Searching

It's always fun to look at what search terms people are using to find my blog.

Mainstream political terms used to be big big big, but have dropped off a lot, both because I blog less about mainstream politics and because it's that awkward time in the election cycle when less is going on. But of course, my frequent digs at that asshole in the white house get big returns; my number one search term is ITMFA (Impeach the Motherfucker Already). Remind me to blog about that more, I love saying it.

As I discovered ever since I started blogging more about music and entertainment media, lots of folks are out there searching for "P!nk," "Dear Mr. President,"  "Queer as Folk," "Gale Harold," "Xena," "Brian and Justin," "Dixie Chicks," "Not Ready to Make Nice, "iPod," and the various titles of songs in my iPod Friday challenges. Those terms are currently bringing around one quarter of the traffic from search engines, maybe a bit more (not one quarter of the traffic to my blog itself - just of hits that come from search engine results. Most traffic to my blog doesn't have a referrer, which I think means it's coming from bookmarks and email links).

I tend to think those "entertainment" people aren't likely to become regular readers of my blog, although I know at least two that are commenting, so I could be wrong (bound to happen someday). After all, it's not like I don't actually love me some Xena and of course, no need to even ask how I feel about my iPod, I named a whole blog category after it. Those searching on "Gale Harold" won't be so happy, as all I ever do is comment on how the man cannot dance. But yes, yes, teh hawtness, I know, I know. Calm down. I even updated this post with a picture of your guy to make you happy.  (Is it only straight women who could think a man who can't dance could possibly be hot? And speaking of the ability to dance, it's amazing to me that NO ONE has ever found my blog searching on hip hop belly dancing.)

The names of my media gods are searched for a lot... Jon Stewart (genuflect when you say that name), Lara Logan, Helen Thomas. Lately I've noticed some searches for Mark Morford bringing traffic here; I hope this means he's becoming better known cuz he's my hero.

"Pit bull" brings a lot of hits here, and many searches that include "pit bull" in them. From the context I'd say nearly all these are responsible pit bull owners ... I'm not getting many "dogs fighting" type searches. That makes me happy, because I'm a big fan of the bull breeds and anything I can do to help the PR nightmare they are trapped in, I'm glad to do.

Osteosarcoma and amputation and three legged dogs ... I lost my dog Raven to this horrible cancer last summer, and her section of my blog gets a lot of traffic from people searching for information on it. Her story ended unhappily, but I hope that the people searching have better outcomes than we did.  I also get a number of hits to an article about her death, called "How Long Do Dogs Live?", from people searching for that phrase. While my article is not about the lifespan of the dog, but a tribute to Raven, I hope that they find something they might not have been looking for.

Dog terms in general are big... veterinarian, raw diet, training issues, "are dogs omnivores or carnivores?", "deerhounds." Also, a fair amount of hits from "puppy shots," "dog vaccinations," "rabies shots;" although I rarely write about those subjects here (much more so on my website, where "puppy shots" and "vaccinations" take turns being my number one search term), it seems a lot of people find my blog with those terms too.

And of course, my all time favorite searches, the ones on "Dogged Blog" and/or "Christie Keith." Since there's no money in this, I'll have to settle for fame.

So, if you have a blog or website and track your referrers, how do people find you on the search engines?

Comments

[ooogyfan2]

You're just never gonna let up, are you? Gale Harold can't dance. I know it, you know it, all the Brian/Justin fans know it. He can't dance. And it's not that usual straight man problem where he can't move his hips, either, cuz we've seen him do that. I think it's a problem with his feet. He won't lift them up when he's moving.

But he's hot anyway.

[Christie Keith]

I said to myself when I posted this... "oogy will be the first commenter."

I once wondered if his inability to dance might have been that they kept making him dance with two actors so much shorter than him, and then he had to sort of crouch down to get their heads on the same level. Then I saw him dance with Emmett and they're the same height and seeing the splendor of Peter Paige's dancing in the same frame with Gale Harold's put that idea right out of my head. If I were Gale Harold I'd have refused to ever, ever dance with Peter Paige, especially as they had to actually dance and not just make out to music as he usually did with Justin and Michael.

I'm going on and on about Xena over at BGP, and QAF here, and yet in reality I almost never watch television! This is so very weird. But fun.

[Inanna]

I like Moford, too, but he's got some issues with fat people he needs to get over! He freaks out when he writes about fat people.

I wonder if I first found you while searching for pit bull information. My sweet Lugh - my first dog, a shelter rescue - is nine months old, and I've learned a lot very quickly about people's biases and fear of pit bulls. It breaks my heart. He's a happy, healthy, loving dog, the joy of my life, and I hate to think about what happens to other dogs like him.

I love your blog.

[Christie Keith]

Thanks, Inanna! I noticed that in his very weird column about breast size in China the other day, and thought... HUH? I guess no one is perfect. :(

[ooogyfan2]

How sweet that you tried to make excuses for his bad dancing. I like you more each day.

I also read your entry over at Big Gay Picture, but didn't comment because at the last minute I felt intimidated by the gayness. But on behalf of myself and straight women Brian/Justin fans everywhere, thank you for the compliment on our political coolness. Does your comments section accept photos? Because if it does, I have an icon for you, let me try .... the answer is no. So, go here.

[Christie Keith]

ROFLMAOPMP.... oh ooogy. I like you more each day, too. That icon is priceless, I have to use that in a post one day.

One thing I noticed about the B/J fandom (in addition to your politics), you all know just exactly how nuts you are. I like that.

And you're the second straight person who said they were afraid to post at BGP. I encourage you to get over it ... as I told the other person, I post on straight blogs all the time. ;)

[Leigh-Ann]

I enjoy taking my most frequent inaccurate search referral terms and then actually posting relevant links for anyone who might stop by my blog. The big three completely irrelevant search terms for my blog are "Kaitlin and Rick SNL video", "mudpuppy dissection", and "Ode to a Tomato". My most popular real entry, according to my referrer logs, is the one I wrote about dogs and tranquilizers such as Xanax, Valium, etc. I get many, many people reading that entry after doing searches for things like, "dog afraid of thunderstorms" and "dog afraid of fireworks".