Two fellow bloggers posted this yesterday: A Mysterious Drop in Views – Year 2 and Was It Something I Said?
I have also noticed the decrease of blog views since 2020 with every year having less views. Yet I also want to balance that to say that God has been tremendously gracious with the blog Veritas Domain with its reach and interactions with people.
I want to add some further thoughts on why this might be happening, why I still blog and what I try to do to support others.
Why the decrease views over the years?
This blog started in 2006. I think the blogging’s best days were in the mid 2000s to early 2010s. People have shifted more towards social media platforms instead. Also I think some of the video based social media contents and their popularity move a lot of people away from reading blogs. I interact with the kids of our youth group and if they are the slice of the pie of the population their age then something tells me the younger generations learn things on their own time more from videos online than reading articles.
These days when there’s a day where my blog gets a lot of hits its usually from others sharing it on social media. Social media account for the second largest stream of views. But its hard to be on the social media platforms and to the degree one is actively present is the degree the blog gets tractions. If you only drop links only then chances are people are not going to read your posts on the blog as much as you interact with others on social media platform themselves.
Search engines still remain the highest source of views. But these search engines algothirims seem to favor older posts that are longer with more comments and meaningful interactions. I also don’t doubt search engines are also not favorable for some Christian contents and in ways more pronounced after 2020.
The amount of blog followers might be deceptive; some stop being on wordpress so they won’t be reading their blog feeds; Also some of those who subscribe to a wordpress blog via email might also be swamped by so many emails they get from everyone else. Its still good to have a large following as the rule of large numbers means some fractions will read your contents.
With all these things why do I still blog?
I blog because whether few or many views I want to share biblical contents in an internet that is crowded with bad and false stuff.
There’s place for metrics but its not the ultimate reason why I blog, for the numbers only.
I also am active because of all the place online I think wordpress remains a place for deeper conversations and less trolls than on social media; even email conversation which can be a place for deeper conversation has its limits since people don’t respond to emails much these days!
Also sometimes there’s important things I want to say and I don’t want to limit myself to just one social media platform; WordPress is still a great site to share contents in various social media outlets. I love how you don’t have to sign up for WordPress to read WordPress, unlike FB, Mewe, etc. Sure Twitter you can kind of read there too but its not been a place for me that gets much traction as WordPress.
And with all that we say about big tech with search engines at least for now search engines give preference to blog contents than a content that is shared in a social media platform (one factor might also be social media like FB searches can be a competitor with say Google, so Google is going to favor other platforms than on social media).
The friendship of many of you who on wordpress is an important reason why I continue to be on WordPress and it isn’t all just about stats.
What I try to do to help others
I think its wise to think about how to make one’s blog has more views, especially if one is haring Godly contents. But I also think its helpful to think about helping others who are blogging good contents.
I try to like, comment and share others content. Furthermore its good to read others stuff which will help you to want to comment and like and share. Now I don’t have all the time in the world and the same for you reading this. But trying helps and also trying to be reciprocal with others who do the same thing.
Sometimes when I have a conversation on my blog with someone going through more than three comments I go to the person’s blog to comment just to help with them getting more comments and also for search engines to note more interactions on a good post. Might seem to others I’m quirky but I’m trying to be helpful as my intentions.
Everyone is short on time and energy but when I comment I try to exercise the fruit of the Spirit and foster a Christian community on WordPress that encourages others to write and share.
I know some people help others by reblogging. I appreciate these brothers and sisters; I never really did the reblogging thing since I feel I have so much I want to write and share but I try to compensate for that by sharing Presuppositional Apologetics round up of others on WordPress and elsewhere.
What are some other things you can think of?
The Domain for Truth 
Good afternoon bro. I read through your writing, and I agree with everything being so aggressing in the tech world, with that being said I do believe the Lord will lead individuals to the platform needed. With that being said there are not very many sites like this one .( this is by far better than instagram, Facebook or any other site that I’ve come across) I believe the tools that have been used will continue to be used. With the world going with less communication on a personal level , and more on a Network, I think the deeper conversations in writings on WordPress have more intellectual / spiritual honest in depth discussion than any other platform other then group email, and I’m a sucker for actual handwritten letters as I think they’re much more personal I’m old-fashioned in that way lol.
