Odd Google Results
February 4, 2012 9 Comments
So, while I’m on the subject of Google…I don’t have intricate statistics on who comes to this blog from where — let alone why — but WordPress does tell me which Google searches lead the unsuspecting to Polentical.
The searches usually make sense. A search for “doug benson 12 guests of christmas” or “dlm 12 guests of christmas” or “12 guests of christmas doug” has led multiple googlers to my review of that episode of Doug Loves Movies. Others have found my references to Chesea Peretti’s appearance on that podcast by searching for “chelsea peretti hot.”
Image via Wikipedia
But then there are the odd ones. What to make of people searching for “really stoned”? (It appears to link to that Peretti podcast appearance.)
Did the person searching for “why does steven tyler look like a woman” expect the Google to give a definitive answer?
Image via Wikipedia
My favorite was the recent search for “jon hamm toupee” because it made me sit up straight. Is Hamm bald? Is this some sort of Hollywood conspiracy which has not passed my desk?
The answer once again came from Doug Loves Movies. I had totally forgotten about the really stoned Doug Benson mixing up the words “toupee” and “tattoo” while making jokes. Although future Googlers looking for “jon hamm bald” will now find this post, there is no — I repeat, no — evidence that Mr. Hamm is bald. He just likes hats.
Image via Wikipedia
About Matthew
LOL! Yeah, I’ve seen some goodies that really make me wonder what planet the searcher is coming from.
And wonder how some of those searches came to my site because I have nothing even close to some of the searches. And then to see the same nutball search multiple times? I scratch my head a lot…
One thing I enjoy on your home page is the “Live Traffic Feed” that shows where people show up from, and when. It’s kinda mesmerizing.
LOL.. yeah, it’s interesting to watch. Had someone from an Air Force base the other day and have seen some other very strange places.
When I first embedded the Country Counter it was interesting to see what the first countries were, and where in the US. The hit counter is gaining faster than the WP counter, though. And I’ve noticed that on my wordpress.org sites, which I have google analytics set up as well as the same site stats that wp.com uses. The google analytics is usually about 50% more hits per day than WP tells me. I’m waiting for the day when the traffic feed counter surpasses the WP stat counter.
Weird…I wonder what causes that discrepancy. You have to have Custom CSS set up to do Google analytics, right?
I’ve only set up G Analytics in my wp.org sites. But I do have it set up as much as I can in M News, which is (as you know) a wp.com site. In my .org sites, I embedded the code in the header or footer (can’t remember which) which are php files. I just bought the CSS upgrade recently for M News and tweaked the same theme you are using. But the upgrade doesn’t allow access to the php files. Google Analytics definitely has a learning curve – especially just getting it set up.
Thanks for the insider knowledge! It’s not something I really “need” and also sounds a little bit beyond my technical skills, but it still appeals.
It’s a bit rough to use, for sure. I’m still trying to figure it out after 4 months now. Honestly, though… the stats we use on wp.com are sufficient enough. Shows me what I want to know, which is what people seem to like, the search words that bring the traffic, etc. Plus if I get a “hot” post on another site. Someone posted one of my OWS post photos to Reddit, and I received nearly 60,000 hits that day. It was amazing doing a refresh in a minute and seeing the count jump by hundreds.
Wow…that’s great for your post, and also great that OWS attracts such interest.