I’ve had Google Analytics on my website since it became free. It’s amazing the amount of detail it gives you. I barely use 10% of the data that it provides.

Recently a friend of mine did some research on search terms that people used to get to his site. I was inspired to do some reflection on the search terms used to get to my site as well. Some observations.

  • While only one person visited with the search phrase “what is the distribution of coins in your change jar” that is a very special visit. No doubt hitting on the Change Game, but this curious person proceeded to click on 41 more pages of the site.
  • A surprising number of people put my URL “www.thingelstad.com” into a search engine so they can then click on it and go to my site. It seems the search box and the location box are a bit confusing at times.
  • I’m pretty surprised by how many searches there are for people that work with me and then somehow end up at my site.
  • I’ve only ever written one post about the Earthroamer RV, but I’m stunned that it is the most popular search term of people reaching my site.
  • Similarly, I once entitled a post “Pokipsy” and now 59 people have visited using that search term. Not surprisingly they left right away since there isn’t a thing about Pokipsy in the post titled Pokipsy.
  • “Twitterific”, a term I used only a two weeks ago, has already resulted in 21 visits to the site. Amazing!