Google Search Terms
The Google search terms that bring people to your blog can be very revealing. When you publish a personal blog, it’s easy to forget that it is on the internet and all kinds of people have access to it. I think many of us tend to write with our friends in mind – people that are like us, and think like us.
Looking at the Google search terms that bring people over to one’s blog is a sobering reminder that the world is full of all kinds of people, some of whom you would never welcome into your living room, yet they manage to find their way to your blog.
Here’s a look at some of the Google search terms that brought people over to MomGrind during the last few weeks.
These were funny
“A boring husband” – OK, this may be a little sad.
Where they (she?) ended up:
Sexist Vintage Ad: Heinz, 1950
“Can god protect you from lay-offs”
Where they ended up:
Protect Yourself Against a Recession
“Profanity blogs” – I didn’t realize such a blogging niche existed.
Where they ended up:
Profanity In Blogs
“Random things” – yup, I can see how that would bring you over to this blog.
Where they ended up:
Three Random Things
This was sweet
“I will always love you mom“.
Where they ended up:
A Mother’s Unconditional Love
These made me sad
“Make my curvy thighs straight” – oh, honey, I wish you could just be happy with your curvy thighs.
Where she ended up:
Best Swimsuits for Curvy Figures
“Search for love of a lifetime”
Not on Google!
Where they ended up:
Not Sure I Am Ready To Be 37
“How can I protect my family against the recession”
Where they ended up:
Protect Yourself Against a Recession
These made me SICK TO MY STOMACH
“Children sexy girls”
“Sexy girl child”
“Sexy children girl”
“Primaryschool sexy girls”
They all ended up in a post titled “Wealthy Men, Sexy Girls” that dealt with the issue of gold diggers and that I have since decided to delete from this website.
I realize deleting the post doesn’t solve the problem. Those creeps are still out there. Deeply sick, disturbed individuals are out there roaming the streets and living in our neighborhoods and walking next to our kids’ schools and pretending to be normal and we have no way of knowing who they are, unless they are registered sex offenders.
More on keeping our kids safe.
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Kelly@SHE-POWER responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 5:14 am →
Vered, you did get some freaks recently, didn’t you?
It is interesting to see what the search terms were that had someone find your blog. I am not one for stats generally. I don’t see what topics work best and I only tend to notice how a post is doing if it brings in masses of social media traffic, which has happened a couple of times. I did go through an obsessive phase with subscribers, but that ended about 3 months ago. Now I check them once every few weeks.
But just looking now at what search terms brought new readers to me blog this week, most make sense but one is sad. Someone searched on:
“I’ve met my soulmate while in love with someone else”
Not a nice place to be in life. I’m not sure anything on my site is of use to someone in this predicament, but one can only hope.
Kelly
Kelly@SHE-POWER’s last blog post..It’s official: Australians are Fat and Badly Dressed
Scott McIntyre responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 5:18 am →
This is such a revelation of a post, Vered!
It’s hard to believe the routes some people are arriving to your writing…
I never realised that such a thing existed as totally unconnected search terms leading to blogs.
Could you, or your readers, explain to me how the last, primaryschool s**** girls posts could possibly end up here?! (I *’ed just in case)
MomGrind responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 6:19 am →
@ Kelly: “I’ve met my soulmate while in love with someone else” – sad, and strange… are they in love with the person they’re with, but still think they’ve met their soul mate? Google earch terms tend to be WEIRD.
@ Scott: I think what happened is that I wrote a post here about “Wealthy Men, Sexy Girls”. It was about a company that matches rich older men with young beautiful women. Being the feminist that I am, I had issues with this company so wrote about it. But as it turns out, “girls”, as far as the Google search engine is concerned, doesn’t just mean “young women” – it also means “children”. So creeps that search for child porn, sometimes end up here.
Cath Lawson responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 6:28 am →
Hi Vered – The last ones made my blood boil. There’s some sickos out there and they should be strung up.
