March 10, 2014

A Tale About a Polar Bear Tail


A couple of years ago, I got an out-of-the-blue licensing sale for one of my photos by a major advertising company. They found the image via a web search, and I quickly discovered that photo and blog post names strongly influence successful web searches. In geeky computer-speak, I’m talking about search engine optimization.

Yes, I know it is Monday morning, and our weary bodies are adjusting to Daylight Saving Time. So you are probably wondering what I am babbling about. Pardon the pun, but bear with me.

I routinely look at my blog statistics to discover what search words are used by the web traffic. One of the common search phrases for my blog is “polar bear tail.” It seems that people (probably schoolchildren) are curious about whether a polar bear actually has a tail. To clear up the mystery once and for all, the answer is yes, they do. In a December 2012 blog post, I featured this photo of a (very cute) polar bear tail as proof.



Since I named the photo and the blog title to exactly describe the subject matter, this image has turned out to be quite popular with the major Internet search engines. In fact, it is the very first photo that currently shows up in a "polar bear tail" image search on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. How funny!

So now you have learned two things this morning: Polar bears have tails. And, blog/image titles greatly influence web searches.

21 comments:

  1. That's a very cute little tail!! I hope you were viewing it through a long lens...

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  2. That's a darling photo! It's also an awesome story.

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  3. really very cute. :) some of the searches that land at my place - yikes!

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  4. Cute polar bear tail. And a cute tale to match. I've never thought much about SEO. And this morning, battling with the time change, I'm too tired. Maybe later.

    Hope you are feeling better and your eyes are settling. Thinking of you.

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  5. I never knew that, thanks. It is a cute picture.

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  6. Cute little polar bear tale, too. Well, if I were to plan posts by searches all I'd ever post about would be "spring wreaths." LOL

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  7. So now we know! And it is a darling tale/tail! :)

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  8. Well that's the cutest polor bear tail I have ever seen .
    Very interesting about the tails and the optimization .

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  9. Congratulation on your sale, fabulous picture. Your advice is dead on. I always title exactly what the post is about Example, "How to make paper flowers" as opposed to something like "Here's some flower power" Or something like that......Yep it works!

    Carol

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  10. Now that is interesting...
    By golly, even the Polar Bears tail is cute!

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  11. and a very cute little tail it is too.
    I've been amazed at some of the search words that have led people to my blog.

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  12. How cute is this? I never really though about it before, but now I know. I'm confident you had a really, really good lens and weren't that close:-) Great photo.

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  13. I always like to learn something new, and I didn't realize they have a tail. Now, what about black bears? :-)

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    1. LOL, yes they have them too - short and stubby.

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  14. Well who knew about the search engine? Not me!Hahaa....But the tail tale is adorable! So glad that this is what pops up first for the children instead of something "less" cute!
    Hughugs

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  15. That's too funny! And that is a cute tail, too!

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  16. Great photo! And those are two important points about SEO that we all need to remember.

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  17. I just love this picture. and... I Googled Polar Bear Tail and it was the first picture. Cool!!

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  18. Cute photo, Donna, and I did enjoy learning more about seo. I'm such a computer eejit and am very appreciative when someone, like you, can explain it so I can understand. Thanks!

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Marty, here! Donna loves comments, and I faithfully pass them on to her. Thank you so much for visiting!