I would think when most people go to Google for help, they are searching for things like “Mexican restaurants near me”, or “10-day weather forecast for New York”, or “who’s that really clever blogger that has blather in his blog name”.
But then there are whole subcultures out there using much narrower search queries, and for some reason, my blog seems to be the go-to place when someone wants to know what company makes the most tires in the world.
A couple of years ago I had written a post “And the World’s Largest Tire Manufacturer Is… Drumroll Please…“, and for whatever reason, it is by far my most popular post. Nearly two years later and it is usually my most viewed post every day.
At first, when I saw how many views it was getting, I thought I was being hacked or spammed. And while that may still be the case, it also seems true that when people are actually searching for such an answer, my site is one of the places Google returns as possibly having the answer.
The screenshot above shows the most popular search terms that people used to arrive at my web site since I began blogging five years ago. Of the top 14 queries, five of them relate to tires.
However, as is often the case, if somebody ended up at my blog with the hope of actually learning something useful, they would be sadly disappointed. You see, the blog I wrote about tires is actually a trick question (you’ll have to click on the link above to find out the answer).
I’ve written about this phenomenon before: “The Day My WordPress Stats Went Wild“. My blog had been averaging about 350-400 views per day when I wrote that blog back in September. However, on that particular day, my blog had 5,385 views, of which 5,021 were for my blog post about tires.
The reason I am writing about it again is that the view spike has spiked again the past few days for that post:
Tuesday: 415 views of tire post
Wednesday: 279 views
Thursday (so far): 141 views
Typically, that post gets about 100 views per day.
Now I’m not complaining. It’s not like it’s extra work for me to have people read my post about tires. And it’s nice getting the extra views.
But I just don’t get why so many people seem to be interested in tires.
I’m also curious how in the world if somebody typed “Amazon” into Google search, which returns over 4 billion results, they somehow ended up at my site 65 times. They must have done a lot of scrolling…
P.S. If you do type “blathering bloggers” my site comes in fourth place out of 424,000 results. I guess there are a lot of blathering bloggers out there…
You’ve gone viral! 😂
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yea, I’m kind of a big deal now… 🙂
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Yes you are a big deal. So how can I reach that status? I once wrote a 25 page term paper in college regarding tire separation and who’s fault it was that people were dying. Bridgestone vs Ford. Then I had court duty and guess what the case was??? You guessed it. A teenage driver, Ford Explorer flips after having a blowout killing someone in the other car that was hit. Needless to say the prosecution or defense didn’t want me for trial. 😂
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what a sad story; it’s never made sense to me that lawyers don’t want intelligent people on the jury.
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Yeah well! I knew too much to be dangerous and keep the jury asking questions if I’d been selected. They thought biased. I didn’t conclude in my paper one way or the other. 😊
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I’ve always wanted to be on a jury – hasn’t happened yet…
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Most people try to get out if it.
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I think it would be a nice change of pace and a learning experience.
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I agree. I didn’t want to do it while I was working because it doesn’t pay the bills. Now I could do it and be okay with it.
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it can be quite inconvenient. I’m fortunate that my schedule is pretty flexible. still keeping my fingers crossed…
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Mine flexible now with no job. I hope I don’t have to go to work for someone else. 😊
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I hope you find something you enjoy!
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I’m enjoying writing and blogging at the moment so gonna ride it out. 😊
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sounds like a plan!
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Theory 1—You uncovered Putin’s new strategy—let’s inflate the numbers for Borden! That will screw up the country and throw everyone into a dither.😎
Theory 2—It’s National Tire Week! 😊
That is weird. Let us know if you crack the case.
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I like how you and Brad came up with theories!
as for Theory 1, are you suggesting the Russians want me to run for President? All I can say is: “if nominated I will not run, and if elected, I will not serve.”
as for Theory 2, I just checked and found out that May 18-24 is National Tire Safety Week. If your hunch is correct, my blog might EXPLODE that week. Maybe I’ll take out some ads on Facebook to promote my blog that week 🙂
Have a great weekend, Pete!
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Conratulations! You must be doing somethings right in the wacky world of Google search.
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I wish I knew what it was, so I could replicate it!
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WHen you figure it out, please share 🙂
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By the time I figure it out, Google probably won’t even be around any more… 🙂
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such a funny phenomenon, i am endlessly fascinated by what people search for. and your blog is great, so i’m sure that’s the real reason and the tires are a bonus
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thanks, Beth! Now if I could only find other weird things people like to search for and write a blog about them!
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Check the insight portion of your stats for prompts!
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thanks for the suggestion, Beth. I just took a quick look – I might be here all day… 🙂
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oh, i can see you doing so -)
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just taking a pause from studying my insight data…
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I think you may have stumbled across a unique combination of things that tick all the right boxes for the search algorithms. A commonly searched for item, paired with an active web site that posts new material everyday. Most web sites don’t update and add content that regularly and the algorithms are keen to that. However, it is more fun to postulate the less common theories, so here goes:
Theory 1 – You had a bad stats day one day and you incorporated your blog post into an assignment in all your lectures to artificially drive up your numbers.
Theory 2 – People just love the shit out of tires.
Theory 3 – You surreptitiously tagged your post with nothing but sex and porn references except for the word “Tire”.
Theory 4 – Your post was some of the greatest writing the world as ever known and is currently being considered for an honored spot in the Library of Congress as an example of literary excellence. Followed likely by the Noble Prize for literature.
😁😂🤣
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I keep trying to stumble upon more such search algorithm combinations, to no avail.