I get some really weird searches too. I’ve had a few lately actually searching the names of some of my regular commenters nude. It’s probably the same guy. It sounds like he has a real problem. The scary thing is, he obviously reads some of the same blogs we do.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..No More Bold Advice
Joel Falconer responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 6:29 am →
Thanks for the laugh, Vered, needed some humor
The last few are certainly creepy, though. Funny what happens when computers try to make sense of human language.
Joel Falconer’s last blog post..Top 10 Blogs to Visit When You’re Bored
Tim Brownson responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 6:33 am →
I had some great results when I phonetically spelled Tao Te Ching. I had no end of people find me by searching Dow da ching.
I also noticed a few hits under the term ‘gay life coach’ a while ago. I know I’m in touch with my feminine side, but that’s taking it a bit too far.
Tim Brownson’s last blog post..12 Ways To Become an Utter Failure at Work
Marelisa responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 6:45 am →
Yeah, I get excited when I see all of the visitors that are coming to my site, when the reality is that most people land on sites looking for something entirely different than what the site’s really about and then just quickly click away. Every single word that you type is a potential traffic magnet, and words can have entirely different meanings in different contexts. Ah, the human condition . . . Don’t you feel a little bit like an anthropologist now?
Kmommy responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 7:02 am →
Crazy! Funny, Sad, Weird and Sick! LOL!! It’s amazing what results some search terms come up with! Well, really, it’s just amazing what search terms some people use!
Kmommy’s last blog post..Food Food Food!!
Sara responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 7:06 am →
Good grief! The range of queries is surprising. Like Marelisa mentioned, this makes me feel like an anthropologist studying an unknown tribe.
So far I don’t have any interesting search queries like these but I’m on the lookout.
What it really makes me think about is privacy. Do people searching for the obviously inappropriate worry that Google knows their illicit interests? Do they just not care?
Sara’s last blog post..Three Things You’ve Given Up and Never Regretted
Suzie responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 7:30 am →
That is so strange. Someone found my blog by typing in Sister in law flirting with husband…how they got to me is beyond me. Also doesnt that mean she is flirting with her brother? YUCK!
CharlesP responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 8:30 am →
First off Suzie’s comment has creeped me out now (though I guess it could be her brother’s wife flirting with her husband? still…).
I always find the searches interesting (google analytics can be a TOTAL time suck), though it was also helpful to notice that on my writing forums (wordtrip.com) the most common search that brings people there is “Best laptop for writers” which was some random topic we had discussed a year or two ago, but did have good info in it. So I brought the topic back up and got more feedback from the users to make it a more useful destination for people who find us that way.
CharlesP’s last blog post..Emergency Menu from the Hillbilly Housewife
Ann at One Bag Nation responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 8:30 am →
On the flip side, I’ve had the experience of googling something (don’t try “mature mom”) and getting unexpected results . . .either way, it’s good to remember that the internet is open to all, and some we’d rather not encounter.
Ann at One Bag Nation’s last blog post..Is This Really Me?
DavinaH responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 8:32 am →
Welcome back Vered.
This is unbelievable! It’s a jungle out there. Although I’m annoyed by this I’m not at all surprised.
DavinaH’s last blog post..The Beauty Path
Amanda - The Mom Crowd responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 9:59 am →
What a fun and creepy post. I love using SiteMeter to see how folks found my site. I haven’t had anything too weird. I do worry about a photo of my baby in the plane’s bassinet gets found a lot in the image search. But I do think most people don’t know what a bassinet on a plane looks like. At any rate, this all so interesting. Darren at ProBlogger suggested once to look through your search terms for blog post ideas.
Amanda – The Mom Crowd’s last blog post..Five Easy Steps to Avoid Becoming Monica’s Mom
Bamboo Forest responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 10:57 am →
This was a very fun idea, to post weird search phrases. I’ve looked at some of the search phrases that have found there way to my blog – and I often get a good chuckle from it.
Bamboo Forest’s last blog post..Be Embarrassed about Nothing
MomGrind responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 12:00 pm →
@ Cath: “I’ve had a few lately actually searching the names of some of my regular commenters nude.” Ewww, that’s creepy and sick and disturbing on so many levels.
