Britney update

Last month I tried an experiment to see if it was true that putting the name of a major celebrity in your post title would lead to exponentially greater traffic to that page. I have to report it has, so far, failed. That post is languishing at number 19 of my most popular pages. I did however get some dodgy trackbacks and an increase in spam. Perhaps I should be heartened by the quality of my regular readers. I may check again to see how it's faring - but not for a year or three.

Comments

[Scaryduck]

You have to think long-term on these things. Firstly, you've got to wait until google grabs hold of your post (could be a day or two), and then hope it is indexed high enough to get the hordes invading your site.

Thanks to a bit of luck and properly applied google-juice, I somehow get dozens of hits a day from people looking for "Penelope Keith naked". Or, it could just be the same, increasingly desperate, person. Who can tell?

[Bobbie Johnson]

Also, don't forget that there are going to be plenty of sites that mention Britney Spears etc. so you've got a huge amount of competition in Google

If you set your gaze in a slightly-less popular direction - Scaryduck's Penelope Keith is a good example - you might actually find it makes more of a difference. Or use a popular news event (I find these are the greatest drivers of traffic - I imagine people ranked high for Jade Goody would have seen a huge rise in hits recently)

[Ian Ketcheson]

Nice blog, Richard. I did the same thing with the term "peekvid".

I deconstructed the experiment here:

http://ketcheson.net/2006/11/25/hittail-and-pandering-to-the-whims-of-the-web-bleenks-peekvid-tv-fusion/

Keep it up.

ian.

[guitarman]

I have actually searched for Penelope Keith Naked and was disappointed not to find anything!!