I wrote an essay titled “Why You Should Always Be Training Your Replacement” in 2017 when my blog was focused on sales management.
It’s a good essay. It’s thoughtful, instructive and informative. It was written specifically for sales reps, managers and executives who want to move up the ladder.
By far, it has been my #1 most read post out of nearly 500.
Because of Google.
For some reason, when I search for “Should I train my replacement” in Google, my article comes up 7th (out of 1.5 billion). I’m on the first screen. According to Google, about 3% of these searchers visit my site.
This brings me several hundred new visitors each month. From what I can deduce from my site’s stats, these people scan the essay and move on. Occasionally they might click one or two other articles.
I doubt that any of them are the least bit interested in what I write today because it appears they don’t read any of my more recent essays.
I doubt they are sales professionals looking to move up.
I’d guess they are non-sales employees worried about losing their jobs, being replaced, off-shored or outsourced.
At first, before I dug into the data, it was ego gratifying to check my stats and see a big spike in views at various times. I thought people were interested in what I wrote.
But now, I’d argue it is even less meaningless than “likes” on a social media post.
Initially I had hoped my writing would help others. I know it has – especially the sales management essays – because former employees and colleagues have reached out to me about a number of articles. They’ve been used for trainings, for mentoring and for management sessions.
That was the point.
I wrote them because I didn’t want my 25 years of lessons learned to just disappear.
I don’t write for “likes” or clicks or popularity.
I’m not trying to attract a broad audience.
I don’t care about that at all – even if I can occasionally get caught up in the excitement of pseudo-popularity.
So for now, I’ll leave the post up. Maybe a few of these random searchers are sales professionals trying to move up the career ladder. Maybe a few others are employees looking to get ahead. I hope it helps them or at least offer a different perspective coming from a place that is not fear driven.
After testing Google Site analytics for a week, I have deactivated it. What it offers is of little value or interest to me.