This May Not Be What You're Looking For

Now that Seasons of Violet has Bravenet stats, I'm able to see how readers get to my blog. It would be interesting to know what they think when they get here, especially when they get here while looking for something else.

Last week I had a visitor who did a Google search on "Kalamazoo Christmas Parade". It just happens that the number one entry on Google for "Kalamazoo Christmas Parade" is Seasons of Violet. No doubt that person was looking for information about the parade - maybe date and time. Imagine their surprise when they ended up looking at a Seasons of Violet post about a calendar with scenic dog poop pictures. (October 12 post if you missed it.)

Two different readers arrived at Seasons of Violet by doing a Goggle search on "Pfired". The number one entry on Google for "Pfired" is Seasons of Violet. Is this fame or what?

Tuesday I had a visitor who got to Seasons of Violet by entering a Google search for "picture pile of dog poop". This time Seasons wasn't the number one entry - but still, is this really how I want to be found?

Wednesday someone got to Seasons of Violet by doing a Google search for "WWJD bandaids". Seasons of Violet came up second on the Google list. WWJD was in my October 14 post and bandaids was in my October 17 post. This points out the futility of using the general Google search for two separate words. The advanced Google search will let you specify that the two words be an "exact phrase". But why would anyone want WWJD bandaids?

In case you're wondering how much information I get on my readers, don't worry. Your identity is safe. I can't tell who you are. For a direct hit, I get your OS and browser information and the IP address and name of your ISP. If you come from another internet site, I get the name of that site. If you come from a Goggle Search, I get to see what you were searching for.

Something tells me that people searching for "Kalamazoo Christmas Parade" or "Pfired" or "picture pile of dog poop" or "WWJD bandaids" didn't find what they expected in Seasons of Violet. Hopefully they were entertained for a few minutes before they left to try elsewhere.