Those that seek it out will find, those that seek out vanity will find platforms for that too. With the world so full of vain intentions, not bashing anyone but just seeing the mirror as it is reflecting the world and the population thereof. There will be less and less unfortunately. So keep on keeping on bro.. even if only a few, the testimony and Truth of Jesus Christ is being used. On a side note, I tried to navigate people to WordPress if I have the leading of the Lord. I hope more will come across….. this coming for me , an individual who knows that I am amateur in writing , but I hope it brought forth fruit needed, as well as writing it out as best as I can formulate in a paragraph.
💯💯💯💯🙏🏼
Jennifer I’m glad you are on WordPress. I believe God can use what we write for Him and also videos we shared as a post. He’s working and the way we see even how He works in the Bible is often behind the scene, in the sense its not what the leaders of the times focuses on. Blessings!
And I was actually going to erase my comment, but through my phone I cannot see how at the moment and it has already been read LOL. I am better at poetry when God leads . God knows lol.
Blessings as always to you and your family💯
I agree💯
I agree with you wholeheartedly especially on the reasons for blogging. I enjoyed sharing the Word of God and I also like the friendship that I have created on this blog. The other social media have a lot of distraction and are superficial but blogging is deeper. It is sad that the young people do not like to read. Thanks for sharing
I really enjoyed this and say a big amen to this sentence from you: “ The other social media have a lot of distraction and are superficial but blogging is deeper.” Amen!!!
Bless you my brother 🙏
Social media sure did change the mix. It is sad that most of this generation is often confined to short, superficial videos. Attention spans are so short anymore that often times even short blogs don’t get read completely.
I too lament at the short attention span of my generation and younger. I do want to encourage people in my circle of ministry influence to spend more time meditating on the WOrd and read things more slower and reflectively. Keep up the good work!
I find this interesting as a relative newbie on WordPress and in blogging; my stats have been upward since I began, 8000, 18,000, and 20,000 last year. I have seen some short dips in figures occasionally though. At the end of the day my purpose is to write for God and to share it as wide as possible; my secondary aim being to encourage other believers and maybe draw more folk into the Kingdom of God. I try to keep a healthy balance between my reading and writing, which is not easy. I tend to only keep those in my reading list who reciprocate with others, and have cut quite a few loose in the last year. I keep trying to share my blog further using other platforms, but not all of these are successful. Recently I have become more aware of how dependent my writing for God is on WordPress, thus I am looking at ways I can take it into other areas to serve Him. I don’t know whether I have added anything different or even useful to what you mentioned Jim, but that is my tuppence worth brother.
It seems that God is making many of us aware of how much we depend on Him with writings and blogging online. Thanks for sharing and grateful for the blog’s upward climb brother Alan!!
I appreciate your transparency brother. I also appreciate your encouragement with your likes and comments on my blog. I would like to offer you some support in your blogging efforts by reminding you that our blogs are not ours but The Lord’s. If our drive and motivation is to glorify The Lord and bless others, then we can rest assured that The Lord will use our efforts. We may not see who we are affecting or how we are blessing others, but The Lord sees. God bless you brother!
A big amen brother, amen!
Thanks for sharing, Pastor Jim. Like you, I hope that something on my blog might help someone. In recent years I have done more reblogging or posting of other’s videos that I thought were spot on. I have never really worked that hard to get readers. I blog because I enjoy sharing my thoughts and faith and I enjoy posting comments on other’s blogs. My posting has slowed down quite a bit in the past couple of years and I’m thinking of going back and rereading and reposting some of my early posts with changes. Quite a few of my former posts have missing links. I would like to fix that.
A few of my blogging friends have stopped blogging altogether and have even removed their blogs from the internet. Others are not adding much of late but they maintain their blogs because they are places that link to awesome resources.
It is obvious to me that you put a lot off effort into your blog and I know it is a blessing to many. I pray that God will continue to bless your efforts.
I pray the Lord bless both of what we do online for Him!!
Amen, Pastor Jim!
This is an interesting topic for sure. The main thing is to proclaim the good news of Jesus. We are all doing that.
There have been many changes will help continue us all to get reach for Jesus. YouTube is one of them. We all need to take advantage of that format if we can. Many are watching content not reading it. SEO has change a lot as well. I think we need to pay more attention to our headlines. Many times, because of how people are searching for content has changed, the subject of our articles are out of sync with how people search now.
Social media is also a factor. I am not a huge Facebook fan but the page I created last year is doing well and my WordPress site is beginning to see an uptick in people coming to it from Facebook.
I have some more thoughts, maybe for an article.
I think all of us do a great job of creating valuable content bringing Glory to God. Thank you for your support and encouragement.