As to your other theories:
1. I do that once a year when I try and pull an April Fools Day prank on my students..
2. weirdos…
3. I do that with all my posts and nothing seems to happen…
4. I really want one of those Noble prizes!
Have a great weekend, Brad! 🙂
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I like Brad’s theories better than mine. Thanks for the best laughs I’ve had today.
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My pleasure, Pete! Considerate of you since I stole the idea from you!
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as Steve Jobs said: Good artists copy, great artists steal.”
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he did have some clever theories, but it looks like you were the one who inspired him!
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The subject of Rubber tires and LEGO got me thinking about where Hot Wheels would stack up against the top manufacturers. Granted, they produce hard plastic tires/wheels … According to a quickie web search, about 16.5 Hot Wheels toy vehicles are produced every minute. My quick, rough math suggests Mattel would have a viable claim toward the top of that list if plastic donuts were calculated. Just saying, I’ve been dropping the LEGO stats on any car guy/gal I come across these days.
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you may be on to something with the Hot Wheels! I’ll do some digging as well. I remember growing up I was always more of a Matchbox kind of kid…
I’m sure all the guys and gals you come across will be quite impressed with your LEGO trivia… 🙂
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I’ve used it on my oldest son, who’s a big car guy. So, I’m sure it’s making the chat lines at Uni’s across the globe. You’ve gone viral, again, Jim 😎
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maybe I should try and sell my domain name while it’s hot. I might be able to fetch $5 or $10 for it 🙂
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Or, you just might start a bidding war. Sell high, whatever you do, Jim 😊
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I’m sure whatever price I get, I’ll still have a big loss come tax time… 🙂
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Interesting. I haven’t looked at my stats page for a few years, but now you have piqued my interest. I’m adding it to my “to-do” list.
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uh-oh. I hope it doesn’t lead you down int a rabbit hole! 🙂
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Ha! Too funny, and too weird. And now I’m off to go read this infamous tire post! 🕊
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I hope it doesn’t disappoint! 🙂
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It’s strange how people find our blogs, isn’t it? As you piqued my interest I’ve just looked up my stats. The most frequent is ‘Nanci Griffith retired,’ which derives from a couple of posts I wrote some years ago featuring her songs. However I did not at any point query whether she had retired. The next five search queries all contained the word ‘sex.’ I once wrote a post on Think About Sex Day – yes, it really does exist – and this gave me the excuse to tag the post with ‘sex.’ I guess I’ve disappointed many with that 😊
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that is strange with the Nanci Griffith results. And I’m sure tagging a post with “sex” can do wonders for search results! 🙂
Nothing wrong with a little click bait now and then!
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It is rather odd, and I’ve never worked it out. I deliberately tagged the click bait word to see what response it got – still get a few each week, on much lower numbers than yours.
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it is funny how those search engines work – and what’s on the minds of people surfing the web!
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You can play to an audience, can’t you! I just ran the Nanci Griffith retired one again – still at no.9 on the first page of results. Very odd!
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that’s nice that you are still so high on the search results!
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I have just re-read both of my Nanci Griffith-related posts, and the word ‘retired’ doesn’t feature in either. But the penny has just dropped: it’s in the tag line at the top of my blog, so must be being picked up from there. Who knew, eh?
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maybe you can start spreading rumors about other famous people retiring…
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If I’m right all I have to do is write about them! Just checked this week’s stats: 3 referrals so far from that phrase. Maybe I need to write a post claiming Beyoncé or Bieber are retiring…
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not only will you get a lot of views – maybe you’ll here from their agents too… 🙂
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There is that to consider 😂
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PS ‘tyre’ – we spell it properly over here – doesn’t bring up a link to your blog. I fear you may be missing out on a market 😊
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I’m not going to defend the U.S. spelling of a word versus a British spelling – you guys win every time.
I just searched for “world’s biggest tyre manufacturers”, and I see my site near the top. Maybe Britain has blocked my site… 🙂
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That’s really weird. I’ve just tried it again with the exact same search words and you don’t appear on any of the first 15 pages of results. Must be something to do with how Google’s algorithms work, but might be worth a check of your SEO to see if there are any settings you could adjust. As for the spelling, it’s a cheap target for us – we claim it as our language but in reality it is derived from many sources, most of whom have invaded us at some point!
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that is strange… I don’t do anything with SEO, never seemed worth the effort. And I guess English is a regular Tower of Babel!
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The phrase ‘divided by a common language’ springs to mind 😉
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that describes it perfectly! 🙂
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Excellent, Jim! I’ll come to you when we need a new set of tyres for the Bentley. I know what you mean – I get some bizarre search terms too – and I’ve a way to go before I get 5,000 page views in a day!
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I’ve got a few spare Bentley tires in my garage that I can send over to you…
It is strange what people search for!
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Brilliant, Jim. Maybe I’ll have #SirChocolatestires instead of books and I’ll get all these views too. I have made tires out of cake you know.
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thanks, Robbie.
I like the ring of #SirChocolatestires
All you need to do is make more than 300 million tires and you’ll replace Lego! 🙂
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Hahaha
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a journey of 300 million tires begins with one… 🙂
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Congratulations Jim…Maybe I need to start writing about tires to see what happens lol….
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go for it – you never know! 🙂
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I love LEGO – I never really thought about the tire aspect…
One of my most popular posts was about Induction Cooking Pots and Pans. It still gets a few views a day, even though I wrote it 9 years ago.
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LEGO toys are the best.
that’s funny about your post about induction cooking pots and pans; I guess you never know what will be a popular post…
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