Did these plugins really increase my traffic?

10 replies
So a couple of months ago I added 3 plugins to several of my Wordpress based sites. The plugins are:

WP Popular Posts
WP Related Posts
SEO SearchTerms Tagging

After a few weeks I added Popular Posts, Recent Search Terms, & Popular Search Terms as widgets on the right sidebar. Well, my traffic has grown incredibly! I had one autoblog that I was going to let expire because it just didn't get traffic - it went from a couple of visitors a day to 100+ per day. And that isn't the only one. My overall traffic has tripled on some sites - doubled on others.

Do you think these plugins are part of the reason? Seriously, that is the only change I made from my day to day marketing plan
#increase #plugins #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author kevinw1
    Hard to know really, without some more testing. I've never tried those particular plugins, but I just added them to one of my newer sites and I'll see what happens. Thanks for the tip!
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    • Profile picture of the author goosexxx
      why do these have follow links to other sites built into them or require email for activation?

      there are plugins out there that do the same thing that aren't going to leach PR...

      nice way to use your "traffic" increase to pump other sites...

      i would stay away from these anyone looking to follow this example
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      • Profile picture of the author scrapgirl42
        Originally Posted by goosexxx View Post

        why do these have follow links to other sites built into them or require email for activation?

        there are plugins out there that do the same thing that aren't going to leach PR...

        nice way to use your "traffic" increase to pump other sites...

        i would stay away from these anyone looking to follow this example
        I don't think these plugins have follow links. They just put the search terms used to find your site on your sidebar as a widget. I think that is just building the SEO of the site because it is including actual search terms that people use.

        The Related Posts plugin puts a link to another post ON YOUR SITE that relates to the one the person is looking at. For example, if they are reading a post about blue widgets, it might give them a link for a post on blue/green widgets. It connects the posts based on the tags you attach to each post. Posts with the same tags will be connected.

        Anyway, think what you want. I think they have helped my sites. My traffic & income has increased and that is the bottom line
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        • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
          scrapgirl, I don't think the increase in traffic is because you use the plugins. The increase is from what the plugins do.

          By putting those widgets in your sidebar, you've created a significant number of internal links.

          As for including links in the plugin, that is a concern to be aware of. Some plugin developers will code links into the plugin. I've even see some that used sneaky tactics that could harm you (like tiny text that matches the background below the footer, or a 1 pixel by 1 pixel graphic). I'm not saying the plugins you listed do this - I'm saying some do.

          If you're happy with the results from the improved internal linking structure, keep using them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Capitalist_Pig
    Thanks for the tip - love the searchterms plugin!
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  • Profile picture of the author sarahberra
    Well at least you know it helped you rather than hurt you. I bet it increased your traffic a little, but some of the improved traffic can be from more posts and site age. It's hard to know for sure. I wonder how you can test this??
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    • Profile picture of the author scrapgirl42
      Originally Posted by sarahberra View Post

      Well at least you know it helped you rather than hurt you. I bet it increased your traffic a little, but some of the improved traffic can be from more posts and site age. It's hard to know for sure. I wonder how you can test this??
      I have no idea if it was the plugins or not - it is just that the traffic increased 3x plus after I installed them. One blog was a year old and I was going to let it expire then it took off.

      After the comments about hidden codes, I am a little concerned. How can I check for something like that? I am impressed with what the plugins have done for my sites, but I don't want something that will hurt them in the long run.
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Originally Posted by scrapgirl42 View Post

        I have no idea if it was the plugins or not - it is just that the traffic increased 3x plus after I installed them. One blog was a year old and I was going to let it expire then it took off.

        After the comments about hidden codes, I am a little concerned. How can I check for something like that? I am impressed with what the plugins have done for my sites, but I don't want something that will hurt them in the long run.
        One quick way is to pull up your page and do a 'Ctrl-A' to highlight the whole page. Scan through and look for stuff that doesn't belong there.

        The nest step is to right-click in the page and do a View Source. Look at the header (the part between the <head> and </head> tags). Are there links that look funny? Scan down to the footer. Look for stuff that doesn;t belong.

        Finally, you can use a browser add-on that will list all links in the page. (Anyone have the name handy?) Scan the list for stuff that doesn't belong.

        Before you get too worried, though, look at where you got the plugins. If they've been around for any length of time and they're available through the plugin directory at Wordpress.org, they're likely pretty safe. The WP user community is pretty good at policing stuff like that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paleochora
    I can't see how the first two would create a dramatic rise in traffic. The third one looks interesting though.
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