It’s Amazing What You Can Rank for Without Trying
By Christian Little • Oct 15th, 2008 • Category: Search Engine OptimizationIf you are into SEO at all, then chances are you frequently check your logs and analytics programs to see what terms you are getting search traffic for. And since that’s something I do, I’ve decided to demonstrate some of the stupid things you can rank for without even trying.
Two weeks ago I created a post titled “Google Website Optimizer = Epic Failure”. Care to take a wild guess at what that post is ranking for now?
Yup..you guess it – my site is now ranking for “epic failure”.
Was I trying to go after that term? No. That key phrase is a term used by World of Warcraft players, which has no bearing at all on what I blog about.
The above image is was tripped me off to this. That’s a snippet of my awStats for this month…3 people came through to my website from that search term. Can you say WTF?!
So off I went into my Google Webmaster Tools (I highly recommend using this tool on your website, it has some very cool information):
So What Does This Table Tell Me?
It tells me that 50% of the search traffic impressions that I’m getting (meaning 50% of all searches done that list my website in the results) are for “epic failure”. Sometimes I think Google is smoking crack.
So a question to all of you – who’s got a more bizarre term that they rank for?
Christian Little is a web monkey and owner of this website. Aside from blogging about webmastering, SEO, and marketing, he spends his time with his family, running too many websites, playing counter-strike, and provides SEO consulting for a few select clients around the world.
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That’s hilarious!
I wonder if the epic failure phrase originates from the failure of the Epic Movie.
I guess your post is proof that saying original things on your blog/website gets you more hits??
Infernos last blog post..C++ Win32 API Simple GUI Wrapper
It originates from World of Warcraft, it’s a term used by the players there for various things
I should know, I played wow for 2 years before finally getting away from it.
A person can be an epic failure therefore it is a noun
A noob is an epic failure.
Paper cups are epic failures.
Sporks are epic failures.
Andreys last blog post..Wrangler TD
Hi i have been using several techniques to obtain backlinks and keyword optimisation, what i realise is that you must have original content, good design and articles that actual mean something, how many times do u log on a web site and realise that the content has been totally spun and re-spun to the extent that no one actually knows what it means. Hopefully at some point in time the serps will be able to realise a site that has genuine original content and will afford it the ranking that it deserves.
LOL thats just cool! I prefer Webmastertools, too!
Haha, nice keyword optimizing
Hello. This is kind of an “unconventional” question , but have other visitors asked you how get the menu bar to look like you’ve got it? I also have a blog and am really looking to alter around the theme, however am scared to death to mess with it for fear of the search engines punishing me. I am very new to all of this …so i am just not positive exactly how to try to to it all yet. I’ll just keep working on it one day at a time Thanks for any help you can offer here.
yes, it’s true..
Thank you for sharing such a good passage
it is really very interesting.
Seo Good
Took me long to all the remarks, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be very usable to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It?s always good when you can not only be educated, but also involved! I?m sure you had fun saving this article.
LOL. I bet you were getting huge floods of traffic when the Epic Traffic Systems was getting released some weeks back. There were alot of people searching for search phrases containing “EPIC”…lol
Hey, now this is a cool one. Infact, there used to be more footprints like this one. Still you can find some. Hint-
Install other dofollow plugins to get those phrases” There was one something like ” comments may be nofollow free” I had that on my blog. Thanks and continue giving out secret tips like this one.
It’s cool!
Well, personally, I use the plugin called all in one seo. It is very effective and I recommend everyone to use it.