Grateful to hear your FB presence have given a stream to people reading your page! Thanks for also all the helpful points in your comment; may we blog for God’s glory!
I have seen many Christian friends quit blogging since 2020 without knowing their intent. And it continued through ’21-’22. I have experienced the Christmas season having a drop in traffic most years. Still, this past season was the most precipitous drop ever. But like others have said, I put it into God’s hands after I put up a post. He will make the increase – or decrease.
Thanks for sharing G.W. May the Lord use our blogging for Him; and may we be grateful for this privilege!
Since my return to seminary has taken way more of my time than I ever envisioned, I post less and have since stopped looking at my stats.
I can honestly say, I started blogging as a way to help people to apply the Bible and to be authentic in my walk.
Now, more than ever people need and crave authenticity and sincerity. I pray that the way that I write sounds like how I talk in real life. People need to know that Christians struggle and we are not perfect. Too often Christians look like the world in trying to give people a rose colored perception of themselves.
I am thankful for the opportunity to meet you and your family through WordPress. I agree 100% that your blog is different than any other blog out there! Praying that God will continue to lead you and guide you with your blogging efforts!!!!
Mandy the many things I”m grateful for bloggin has been meeting you and you blessing our Bible studies; yes Studies as in more than one both our midweek and our youth group. The blessings aren’t just online on the blog, which it is already in of itself but how much more so not just on blogs. Keep blogging for Jesus
Bless you brother! Would you like me to share with the youth on Saturday?!
Good point for using WordPress: “you don’t have to sign up for WordPress to read WordPress”
Thanks for highlighting that!
I do think there were a lot more people blogging and reading blogs during the lockdowns. But with the busyness of people’s lives, and now more freedom to get out, we don’t want to spend the majority of our days on line.
True! I think 2020 I had very high amount of views and then people also went on to other things; when I say that I’m not saying I’m not grateful for all the many that have read things over the years, be it short or long duration. May God bless you with your blogging endeavor!
Thanks, Jimmy. You too.
I am really grateful that I was blogging when lockdowns started. I don’t know what else I would have been doing all day, other than going stir-crazy.
I have noticed also that blogging over all has decreased. It was big in the 2000s and has since declined. I make videos on youtube and I also like writing blogs. My Youtube channel gets more attentions than my blog. Blogging is always going to be with us and there will always be an audience. The younger generations like Gen Z overall don’t blog, but some do.
Do you also share your blog links on your Youtube videos? What’s your channel?
My channel is 100domathon. I have a link to my blog on my Youtube channel
The occasional reblog would be very much appreciated!
1 Cor. 15:8 —
“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” What a wonderful promise when we “labor in the Lord”!
[…] Thoughts on Decrease of Blog Views Over the Years — The Domain for Truth […]
Jimmy, thanks for the link-up and for your good thoughts on this topic. I appreciate your support, encouragement, friendship, and prayers over the years.
The same here with me in appreciating your blog, prayers, friendship and fellowship!
More people today are becoming meme readers. They won’t spare the time to read beyond 500 words. In fact one of the programs we use for Zeteo 3:16 advises short posts for better hits. Recently I saw the acronym TLDR and wondered why people often used it. It stands for: Too long, didn’t read.
How sad!
Such is our time these days. I do think God is using you online in various ways Alf certainly there are times articles or books I wouldn’t have known about if you didn’t share them!
Surely, God uses your WP ministry as a blessing to many including myself. Glory to His Name!🙌 Thank you for being His instrument of righteousness. Thank you as well for all the encouragement you give with us all with your likes and comments. My practice is to pray, post what God gives, and trust Him to use it as He pleases. I do my best not to focus on stats but occasionally do look at them. Mainly, my focus is being obedient to what I believe God has asked me to do…and if just one heart is touched, the glory belongs to God and I am humbled, blessed, and encouraged to keep posting. ✝️🛐🙏🙌
What an encouaraging comment! This is how to do it as you stated: “Mainly, my focus is being obedient to what I believe God has asked me to do…and if just one heart is touched, the glory belongs to God and I am humbled, blessed, and encouraged to keep posting.” Have a blessed week sister!
This makes me now want to have a wordpress blog
I think it’s a worthy endeavor for those who browse blogs already 😀
And it is helpful for being a place for my own reflection
In prayer.
Thank you for your prayers Bonnie H!
Welcome.
Amen.
I blog because whether few or many views I want to share biblical contents in an internet that is crowded with bad and false stuff.”
