There's an old saying in business circles that we should pay attention to: If you want to be successful, you either have to be the first or you have to be the best in your field. It's a good rule to follow, but there are exceptions.
If you treat blogging as a business, you have to keep up with current events within your particular niche. If you want to increase website traffic to your blog, including increased search engine traffic, you absolutely need to be one of the first to write for a topic being discussed about current events. I'll use a current events topic to make my point:
Scientists Identify Lung Cancer Genes
Jessica Berman wrote an article today entitled Scientists Identify Lung Cancer Genes, in which "Three independent teams of researchers have found genes that may explain why some smokers get cancer and others do not, and why some people who never smoke also get the disease."
The article reinforces my suspicion that the majority of people who get cancer are genetically predisposed to getting it. Carcinogens trigger the genetic defects.
Which bloggers have written about this topic so far?
A quick search for "Scientists Identify Lung Cancer Genes" (without the quotes) yielded me about 3,073 results. I'm only interested in the top results and here is some of what I found.
- Science roundup – lung cancer, planet hunting, NASA and willpower
- Scientists Identify Possible Genetic Link for Lung Cancer
- Genetic variations raise lung cancer risk for smokers and ex-smokers
- Researchers Implicate Two SNPs In Lung Cancer
- Double Whammy Gene
- Researchers develop new method to test for lung cancer
I left out the blogs that appeared to be little more than splogs and those that wouldn't let me copy and paste the post titles.
Conclusion
If you take a look at the blogs I listed, you'll see that they don't rank high in any statistics. Without access to their traffic stats, we have no way of knowing how much traffic they're receiving. Based on my observation, however, it shouldn't be difficult for anyone with any SEO knowledge to climb the SERPS quickly with most current events topics.
Take advantage of the heat whenever possible.
