So here’s what getting to the number two search result for a certain keyword can do to a site:
Prior to the spike I think that site was ranking on Google on page 2 or 3, which I’m told doesn’t get you very far, but there are regional customizations to the search results that make it hard to figure things out these days.
Now, before we get to the keyword in question, here’s a breakdown by time of day for one of those days:
The peak is at 5PM Eastern. 80% of the search traffic that day was from the USA, so let’s assume an even distribution across the time zones and say around 3:30 would be the busiest part of the day for search traffic. On a Monday.
And there are all kinds of assumptions and generalizations going on here. This chart is for traffic, and doesn’t really tell anything about search volumes for keywords, since the site title and description are what’ll drive clicks, and I doubt it’s a linear function. As we’ll see in a minute, for this particular keyword, the site isn’t a great match for the average searcher, but the point is that for the majority of this traffic, someone had to initiate a search.
The thing of it is, the keyword I happened to be ranking for was porn.
Yep, it’s a popular term. No, I don’t run a porn site. For some reason back in November (and possibly around Christmas) Google was trying out a new algorithm (or just dancing) and was ranking sites about “(insert word here) porn” better than sites about actual porn (I think Chart Porn was the number one result.)
What really got to me was the time of day thing. I always figured searches for porn would peak around, oh, just after work, then maybe the 10PM to midnight window, and then I guess first thing in the morning, you know, to stay motivated during the day??? Adjusted to a time zone, anyway.
But here I’m seeing a huge gathering amidst the after lunch crowd. Which tells me as much about the economy as anything: are there that many unemployed people, or are the people left with jobs really that unproductive?
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