Another month over, and visitor numbers to this blog are still increasing, so I thought I’d take a look at what the visitors are looking for, and whether they are finding it when they get here.

I get statistics for lots of things, including the phrases that visitors typed into google in order to find us. For our main sites, the phrases are as expected – ‘wildlife in France’, ‘bergerac aqua parc’ and so on. We then live in hope that having found the sites by looking for ‘are there coypu in France’ the visitor will think ‘Ah yes, I might as well book a holiday while I’m here’.

What do you mean that sounds unlikely?

Well OK yes you’re right but if for every 100 visitors just one remembers the site and comes back for another look, or bookmarks the site, it might just work. So far so good.

But what about the blog? There’s not much useful information here, just idle banter. The three most recent visitors have searched for the following phrases in google:

’swooning fainting ladies’ , ‘ice cream lady france’ and ‘do hornets eat figs’

Who would guess that people search for such things? or that they would find France This Way when they did. We are not really an authority site on ice cream ladies or swooning and fainting. But search people do, never mind their reasons.

Next question is, do these visitors immediately leave, disappointed that I don’t know anything about swooning, fainting ladies, or do they become so enthralled that they stick around, read lots of blog entries, then go to the main site, read about the re-introduction of wolves in France, and then book a holiday? Hmmm, bit of a mix (although nobody is booking holidays in France in August so that part will have to wait) – some stay, some leave.

But this brings me to todays little game. Yesterday (31st July) in google uk it turns out I was at position 5 on the first page for the expression ’swooning fainting ladies’. The experiment is this: I have included the phrase in the title of this blog entry, and a few times in this text. So in principle, in a couple of weeks time, this blog entry should be the world authority on ’swooning fainting ladies’ and should have leapt to the number one spot.

If you are reading this after about mid-August go and do a search, see if it worked.

Who cares? Well I do. Not because swooning fanting ladies are important, but because attracting people to the site is important. So my challenge is to think of phrases that people will type into search engines, and make sure they will find our site when they do.

Easier said then done, because there are a lot of people doing the same. And the more common the phrase, the harder it is to whoosh straight to the top of the google charts. Hardly surprisng, because being top for swooning and fainting won’t make me a single penny, and will probably never be searched on again, whereas being top for ‘gite in Dordogne’ just might.

A whole industry has grown up around this business, that the average punter knows nothing about, but should. Why? Say you want a holiday in the Dordogne, and think somewhere near Les Eyzies might be nice. OK so you might search on ‘villa in the Dordogne’ or ‘gite near les Eyzies’ or ‘gite or villa near Dordogne River and Les Eyzies’.

They would all work, you’d find your holiday no doubt, and have a lovely time. But the holiday you have will depend on the words that you first entered into google, on that cold February morning. Each phrase will have brought up a different list of answers, because one website will have focussed on the first phrase, another on the second etc.

And the owner of the perfect villa probably knows nothing of all this, has just made a lovely little website about their ‘holiday cottage in the Dordogne’, and you won’t know anything about it because they are on page 47 of the results you searched for, out of sight to the world.

I know, this has got nothing to do with life in France, and I’m sorry. But hey just because I live in France doesn’t mean every waking moment I am having Peter Mayle experiences does it? I’m allowed to do things that don’t involve language difficulties and gites aren’t I? I’ll try harder next time, just for all you swooning, fainting ladies out there (had to get it in just one more time).

But so you are not disappointed, I will tell you what is happening outside right now as I write this. It is about 8.00 am, holidaymakers are trying to sleep in our gites, and the local hunters have decided now is a good time to track down some beast or other – rabbits perhaps, although I saw two deer in the field earlier – at the bottom of our field. So every 30 seconds for the last half an hour shots have boomed out across the valley, loud enough to wake the dead in the cemetery two kilometres away, and certainly loud enough to wake any holidaymakers who are still trying to sleep.

Now that’s what you want me to write about, isn’t it?