This post is dedicated with thanks to all our contributors and commenters
This is Omnibuses2.0’s 1001th post. One-thousand-and-one, just think of that.
The palondromic number ‘1001’ is often associated with ‘many’ or ‘multitude’. A 1001 uses, 1001 items, a 1001 inventions, 1001 things to do in a lifetime, a 1001 things to do with guacamole at the office party…
We started Omnibuses2.0 in September 2003 but only picked up momentum two years later. We managed just 34 posts in the first two years—is this a record?—but, since then, we aim to post almost daily but don’t always hit that target. After all, we all know that targets and KPIs are there to be missed, aren’t they?
And even if you take the start date as September *2005*, when things really hotted up here, this is *still* the longest running blog of its kind anywhere in the world. By far. In any language. Unless you know different, Esther.
We’ve never advertised Omnibuses2.0 and (so far as we are aware) it’s never appeared in any magazine or journal. We’ve never spammed the link around groups or fora or online communities where bus people meet. We’ve never deliberately traded links with other sites. Yet we’ve seen considerable growth over the years and we like to attribute this to the wide variety of mainly up-to-date topics and a style that befits a pedantic grammarian. And we know that we’ve picked up some prestigious industry readers along the way.
Trivia
Here’s 1001 trivia about Omnibuses2.0 relating to our favourite search engine, the Scroogle Scraper (a surrogate for google.com):
Type in brands and straplines into google.com, and Omnibuses2.0 comes out third. This explains the large number of visits we get from some of the following search terms, all recent:best company straplines; travel straplines; July sales straplines; buy into the straplines; tennis straplines; famous brands and straplines; using straplines; straplines for keeping safe; classic straplines; transport straplines; driving straplines; house development straplines; dating straplines; innovation straplines… the list goes on. And on. And on.
Type in ‘omnibuses’ and we’re first and second. Not surprising really. This generates a significant proportion of visits, especially from English speaking countries.
Type in Mercedes 608 and we’re numbers one and two, again. This is the largest single search term other than ‘omnibuses’ used to arrive here and generates results from an extraordinary mix of countries around the world.
Type in X12 Wilts and Dorset or ‘X12 Christchurch’ and we’re also in first and second placed. This, too, has generated many visits over the summer, and continues to do so. It’s one of our single most popular post retrievals via a search engine.
Type in Truronian and we’re 10th and 11th. This was once a spectacularly popular search term before and during the First take-over speculation, but has since declined.
Type in ‘bus (or coach) from Blackpool to Edinburgh’ and we emerge as second. If National Express is reading this, believe me when I say that there’s a market here. Ask yourself why passengers have to change to make this journey when google evidence suggests there’s clear demand.
Type in Darwen Optare and we’re first and second. This year, this one’s been up and down like the stock market, in terms of attracting visitors.
Type in Veolia X63 and we come out second and third. Add ‘timetable’ and we’re first. Which must be frustrating for those looking for the Brecon-Swansea timetable, and there are plenty of them. It’s hard to find that timetable online but it’s there if you look. But not on Omnibuses2.0.
Type in RMXL and we’re first and second; Routemaster RMXL and we’re third. ‘Boris Routemaster’ doesn’t do it, though, but add in ‘Capoco’ and we’re eighth. But they all still reel in the punters. And some.
Type in ‘Megabus’ and we’re nowhere. Try Magabus and we’re fifth, thanks to our typo. It’s surprising how many people also make the same error—as proven by google.com.
Type in X35 Bournemouth and we’re top. Though this accounts for few visits these days, it produced one big, big spike at the time of the controversial W&D decision to abandon the service. Similarly, X4 Salisbury comes out fourth. ‘Bath to Salisbury bus’ remains a relatively popular generator to this day, in spite of it now languishing at no. 17 but add ‘X4’ and we’re fourth.
Type in Classic Yellow Buses and we again get the top two, even ahead of Transdev Yellow Buses. The official site’s nowhere to be seen. This continues to be a popular search term, as does ‘open top bus Bournemouth’, even though that occupies the 13th spot (though this is ahead of TYB). Classic Southdown Omnibus comes in at eighth.
Type in Claire Pendrous and we see why this site is popular with those trying to find her classic bus and street lamp images—we’re seventh and eighth. Last week, someone actually typed in ‘photos of Claire Penrous herself’, which we felt was a little odd (we came first on google.com for that, BTW).
Type in Phil Stockley and we’re eighth. A moderate number arrive here chasing this name. He must be quite popular.
Monday, 21 July 2008
1001 Not Out
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4 comments:
Haha, interesting post, and very entertaining. Congratulations on the other 1000 posts too, this is a great blog.
it would be interesting to learn how many other blog readers accompany me in reading this blog. You speak of impressive growth and should be congratulated in producing this now long established site. This way we, your readership, could judge exactly how many others share the same opinions about this blog and return daily for a quick read.
However if I was to start a website any type the term "x12 bournemouth" and then find it using Google and continually visit my site through the results Google provides I'd see my site increase in popularity while all others shown will proportionately move down the list of results.
I used to work for one of the big search engine companies and the results change on a search-by-search basis so perhaps you should have said "At the time I pen this entry, Omnibuses features as follows in search results using Google for the following".
Some of the results, therefore, may not be accurate within hours of the post being published, such is the way the www works.
However, keep up the good work.
Anonymous 2132: TY for your comment!
Anonymous 2110: I take your point about Google ranking but it's interesting that searches for today's post under 'Lothian Bus Pram' comes out 10th. Why would that be when no one could've clicked it beforehand to raise it to this position? It's interesting how this happened but don't know why.
And I guess all blog posts are 'At the time I pen this entry...'
Try 'Lothian bus pram' from google.de and Omnibuses is fourth (at the moment!) Use the heading from the post - ‘New mum's shock at bus pram ban.’ - with the quotation marks, and it's third.
A quick look at the entry from 'The Scotsman' on today's post does reveal the general level of interest this story has generated:-
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/New-mum39s-shock-at-bus.4311029.jp
Hopefully, that link will work, if not the text is:-
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/New-mum39s-shock-at-bus.4311029.jp
That one comes first in the Google search, by the way - at present. It does also reveal some, er, interesting attitudes that would probably be described as 'politically incorrect' - in some quarters, at least!
The methods used by the search engines are a science in themselves, and the algorithms are changed regularly - and, naturally, they don't reveal them to the rest of the world!
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