DimeBrothers.com
You weren't expecting a new post, were you? 

Traffic and Back Pain - 5 Cents
Posted by: Mark Nichols

17 Apr 2007


I've recently done some searching on Google to see if some of the articles we've written show up. For example, I know someone found our site by searching with the following phrase: "merritt parkway no-exit zone". But if I use that search phrase, Dime Brothers does not show up on the first few result pages on Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Even using "The Flow and Ebb of the Merritt Parkway", which appears directly in the Merritt Parkway traffic article, doesn't help. What do they want from us?! If a search engine already knows an article exists (someone found us using a combination of words that do not exist on our site), then shouldn't using a phrase that exists in the article bring forth even better search results?!

 

And you'd think Google's AdSense would be able to pick out better than generic ads for our hello and archive tabs. There are references to poker, money, school/college, athletics, etc. Is it because there isn't a centralized focus throughout the page?

 

So I'm going to run an experiment examining the search and ad issues within this article. I've already dedicated the first couple paragraphs to generalities. Now I will focus the next few on completely disparate topics. I'd like to see the kind of ads that result, and to see if this article gets noticed by search engines any better than previous articles.

 

Traffic is a pain. I've been stuck in traffic jams on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut, and in the "no-exit zone" (or no exit zone (hyphen removed)), which is a part of the Merritt Parkway. Merritt Parkway traffic wastes a lot of commuters' time. Traffic affects productivity at work and at home. The commute along Route 15 in Connecticut, which is the official route number for the Merritt Parkway, is often full of stop-and-go traffic. Connecticut traffic, at least southwestern Connecticut traffic, is affected by any minor accident in the region, school activities, contractors, and the weather. The Merritt Parkway from the Sikorsky bridge, the no exit zone, and all the way down through Norwalk and Stamford, can be quite a headache to drive - even if a stalled car was cleared from the roadway four hours previous to your drive. Weekend travel traffic also affects the Merritt Parkway, especially on Thursday and Friday nights. Merritt Parkway traffic is not fun.

 

Back pain bothering you? Maybe you should see a chiropractor if you are experiencing back pain. I hear that chiropractors aren't really doctors, and I think real doctors don't think too highly of chiropractors. But I don't understand the difference. Maybe because I can crack my own back and feel better. If I can fix myself, why do I need a chiropractor? But am I really doing the same thing a chiropractor does when I crack my own back? Maybe I'm not. You'd think seats and chairs would be manufactured better so people don't get back pain. But I don't think engineers making those chairs are human. If they were, then we might be able to avoid back pain. But since chairs around the world are painful to backs, I'm going to conclude that many engineers and designers are aliens. It's too bad so many people are not alien to back pain. Stupid aliens. Stupid back pain.

© 2007 Dime Brothers
Category: Pet Peeves, Advertising, Traffic,

Reader Comments:

Stuff
 
Very useful information. You're right on on that alien bit! Engineers are from another planet, most likely the one focused on in A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
17 Apr 2007
Paul 
Ads
 
It looks like the ads at the bottom of each page are doing a little better than the image ads - maybe there's more of a selection with text ads.

And maybe I should add a Google search bar onto the search page, and people could compare the results of Google's search with our own little search box. Simplicity could win out....

One more note - I may have mentioned Google too much above for it to notice anything else (at least that might be the case for the image ads).
17 Apr 2007
Mark 
Poker
 
I saw poker ads a couple days ago.
17 Apr 2007
Paul 
Link to the Real Traffic Article
 
Now on Google we're number one if you search for "merritt parkway no-exit zone". Nowhere to be found if you leave off the hyphen. Here's the link to the original traffic article to help you navigate the Merritt.
10 May 2007
Mark 
aliens and back pain
 
Yes... I say boo aliens.... and boo back pain.
12 Nov 2008
Jessica 
Update
 
Thanks for your comment Jessica.

As an update to this article, we are no longer using AdSense because Google does not offer it at this time (although I've seen other websites with it... not sure how we're left out of the loop... maybe they've bettered their search engine and can now sense disparaging comments about them).
18 Nov 2008
Mark 

Leave a Comment:

Name: 

Subject: 

Code: 

 

Message:  Bold Italics Underline Insert Hyperlink


Web Development by Steve Black