Discussion of our search ranking on yesterday's new product story brought up some questions about our referrer logs of people linking to PegNews and how the search engines view our site.

I used to post this kind of stuff monthly, but after a while it got stale. However, since I haven't done it for a long time, and since data guru Chris Curotolo dropped a fresh report on us yesterday, here's some interesting stuff:

Top keywords bringing people to PegNews through search in May

1. taste of addison



2. pegasus news



3. rachel brown: This is an astounding example of topical stickiness. Over a year ago, we ran a story by content partner Dallas Voice on the suicide of a local chef who had appeared on the reality show Hell's Kitchen. Day in and out, at least a couple dozen people seek her out on Google and find their way here.



4. superpages.com center



5. mckinney high school yearbook



6. wolfdance



7. gnismer farms: Popular berry farm without a lot of other web coverage



8. hawaiian falls



9. barnett shale: Perhaps bumped a bit because we run search ads leading to our hub on the topic



10. ncis



11. dallas summer musicals



12. nephew tommy: Another perennial. Anything radio related draws traffic



13. richardson wildflower



14. greg the hammer williams: See nephew tommy



15. winstar casino

Once people get on our site, they search for:

1. barnett shale



2. west end



3. mayfest



4. lancaster isd



5. cinemark



6. duncanville



7. radiohead



8. hulen



9. pride



10. amc



11. todd snider



12. cedar hill



13. garage sales



14. plano



15. mckinney



16. chesapeake



17. queen



18. lee harvey's

Referrer logs get kind of boring unless you really dig, because so much of it is individual searches from Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, etc. So consider this the list of non-search referrers for May:

1. Outside.in



2. yapclub.om



3. allexperts.com



4. blogspot.com (various blogs)



5. dmagazine.com



6. urnotalone.com



7. dallasnews.com



8. about.com



9. cnn.com



10. old97s.com



11. auntiemomo.com



12. umich.edu



13. city-data.com



14. stumbleupon.com



15. topix.com



16. texasisd.com



17. dallasobserver.com



18. chowhound.com



19. dallasfood.org



20. frisco-online.com



21. trinityrivercorridor.org



22. outragedpatriots.com



23. unclebarky.com

Top pages visited last month:

1. In its 15th year- Taste Addison 2008 serves up a weekend of food and entertainment



2. Head lice coming your way- says Collin County's Health Care Services



3. Local chef- reality TV celeb Rachel Brown found dead



4. Mother's Day Brunch



5. WolfDance 2008



6. McKinney High School yearbooks delivered with hundreds of photoshopped pics



7. Taste Addison 2008



8. Arlington reinstates police officer who used steroids



9. Dallas-based Alon USA to acquire Skinny's 102 convenience stores



10. Movie review: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed



11. Concert Review: Rush



12. UPDATE: Richardson Wildflower Festival updates headliners list



13. Superpages.com Center



14. Mayfest 2008



15. 2008 Wildflower Arts and Music Festival



16. UPDATED and corrected: Bush Library at SMU rebuked by United Methodist Church petition; decision in



17. Gnismer Farms in Arlington lets you pick-your-own strawberries



18. UPDATED: The Ticket's Greg "The Hammer" Williams' absence drug-related



19. Fort Worth transgender teen trying to put life back together



20. WinStar Casino

These are the Daily You categories you like reading about:

dy>lifestyle>

dy>news>

dy>business>

dy>lifestyle>arts>popular music>

dy>lifestyle>food and drink>

dy>schools>

dy>news>politics and government>

dy>lifestyle>arts>fine arts>

dy>news>politics and government>city government>

dy>sports>

dy>lifestyle>arts>movies / film>

dy>news>crime>

dy>lifestyle>arts>fine arts>theater>

dy>news>gay / lesbian>

dy>higher education>

dy>news>deaths>

dy>news>transportation>

dy>lifestyle>arts>fine arts>art and sculpture>

dy>lifestyle>holidays>

dy>lifestyle>arts>fine arts>photography exhibits>

These are the places you care about:

1. Superpages.com Center



2. WinStar Casino



3. KD Studio Actors Conservatory



4. Addison Circle Park



5. Oak Point Amphitheater



6. Ridglea Theatre



7. Sherlock's Pub (Addison)



8. Cyclone Anaya's Mexican Kitchen



9. AMC NorthPark 15



10. Gnismer Farms



11. Plano Centre



12. Firewheel Town Center



13. Nokia Theatre Grand Prairie



14. AMC Mesquite 30



15. Cafe R&D



16. McKinney Performing Arts Center



17. Texas Bar & Grill



18. Perrotti's Pizza (Fort Worth / TCU area)



19. Brooklyn Jazz Cafe



20. Frisco Commons Park

The phenomenon that Alex noted of a seemingly unrelated page coming up high in search is one we've struggled with for a while. It seems that the major search engines have a hard time distinguishing the "latest comments" box from the main content, so sometimes they see it on an unrelated page and rank it too.