@ Joel: “Funny what happens when computers try to make sense of human language.” – that’s a subject for an entirely new post!
@ Tim: These are funny… I think every blogger should write a post like this twice a year or so – featuring weird or funny search terms. It can teach us a lot about the people who are out there, reading our blogs.
@ Marelisa: “Don’t you feel a little bit like an anthropologist now?” I do! I often think about all those visitors who arrive here, take a quick look, tell themselves “this is so NOT what I was looking for” and click away.
@ Kmommy: “it’s just amazing what search terms some people use!” – It is!!!
@ Sara: I don’t think they can be traced down so easily – Google has that info, somewhere, but suppose I found a deeply disturbing search term on my blog – who will I contact at Google? I can’t think of a scenario where I would be able to get Google to trace them down, or where I can get the police to trace them down, when there’s no evidence of an actual crime.
@ Suzie: “Sister in law flirting with husband” – weird. Maybe the conclusion here is that people are just weird.
@ CharlesP: I too have an old post that people still visit, every day. It’s funny because it’s from the very beginning of this blog, before I found my voice… but it is one of my best google traffic posts to date.
@ Ann: Thanks for the smile.. “mature mom” – yeah, I can imagine some of the results THAT would bring. We decided to get a web filter after my 6 years old came to me beaming, saying that she wants to google “big fat lady”.
@ DavinaH: Thanks!
@ Amanda: “Darren at ProBlogger suggested once to look through your search terms for blog post ideas.” – not a bad idea at all!
@ Bamboo: most of them ARE funny.
Barbara Swafford responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 12:54 pm →
Hi Vered,
What’s with the nude blogger thing? I get those too.
I have a hypothetical post which talks about alienation of affection, and just today I got a hit on that and the search string was “how to get more affection from hubby”. ah….don’t let him have a blog. Hehe.
The saddest one I heard of was a blogger who wrote a post that had the word suicide in it, and she was getting lots of hits from people who wanted to end their lives. I think she ended up taking the post down, or else added a number to a hotline.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..FEFF – It’s Good For The Ego
Natural responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 1:06 pm →
wow i didn’t know you could get all of that from your blog. just exactly how were you able to track it. okay, maybe i better go read the comments.
yes, there are some weird people out there. i wonder if they were satisified with their search results. lol
Natural’s last blog post..Brain Damaged
Christina responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 1:41 pm →
Vered-
Unfortunately there are a lot of creeps out there. It’s crazy how they all ended up at your site. Maybe your content will steer them in the right direction…
Christina’s last blog post..Love Birds [pic]
San Diego Momma responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 2:11 pm →
I would love to repeat some of the search terms that’ve brought people to my site recently…but they’re way too disturbing. (San Diego Momma must be a porn name).
Must be some gross pedophile planetary thing going on…because these search terms seem to be happening to lots of us lately.
San Diego Momma’s last blog post..Veggie “Tails”
Linda Abbit responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 2:33 pm →
Thanks for the heads up (& laughter) for a new blogger — me!
As a Mom, I appreciate your links to keeping our children safe, too.
I will have to find out how to put Google Analytics on my blog — adding it to my ever-growing Blogging To Do List.
Thanks again, Vered! Have a great weekend.
hyrcan responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 2:46 pm →
The world is a weird place that is for certain.
I’ve always enjoyed looking at the search terms that bring people to my websites. Some are funny, others as you’ve pointed out depressing and disturbing.
On my personal blog I get things anywhere from “banana fun” and “bananaphobia”
to “what f****** antivirus to use” (I’ll leave the stars to your imagination)
At work (an education non-profit) it’s “stoichiometry for dummies” and “phone sex jobs” (or worse)
The real question, is if people are searching for these odd things, why is it they look at the description on google, yet still click to visit our sites? Although, in some cases I’m glad they do, as in the visitors who searched along the lines for “Obsessed about my looks” I hope that coming to sites like this will hopefully change their outlook on things in a positive way.
