Traffic Report: December 2024 — 4.8k page views

I’ve been itching to share my blog progress! I had a lot of fun writing up this traffic report. ✨

What I loved about traffic and income reports was the traffic aspect, but bloggers focused more on the money.

I’m starting this column on my blog to document my blog’s growth and my own personal growth throughout the process.

Last year, I started blogging more in August, but this faded by the end of September as autistic burnout reached a low point again.

I started blogging regularly again in December and am still going at it, so this is a good starting month.

While I’m planning to share each traffic report two months after, I’m sharing December’s now because I’m too excited about it to wait. 😅

January’s will be shared March 1st, though. 😊

I changed web hosts

Before I get into the analytics, I need to share about my attempts to grow my blog on a bad host. 🥴

I moved web hosts last-minute — literally November 30th and December 1st. I thought I had more time to switch, but alas…I did not. 😬

My blog hit 18k page views once on DreamHost, then never again. It dipped to 10k page views, then never went above 5k page views. If it started to, my site slowed down or would be offline.

Here’s proof of my blog dwindling in traffic last year (2024) while on DreamHost:

I don’t know what exactly happened, but DH insisted I needed a CDN. As a former web host myself, I am thoroughly aware of what a shared hosting account can realistically handle…the CDN was definitely not the issue.

This issue was fixed as soon as I moved my site back to GreenGeeks hosting. I know GreenGeeks is fast, even with a shared hosting account.

I’m still restoring other projects/sites from that account, but I prioritized my blog and my trading post.

Traffic overview

• Posts published this month: 12
• Page views this month: 4,762
• Sessions this month: 3,989

This is my blog’s page view traffic in December 2024 on GreenGeeks:

The numbers are similar to traffic back in August 2024 on DreamHost:

One of the reasons I tapered off blogging in September was because the more I posted, the less traffic my blog received — and the more GoogleBot struggled to index my site. DreamHost support said they don’t throttle traffic, but I found history of DH throttling GoogleBot a decade ago. They denied the history, and that eroded my trust in them.

The results of my blogging efforts in December won’t show up until future months. However, the blog posts I published back in August and September started being found in Google Search.

With my blog mimicking in December the traffic it had in August 2024, I’m hoping my switching to a new web host will allow my blog to continue growing instead of dropping in traffic again.

I haven’t received any emails about people not being able to visit my blog links since switching to GreenGeeks, either — so far so good!

Also, a glance at L&L’s traffic in November 2024 to show its growth to December:

Traffic sources

• Organic search: 3,495 sessions
• Direct: 393 sessions
• Referral: 53 sessions
• Organic social: 52 sessions
• Email: 9 sessions

Most of my blog traffic is coming from search, which makes me heavily reliant on search engine optimization (SEO) and algorithms.

The latest Google Search algorithm update in December didn’t affect my blog — most don’t — but I remain cautious about feeling too prideful about this.

Diverse blog traffic sources can help create balance when algorithms change. When I had other blog names, I grew my brand awareness fairly well. Now, even people clicking through to my link from Threads reply on my Thread posts about the link, saying, “This author is…”

And I’m like, “…the author is me.” The domain is the dot-com to my social media handle. It’s me. It’s mine.

L&L has little to no brand awareness. This is the cost of changing my domain name every 5 or so years.

Email marketing is a major work-in-progress — I’m doing my best with my current resources.

I want to work on Pinterest marketing, but I’d like to publish more content first so I can zero in on Pinterest instead. I have a monotropic mind, so focusing on one major thing instead of several little things works best for me.

Top-performing posts

I consider the top 5 performing posts exemplify current content demands within my topic mix. Every blog has its own popular posts. The top 5 are the ones I prioritize updating with relevant info.

1. DID system alter roles & functions – 697 views (posted Aug 2021)
   • This has been my all-time popular post ever since I published it. I’d be SHOCKED if another post took spot #1.
2. Are online autism tests accurate? – 572 views (posted Mar 2022)
   • …I changed the title from “Autism quizzes” to “My autism test & quiz results” to “Are online autism tests accurate?” in October because my blog was showing up in search for this query…it shot up to popularity.
   • Adding sections answering the question & explaining the importance of online autism quizzes may have helped, too!
3. Why are autistic adults estranging their parents? – 329 views (posted Feb 2023)
   • Estranging parents is a rising topic
4. Why I hate being perceived – 283 views (posted Nov 2023)
   • This post is losing popularity (previously #3) because other people have posted about it — and I removed some controversial bits that got it linked on some ND snark forums. Might update later.
5. How to reconcile with your estranged daughter – 262 views (posted Sep 2024)
   • My blog was already ranking for this query, but no post directly catered to the search intent.

The next five top-performing posts can illustrate potential growing trends in the moment and areas where improvement is necessary. Mine were

6. Autistic Burnout Quiz – 167 views (posted Dec 2022)
   • losing popularity; used to be #2
7. Dormancy: Can DID alters die? – 120 views (posted Mar 2022)
8. Types of DID protectors – 114 views (posted Apr 2023)
9. How to communicate with your DID alters – 111 views (posted Feb 2022)
   • needs major updating
10. Writing characters with DID: 10 tips – 102 views (posted Aug 2024)
    • hot button topic that answers questions people have asked me
    • I didn’t want to write it, but I created it as an exclusive bundle contribution people could get for free, then published to my blog because someone with DID said that I “should” include every possible nuance of DID. Now, people can collaborate in the comments.

Some posts perform well, while others don’t. The top 5 reveals what posts are working for my blog. The top 10 tells me what topics resonate with my blog audience the most.

Some posts that are doing well unexpectedly include the ones I wrote on how to smell good and pillow princesses. I posted these because I wanted to, not because I thought my blog would rank for them. I didn’t go to great lengths to optimize them for search at all.

Takeaways

• The slugs/permalinks are excellent places for additional keyword placement.
• Simple title changes on fun, personal posts can make HUGE differences.
• My posting in September was NOT in vain — the host was bad.
• Switching from a slow to speedy web host is a top priority. I did it ASAP. My traffic in November wasn’t “bad”, but my blog was unable to go beyond 5k page views on DreamHost, so it would bounce back and forth. My traffic for November:

Blogging goals for next month

Because I’m sharing traffic reports two months later, I can share my blogging goals without feeling an immense amount of pressure!

• Focus on content: I want to continue the momentum of posting several times a month and see where it takes my blog and me. I’m aiming to publish 20 posts in January 2025 — at least 80% evergreen.
• Organize/restructure email marketing: This could be big for me if I was organized and thought about it more strategically.
• Pinterest marketing on the side: Instead of not focusing on Pinterest at all, I’ll create and schedule Pins while binging XO, Kitty season two.

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I’m looking forward to seeing how my posts published this month perform in the next few months and what posts will do well in January.

I hope my blog continues to grow in traffic, because I love that my experiences resonate with fellow neurodivergent people.

I’ll share January 2025’s traffic report next month — in March. Here’s a sneak peek at the traffic halfway through January:

What were your blogging/content goals for January, and did you accomplish them? Share in the comments below!