Our blog has never brought in an impressive amount of search engine traffic (can anybody tell me why?) but the search terms that do bring visitors are always good for a few chuckles.
Here are a few that caught my eye when I reviewed my stats just now while working on another project:
How to fit a family of 7 in 2000 square feet – Really? Maybe that was a typo: How to find a family of 7 in 2000 square feet, because I’m telling ya: we would be lost in that much space!
How to fit 6 people in a 3 bedroom house – I read this aloud and my kids stared blankly at me. ”Um…2 in each room? Someone really needed Google to tell them that?”
monthly grocery list for 300 – And I thought shopping once a month was a big job back when there were only 9 of us…
llama, llama red pajama activities – I’d really like to know what Google was thinking. I’m reasonably sure I have never owned or blogged about red pajamas or llamas or any combination thereof or activities therein.
entertaining guests in small homes space - Well, acrobatics are out, but tap dancing or a mime act works well in a small space.
whyred ina shoe – whuuu?
quizno coupons – Me? I rank for Quiznos coupons??? Thanks, Google! click here! click here! (I get paid if you do. How much? Here’s a clue: if 8 or 10 of you print coupons, I’m off to Quiznos!)
labeling shelves in panrty – For starters I recommend avoiding typos, because that would drive me nuts on a label every time I lookd at it. Also, I have to assume that I spelled pantry that way at least once since Google saw fit to send the searcher my way.
how to take out a toilet tank – would you believe that post sends me more search engine traffic than any other single post on my whole blog? I’m in the top 10 on Google for how to remove your toilet tank, or nearly any other way of asking the question.
swelling during pregnancy indicates boy – Really? Because my belly *always* swells. I thought swelling during pregnancy indicated pregnancy.
swollten ankles pregnant boy or girl? – So far, every person I’ve met who experienced swollen ankles during pregnancy was a girl.
And all that was just in the last 2 days. Who thinks I should do this more often? What brings visitors to your blog?
LOL! How do you find the search terms?
Annette, in statcounter you can look at keyword analysis to see your search tetms. If you use WordPress, they have a stat plugin that provides even more info and details.
in addition I love the suggestions to posts that may be linked at the bottom – that alone has wasted many minutes but brought many mnay laughs at some of the posts I found… including the gypsy skirt one… you know with the – oh wait you have probably buried that memory for good but I am tearing up with laughter just thinking about it. Your posts bring many emotions but I always feel better for visiting – I just hope all those searches result in the same feeling for them
I posted a recipe for elderberry twirls (cookies) a couple of years back and now I’m mentioned on a site for elderberries. That one little cookie post drives most of my traffic. Especially from England. Those people really love their elderberries.
You said everyone you’d met with swollen ankles in pregnancy was carrying a girl. I’m assuming you mean in “real life.” On your post back in 2008, plenty of people posted in the comments that they had swelling with boys or had swelling with both boys and girls. http://inashoe.com/2008/06/a-poll-on-swollen-feet/
My worst swelling in my ankles, by far, was in my first pregnancy. And I was carrying a boy. In my four girl pregnancies (and one more boy), my swelling was much more minor, despite having varicose veins that have gotten progressively worse.
Heather, I didn’t say they were carrying girls. I said they *were* girls. I’ve never known a boy (man) to suffer from swollen ankles during pregnancy.
i think you should post your search terms once a week–that was hilarious!
thanks for the hearty giggle so early this morning.
I agree!
I needed that this morning as I tried to get my littlest back to sleep when he’s teething!
Haha! Love the toilet tank search word!
I love looking at this! Here are mine for the week: cliff of cleft (which is the name of my old blog), craving a simple life (yay!), cleft lip ultrasound pictures (my blog was originally started upon finding out my son had a cleft), and brooke mollosky (I have ZERO idea who this is.). Admittedly not as funny as your links but still interesting to see!
Where does the majority of your traffic come from? Most of mine comes from Facebook. I think my mother and husband feel sorry for me and shamelessly plug it over and over on their pages. haha
Loved that pregnant people with swollen ankles were all girls! hee hee. (HeatherHH – she didn’t say they were *carrying* girls, but that they were girls.)
The words “double jointed” brought two people to me this month. I think it was the post where my 6 year old had his ankles behind his head at the breakfast table!
List these as regularly as you get great search words.
Come on Kim,we know a fun Saturday night for ya’ll is dressing up ya’ll’s llama in jammies.Just admit it.;)
FYI, Llama, Llama, Red Pajamas (and all of the Llama books) are pretty awesome–I highly recommend
LOL! I get a *lot* of searches for Faceboob (which is a title of a post, but not about whatever they’re searching for, I’m certain.) That’s actually my number one search term, which is ridiculous. I also get “should a Christian woman work outside the home” and variations of that all day long. My favorite, because I am one, is “hillbilly homeschoolers”, which just came in a couple of days ago. It is my hope that someone was specifically looking for me, because I just don’t know what else they could have been looking for with that term! :0)
I love these! The first two are absolutely spot-on. We have 9 people in around 1000 sf and I find myself awestruck at the number of people who can’t figure out how to fit a family of 4 into twice that. And the grocery list one…priceless!!
I love this! Post these as often as you like, particularly when there are funny ones.
We are a family of 4 (soon to be 5) in a house of over 2,000 square feet and 5 bedrooms, which we just bought 6 months ago. It does feel small at times, but I will readily admit that is due to the amount of STUFF we have, not the number of people. I’m pretty sure we can fit 3 more kids in here without too much trouble, though it would be a little tighter than how I grew up. It’s funny how differently people can perceive the same space.
Isn’t it funny? I blog about relationships alot, so some of these, I “get”, but these are still funny to me! Some people ask very specific questions!
My funnier ones:
i wanna be a millionare so that i can marry you, but im feeling kinda lazy, and im scared because this is o
what if i die spreadsheet
darg stargnoc
god is my “seam ripper”
bisküvi
he postponed our second date twice
sweetiest ? – 31
panic biological clock 31 years old
i’ll take the time of abstinence
i have no clue how to be single
does a woman likes you when she bakes you cookies
if i am supposed to ovulate on 3/31/2011 and i last had intercourse on 3/29/2011 will the sperm last long enough for ovulation
women who make $200k
I love that list, tooo funny:D I think I found you from the frugal hacks website:D
What drives traffic to my blog, umm, yelling at my family to check it out once in a while? Oh, and asking on etsy if they would once in a while stop by and say hi, so far few goers on that end:D
According to my stats I have had people directed at me from a dove ad? hmmm, not sure how stats work yet, LOL.
oh, please please please do this more often. Definitely good for a few laughs!
Swollten ankles? Is that anything like swollen ankles?
Spelling errors drive me nuts too! That’s possibly why my hubby went to electronic checking – then I couldn’t correct his spelling errors in the check book. 
ANYWAY, yes, whether you call them swollen or swollten I’ve had that in every single pregnancy and we have 3 boys and (soon to be) 5 girls. And if it was just my ankles that were swollen I’d be thrilled!
Yes, keep this up, Kim!
I kept giggling reading this…and I remember that on my old blog, it was one of my mentions of a costume that brought 90% of the traffic to my blog
I just had to say that I found your site last year just after Christmas with a google search for ‘how to fit a large family in a small house’ and I have been silently stalking your site ever since
There are currently 6 of us in about 1300 square feet with 3 bedrooms, but it is an old farmhouse and the bedrooms upstairs have slanted walls since they are right below the roof peak, which means bunk beds don’t work so hot. Reading your blog has really changed my perspective on the space issue…it isn’t really an issue, I just need to be more creative in using my space! I also love how REAL you are about your life…so refreshing!
I love seeing these! You should do these much more often.
My name is Gabe and I’ve had a bunch of babies so my blog is…. Gabe’s babes, its about our family of 9. Based on many of the searches that have brought people to my blog I’m thinking they didn’t find what they were looking for. :/
The 6 kids in a 3 bedrooms might be mine. The kids just go in 2 of those. I was wanting to find information on how some large families fit into and organize their bedrooms that was a google suggestion when i typed in diffrent terms to try to figure out how to best find the info. That led to me finding your blog. Athough your blog did not really give me any prospective on that, I liked your stuff anyway. LOL
I don’t know if this will help you, Sarah, but I have a pin board on Pinterest called Favorite Places and Spaces and there are a couple of INCREDIBLE bedrooms for 3-5 kiddos. They’re a bit larger than we have, but maybe they will inspire you. http://pinterest.com/zekesmom10/
I get lots of hits for “I hate potty training.”
Apparently I’ve complained about that a little.
Thank you for this post – it made me laugh! And I dearly love to laugh.
Ha! I was going to say that my only swollen ankles were with #3, a boy, but then I saw in the comments what you actually said. I guess I wasn’t reading carefully.
)
I love it! Your dry wit makes me laugh out loud! Share more!