One of the ways I study Google’s algorithm is looking at what keywords provided visits to my site then asking myself whether the content on my blog matches what this person was actually looking for. I do this for other sites I manage but since I don’t want to give away any sensitive keyword data, let’s look at the top 10 search terms that drove traffic to my site for the first six months of 2013. Number 1 is not provided but since that isn’t any fun to deconstruct (and went to a variety of landing pages) let’s look at terms that actually were picked up:

• 1. pros and cons of self censorship
  Match Score: Excellent.
  This query is an exact match for a blog post I wrote awhile back talking about the growth of our digital self and how we translate that to people researching us for potential jobs, partnerships, relationships, etc …

 

• 2. crisis management and komen foundation
  Match Score: Good.
  This search term matches up well with the post I wrote about the Komen Foundation’s handling of their PR nightmare but searchers are likely looking for something more robust.

 

• 3. western sky
  Match Score: Poor.
  I wrote about Western Sky Financial’s excessive loans but not their company as a whole. Visitors on this term were likely looking for a result within a specific time period or my post had a slight bump right after it was written.

 

• 4. 1500 loan westernsky accelerated
  Match Score: Poor
  This correlates to a specific financial instrument and these visitors were likely looking for the official site but maybe chose my blog post because it called out their unconscionable rates?

 

• 5. advantages of self censorship in media
  Match Score: Good
  These searchers are specifically looking for media self-censorship while my post covered the practice from more of a personal perspective.

 

• 6. ayrton senna video archives
  Match Score: Poor
  The expected results for this query were probably a fan blog or YouTube playlist. While I have written on Senna a few times, I haven’t created content anywhere near what these visitors were looking for.

 

• 7. biggest fail in social media 2012
  Match Score: Fair
  I wrote about a couple of social media fails but didn’t label any single one as the “biggest fail”

 

• 8. celebboutique complaints
  Match Score: Poor.
  These visitors were likely looking for reviews whereas my content was related to a poorly written tweet.

 

• 9. facebook advertising mlm scam
  Match Score: Good.
  This matches up well with the content of a post I wrote about mlm/work from home scams saturating the ad space in my Facebook feed.

 

• 10. nfl jerseys spam worpress
  Match Score: Excellent.
  This correlates well with one of the most popular posts I have written regarding comment spam. Glad to see other webmasters doing their research.

Photo credit: Philippe Semanaz