@Natural: Google Analytics can give you scary amounts of information on your site visitors. And is free.
hyrcan’s last blog post..What makes something racist?
Urban Panther responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 6:48 pm →
I do try to be conscious of what I write and which search tags I use. But I also don’t want to restrict my creativity and writing. In the end, I figure if someone landed on my site by accident, they are either going to have a look anyway, or hightail it right back out. I cannot control what people search for, although it sickens me to think about what some of them are seeking. What I do have control over is the comments. If someone leaves a comment that takes the dialogue in a direction I clearly don’t want to go, then I can delete it. Fortunately, all the comments I have received to date have been thoughtful, thought provoking, and downright fun. I am not really surprised at this. I like to believe that the majority of us are incredibly wonderful human beings.
Urban Panther’s last blog post..Why men don’t react
Emsxiety responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 7:12 pm →
Wild seeing how people find their way on to your blog. Even wilder the kind of people that sometimes find their way over.
Emsxiety’s last blog post..Life in general
Robin responds:
Posted: July 11th, 2008 at 11:10 pm →
hee hee Vered
It was fascinating watching the searches that landed on my post “How To be A Man And A Woman Both At The Same Time”!
Robin’s last blog post..Gratitude and Miracles
MomGrind responds:
Posted: July 12th, 2008 at 12:59 am →
@ Barbara: “how to get more affection from hubby”… that’s sad!!! And of course you are right – blogs have a way of competing with one’s family on one’s attention.
@ Natural: Google Analytics… tons of info.
@ Christina: Somehow I doubt it!
@ San Diego Momma: It’s like a forced look into some awful, ugly dark side. And just the thought that these sickos clicked through to our sites is sickening.
@ Linda: Thank you!
@ hyrcan: That’s a good question. I’m not sure. I hope that women with low self-esteem can be inspired by this blog. But the weirdos… I don’t want them here!
@ Urban Panther: I do believe that the majority of mankind are good. But the evil is there, has the power to hurt us, and it’s a sobering experience to see their thought patterns.
@ Emsxiety: Exactly!
@ Robin: I can only imagine.
Shilpan | successsoul.com responds:
Posted: July 12th, 2008 at 7:06 am →
Vered ~ You are unique when it comes to creativity in blog topics. No wonder you get so many comments as you know how to keep your readers so tuned to your blog. I’m glad for you.
I’m saddened though by the last part of your blog post showing the creepiness that exists in our society. Some of these may seemingly be looking Mr. Good on the surface and our kids are exposed to them. I wonder how we can stop this deadliest phenomenon of child sex and related sick minded people.
Shilpan
Shilpan | successsoul.com’s last blog post..7 Habits to Master the Art of Winning against the Odds
rebecca responds:
Posted: July 12th, 2008 at 10:41 am →
i know what you mean. i’ve seen some weird google terms come up on my site as well that disturb me a bit. but, like you stated, the post is not the problem. the problem is that these guys are out there and exist. ah, but for a perfect world….
rebecca’s last blog post..Three Feathers Fall A Heart
Sarah responds:
Posted: July 12th, 2008 at 5:16 pm →
Just one more reason to be careful about posting personal and family details, huh?!!
BTW – I meant to email you about the hair thing but since I’m here – for a more mainstream but still very great approach for frizzy, wavy or curly hair, I highly recommend the book Curly Girl by Lorraine Massey.
I used her system for years and liked it a lot, very simple and good results.
chris responds:
Posted: July 12th, 2008 at 10:26 pm →
You know what? What exactly does your blog name mean?
chris’s last blog post..My Achilles Heel
Dot H. responds:
Posted: July 13th, 2008 at 12:09 am →
And just think, now they’ll arrive here searching for the word CREEPY.
An interesting post. Sounds like there are some pretty unhappy moms out there, too.
Evelyn Lim | Attraction Mind Map responds:
Posted: July 13th, 2008 at 5:44 am →
Vered, you brought up a very good point that we must really look into the tags and keywords that we use. I sure wouldn’t want any of my posts to be attracting the “wrong” type of audience!
