Retrospective #215: Just Google, “The Nutrition Debate” (in quotes)

I’ve been writing this column since 2010. I started posting once a week, then twice, now, as Retrospectives, daily rewrites at thenutritiondebate(dot)com. Some readers follow me by RSS feed, others on Facebook and twitter, yet others by a link from other sites. Most readers, however, are still introduced to “The Nutrition Debate” by Google searches on topics of interest to them.

Blogger provides me with some simple statistics or my readership by day, week, month and all-time. It also tracks my audience by country, traffic source, and post (column), so I have a broad idea of who, how and what my readership is.

Only 40% of my readers are in the U. S. The Ukraine and Israel garner a little less than 10% each. Russia, France and China come next, then Germany, Canada and the UK. Interestingly, Poland rounds out the top ten. Once in a while I get 1,000 pageviews in a 1-hour period from Israel. Obviously, someone who follow me there posts a link on their site.

I also have loyal followings in Sweden, