At all. I mean, I DO care and it IS embarrassing to have pharmaceutical results come up as the title of my Speaker page, but I’m not frantic.

Why?

Because my analytics data shows me the multiple ways that people find my content other than search engines.

There are lots from people coming to the homepage URL directly, through referral links, Twitter traffic is big for me, occasionally StumbleUpon (especially Stumbles on the recent press trip “exclusive” guest post,) there’s Facebook of course, LinkedIn spikes sometimes, the blog URL is in my email signature/on my business cards/in every online profile I fill out, and then there are my loyal RSS and email subscribers.

This blog doesn’t have a huge subscriber list, but the important thing is that they care enough to have my posts come to their email IN box, which for most people is a busy, crowded place with a lot of things demanding attention. It is nice to be welcomed there, so yesterday I went over and took a look at my email and RSS subscriber data in Feedburner, just to gaze delightedly at the names of the people who support me like that.

I even sent a quick follow-up personal note to several who were listed as “Unverified” – they’d signed up to get my posts, but never completed the final confirmation of their email subscription. Sure, it was only a few people, but every single one of them means something to me and I want to retain them as readers.

Their interest has staying power in a way that random drop-ins from search engines does not.

Until the hacking mess, I’d never truly appreciated in my gut how important it is to vary the means by which people find your content. Search engine optimization (SEO) is important, of course, but the Google basket is not the only place for your eggs.

How many different ways do people find your content?

Have you thought about how you can best nurture and grow those channels?

Please leave a reply in the comments below – and thank you!

*** Credit for post title goes to the old Timex watch ad – “Takes a licking but keeps on ticking.”

(If you like this post, please consider subscribing to the blog via RSS feed or by email – the email signup box is on the right sidebar near the Search box. Thanks!) 

Some of you may have noticed lately that while search engines can find my posts, the titles for some of them are for those famous pharmaceuticals like Viagra and company.

Yes, although I keep everything updated security-wise, I was hit by the WordPress Pharma Hack.

It won’t hurt your computer if you come here, but it sure messes up my SEO (Search Engine Optimization.)  I don’t live and die for SEO, but it would be great if people could find my content when they’re searching for information on things that I’ve written about.

There are a number of things that must be done to fix the Pharma Hack, but it is really difficult to completely kill AND prevent re-infection.

Meantime, it’s safe to be here, but if you see weird search results for this blog, you’ll know why.

(If you like this post, please consider subscribing to the blog via RSS feed or by email – the email signup box is on the right sidebar near the Search box. Thanks!) 

The process of moving all of my previous content over here was ridiculously easy (thank you, WordPress code gals and guys!) but I ought to stop while I’m ahead and get some sleep.

I haven’t yet sorted out the sidebar very well, so RSS subscriptions and email sign-ups are still rather a mess, but I’ll get it figured out.

You know how it is when you move to a new place, and all you want to do the first night is get the beds set up and made?

That’s where I am….tomorrow will be the pots and pans….