Thanks for sharing,
Evelyn
Evelyn Lim | Attraction Mind Map’s last blog post..Draw Inspiration From Never-Give-Up Success Stories
MomGrind responds:
Posted: July 13th, 2008 at 6:32 am →
@ Shilpan: I honestly don’t know. It’s scary.
@ rebecca: I know not to expect the world to be perfect… but some things are really, really disturbing.
@ Sarah: True! The book sounds intriguing. Will check it out. Thanks!
@ chris: The daily grind of motherhood… I actually started out aiming to help worn out moms with tips and advice, but found out fairly quickly that I’m better at entertaining/ making people think than at giving them advice.
@ Dot H.: I know! I actually thought that this post will attract even more weird search engine traffic, and also that the Adsense ads for it could be a problem.
@ Evelyn: “we must really look into the tags and keywords that we use.” – see, I don’t do that at all. I guess I should!
hank responds:
Posted: July 13th, 2008 at 8:33 pm →
No kidding on the dirty folks out there. It’s strange because even on an “investing site” I still get random links myself. This is a good in depth look at what’s out there though! SPOOKY!
hank’s last blog post..Hanks Weekly Hangouts #38 (July 13, 2008)
Mark Salinas responds:
Posted: July 14th, 2008 at 11:24 am →
Thanks for the post and we definitely need to keep our kids safe!
Mark Salinas’s last blog post..My Special Box
theramblinghousewife responds:
Posted: July 14th, 2008 at 2:18 pm →
And THIS is why I removed my blog from Google searches. I use my childrens pictures from time to time, and even though I don’t use any other identifying information—
It STILL creeps me out to no end!
theramblinghousewife’s last blog post..Lessons Learned
Kmommy responds:
Posted: July 15th, 2008 at 12:51 pm →
Just wanted to let you know that I left something for you on my blog!
Kmommy’s last blog post..Bloggy Award!
MomGrind responds:
Posted: July 15th, 2008 at 8:26 pm →
@ hank: Really? On your site too? That’s amazing.
@ Mark: You’re welcome!
@ theramblinghousewife: It creeps me out too!
@ Kmommy: I’m off to check it out.
Allison responds:
Posted: July 16th, 2008 at 1:24 pm →
Oh my. Those last ones really are awful. It’s sick to think that there are people that just google things like that. Sick!
Fortunately the funny ones made up for the awfulness of the last ones!
I always love to read the search terms that brought people to me. I can’t figure out what it brought them to, sometimes, though. One of the funny search terms I have gotten a few times is “china smells” or other things about china and smelling. I have never written a post about china smelling! Haha.
Allison’s last blog post..Wordless Wednesday: We Should All Be So Lucky
MomGrind responds:
Posted: July 16th, 2008 at 1:40 pm →
@ Allison: China smells – that’s weird! Google is useful most of the time, but sometimes it’s just freakishly off base.
Computer Forum responds:
Posted: July 22nd, 2008 at 4:24 am →
Amazing article! Detailed and very interested. I am going to recommend this blog to my friends.
Lawrence Matthews responds:
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 8:14 am →
As far as paedos go, I see a difference in acting on an impulse and merely imagining.
If you imagine killing somone should you be jailed?
MomGrind responds:
Posted: July 28th, 2008 at 11:05 am →
@ Lawrence Matthews: What worries me is that I believe that many of these people WOULD exploit a child if they had the opportunity and knew they would not be caught. There’s something about seeing children as sexual objects that is especially heinous.
Jason responds:
Posted: January 6th, 2009 at 12:06 am →
If I may be frank, getting bent out of shape over a google search term seems a bit like making a mountain out of a molehill. Sometimes, its a matter of curiosity, for example, I will often type in two random things in a search bar and go just to see where it takes me; which is part of the fun of having a huge database of text at your fingertips. It might be presumptuous to conclude that everyone typing “sexy computer” or “cat lunch”, or whatever other bizarre juxtaposition you can imagine is a Hannibal Lecter hiding behind a keyboard.