Fun With Google

My Google ranking recently dropped to zero, I’m sad to say, but it illustrates a fundamental principle of search engines: the absolute ranking only gives you a comparison to other websites in a very general way. It cannot predict how your web address will fare on specific keyword searches.
For example, if you google ‘Ike’s Advice Unheeded’ you will find a series of Armchair Travel entries that I hope people will read .
When I found out Eisenhower had opposed dropping the atom bomb on Japan, the French occupation of Vietnam and American involvement in Vietnam — there’s more than a million lives right there.
Then there’s the entry where Ike said it would be disastrous for the US to become “an occupying power in a seething Arab world.”
If we did, he says, “I’m sure we would soon regret it.”
Those Eisenhower entries are still getting major traffic, which is nice, but I would just as soon people started taking Ike’s advice. I’m ready with a new series, ‘Ike’s Advice Heeded”.
I once wrote that if you look up intrepid solo women’s travel in the dictionary, there should be a picture of Isabella Bird.
Well guess what? If you google intrepid solo women’s travel – you don’t even need to use quotation marks – your top entry will be one with a picture of Isabella Bird.
It’s not hard to get a top on google. ‘Back From Elko Full of Balloon Juice’ or ‘Benedict Arnold Saves the Day Twice’ – that’s easy.
But here’s something I bet you didn’t know. If you google naked nude orgy, at the top you’ll get an Armchair Travel entry. If it doesn’t work the first time, try using quotation marks. And don’t be distracted by all those subsequent entries.