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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Some valuable information for mom bloggers

I thought it would be valuable for you mommy bloggers out there to know what people are Googling.

I have a Sitemeter attached to my blog. It tracks my hits, page views and referrals. And with the referrals, I can see where my hits are coming from.

Awhile back, I kept being linked to Google searches that were saying things like, "pictures of naked children" or "pictures of moms and naked children". The blog post it was being linked to was a picture of Jack sitting in the kitchen sink and I had written, "As a mommy blogger, I don't like to post naked pictures of my kids." That sentence was enough to be picked up my Google and used in a search for pictures of naked kids.

So as a tip, don't use the words "naked children" or anything like that in your blog. You will get crazies looking at your children.

21 comments:

Sandy said...

that is so scary. it is so sad that this is the world we live in. thanks for letting us know about that!

modern myrtle home said...

Good reminder. Yet another reason why I don't post pictures of my children. Period. We had a neighbor at one time that seemed a little too interested in our daughters. He was later found to be molesting children (not our own, thankfully)and is now in jail. I shudder at the idea that if I had a blog full of pictures of my kids, he would have likely been oogling at them---naked or not. I wish that mommy bloggers would think about the creepiness that is out there before they post potty training pictures of their innocent children. You know if they are googling "naked children" they are googling "potty training children", too.

It's way too scary out there. Thanks for the heads up.

Sweet Pea Chef said...

oh no! Good point, I wouldn't have thought of things that way...

Carina said...

You know that relatively common punishment where your hand is applied to your child's backside?

Yeah, DON'T use that word in any of your post titles (titles get higher weight in relevance for search engines.) I was getting some CRAZY traffic off of that one.

dandee said...

How sad. Thanks for the tip though.

Kalli said...

I think about this crap all the time. I am pretty selective of the pics I post and what I write about. I get so many weird referrals anyway the last thing I need are pervs...

Taryn said...

Yikes! How do I get a sitemeter? I would love to see if there are any viewers other than my friends/family.

[Morgan] said...

yes. weren't we talked about the reverse effect of purposefully titling posts the other day too?
:)
you can also select in your settings "don't allow search engines to find my blog" which would be silly for a blog like yours, designed to help people find recipes... but for family, mommy bloggers.
i've never had a single google search hit on my site since i discovered and selected that option. i'm sure it doesn't keep all the crazies away, but it helps.

[Morgan] said...

wow how about my grammar?
that would be "talking"
and perhaps, "i haven't had a single google search hit"...

gina said...

vomit!

Staci said...

So glad you posted this. I need to be more careful. And thanks Morgan too.

{Erica} said...

Oh I have an on going list of keywords that bring sickos to my blog. Seriously...wow.

Kathy said...

That's one big reason we don't post any pics of our kids. I didn't think that it was that big of a deal. My husband is real big into computer security (especially for his job) and when he knew I wanted to do a food blog - that was his only stipulation -- no pics of our kids!!!! Sad our world is so crazy!!!

Jaime and Jen DISH said...

Gross...people have got problems!!!!

Michelle said...

Thanks so much for bringing this to our attention! I checked my site meter and had found that our blog was searched by our last name.. and suicide! UGH! Too bad this world is so full of craziness that can ruin something fun! I changed my blog to private and let only the selected view it from now on. Thank you, Thank you!

Adam & Rachel said...

good to know...which is part of the reason I made my blog private.

The Domesticated Goddess said...

I hate to think about predators googling my kids, but really, what's the difference between going to the grocery store with your kids, or the mall, or the park, where offenders could see them? Statistically, kids are much more likely to be abused by people close to them: neighbors, family members, church workers, and the like. I'm more scared of leaving my kids with camp counselors for a sleep-away camp than I am of internet freaks. As long as the photos are normal snapshots, I don't see the harm. What if your kid was a model, for catalogues, for instance?

[Morgan] said...

domesticated goddess, i like that. good point.

Megan said...

Whitney, I have the bestest solution ever: no kids. Then you don't have to worry about posting or not posting pictures of them. Or whether or not you should take them to the grocery store just in case someone might [OH NO!] see them.

Aubrey said...

Ha,ha. I had the same problem (apparently I use the word naked a LOT), so I had to start spelling it "nekkid". So unless there are illiterate pervs.....

Fowie said...

I wouldn't worry too much about the whole thing, I agree with The Domesticated Goddess. Really, worrying that something would happen because of that search result is like actually believing that King from Nigeria is going to transfer the $4.5 Billion into you bank account tomorrow, or that Microsoft really did want you to forward on that email, or that your crush won't talk to you if you don't pass on this comment to 10 of your best friends....