Well, I can’t believe that this blog has been going on for a year now; I never really had a proper celebration for it. What started out as something as just to let my family and friends know where to eat in San Antonio has actually started getting a small amount of following on the web.
Thanks to the folks over at BMPR, I realized that if I am doing something, I might as well try to do it right. At one of their meetings the let me know about the different tools available to bloggers (such as Google Analytics, Facebook Pages, ways for search engines to see your site, etc) and I took some small steps to see what they were all about.
First, after installing an analytics package, I was interested to see that a decent amount of people happen on this site on a quasi regular basis. These analytics have been interesting to watch (especially for a math/science guy like myself) and I decided to try to have a standard heading to get into search engines. You might have noticed a switch where it states “Review of [restaurant] Restaurant in San Antonio, TX” on every post. I think that this has helped me improve where I wind up on search engine results instead of having willy nilly titles every post.
The statistics showed that I have very few repeat customers, so today I decided to try to address that issue. I created a Facebook page so that you can become a fan and get a post any time I make one. I think that more people use Facebook than RSS feeds, so I thought this might help people know when I have made updates and they can check it out if it was a restaurant they were interested in.
I also put a link on each post that you can “Share on Facebook,” so if you see a particular review you like, or if it is a restaurant that is one of your favorites in San Antonio, be sure to click it and let your friends know! I think that the other opportunity that the Facebook page can afford me is the ability for people to easily make suggestions on where I should go to next or what interesting things I should try in the city.
Lastly, if you have an iPhone, you will be happy to know that I installed an update where the site will have a mobile version while you are on the go. If you are like me, however, and like seeing the full site, all you have to do is go to the bottom of the page and press the button to give you the full site! Anyway, it might make it easier for some people to read while you are out and about.
I have really enjoyed getting to explore the city and write about my experiences this past year and some odd. Hopefully the pain of having to get through my colloquial way of writing and grammar mistakes has been worth it by getting to eat at some restaurants you might not have known about.
Thanks for reading!
-An Average Joe
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