Thanks for pressing on!
Glad you and your church are on WordPress!
Yes! WordPress is really great! Especially to reach out other people in the world.
Howdy! No time to read the comments, hope I don’t duplicate someone else’s work.
This is a subject I was putting off writing about in a weblog. There are so many factors involved, and a great deal of conflict. F’rinstance, the “best time to post on social(ist) media” articles do not all agree, but they leave out other considerations. One author said to do what is best for YOU, and also that if you use the charts, then everyone is jockeying for position at the same time. Loyal readers will seek you out and find the material.
Something else that I think is relevant is the increase in security in browsers and add-ons. Those may very well make a visitor invisible. I have something to count and list visitors, and someone I knew said he visited an article of mine. It did not appear in the log, but he did visit for the simple reason that he quoted a portion of it.
Yes, people are watching a passel of videos, but how long are most of them? People have short attention spans these days, and I blame society, time pressures, and the way social(ist) media encourages that. Some of the longer videos seem to come from people who “give the people what they want.”
Also, don’t forget that search engines censor results from Christians and political Conservatives. Duck Duck Go gets its results from Bing, and Google is worse for censoring. New privacy-oriented search engines are coming online, and the Brave search seems to be growing into something useful. Ironic, I don’t like the Brave browser.
Thanks for sharing that; yes I see the things you said; it seems when I share my link on social media with bit.ly the app tracks more hits than what WP counted. WP does not list any referral from Gab for a long time, and still today Mewe referrals don’t show up in the Referrers listing. The bias of Big Tech against CHristians is getting worse too and you know this firsthand
Forgot to mention that my sites on Blogger only received spam or troll comments. While WordPress does indeed seem to have more of a community spirit, I get more flexibility to write without having to pay extra for so many thing over on Blogger. Having a paying job plus writing plus posting for two FB Pages and Twitter kind of cut into my time, so I just hope and pray the Lord directs people who need the material to the posts and articles. The fact that people like you share them helps a lot (feel free to skip sharing things that seem weaker to you.)
Sooooo frazzled lately, lots to do. Anyway, one more and I’ll clam up. WP subscriptions are a part of the community, but unless I check in frequently, I’ll miss things. However, I subscribe to the RSS feed in my email client, which I open at least once a day. Then I’m more likely to see who has new material, here or elsewhere. Okay, done.
Jim, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’ve only been writing and posting here since the fall of 2018 so my outlook is limited to a few short years. For me being a writer, the WordPress community continues to encourage my efforts. These relationships have become more precious than checking my stats.
I think each type of social media has its own use. Twitter is certainly not a good blog platform because of the limited number of characters. It is a good way to draw attention, however. WordPress doesn’t advertise well unless you have a large following, but it’s great for longer expressions of more complex ideas. As far as fewer viewers is concerned, perhaps it has something to do with folks using their phones for internet more and more? I don’t really know for sure…
You got a good point there might also be patterns with how people use the internet; sometimes on phones it’s hard to read blogs. Good point!
Thank you brother Jim for all that you post. God is using you and others to broadcast life altering, spiritual deepening thoughts, which is the best news. Your content edifies my spirit as it encourages me to keep blogging, regardless of likes, comments or follows. Like many of us scribes, God gave us the talent and desire and He will draw those with ears to hear…the gate is narrow, and the time is short. As we are compelled within to write, we water seeds and God grows them. Echoing the hearts of all the above, we develop relationships in this Christian community — and one day, there will be no geography separating us. Our keyboards pick up the messages that God gives us all to share, for His purpose and glory. AMEN
Aww thank you sister! Just saw this comment since it went to my spam filter. Keep on being a light on gab and WordPress!!
I have written about it too. I noticed that when you go to a post on the reader page, you no longer have the VISIT SITE button. On the thumbnails listing your posts, you can visit, but not from the post itself. Reader page “visits” do not show up as views. So, I think some of the drop in views is due to that, but as you say, I write for a higher calling, and I know God is using what I write, even if only a handful reads it.
Wow that is unfortunate that they don’t include views of those who use only WordPress readers…very unfortunate. Like you we all blog for greater reasons than number we blog for God
Amen, and a special prayer for you during this Lenten season.
Being scared that others don’t hear the Gospel from our social media is a real thing 🥴
[…] the trail a spell at Slimjim’s spread, there was a discussion about “Thoughts on Decrease of Blog Views Over the Years.” All of those things mentioned earlier play a part in decreases as well as increases, and […]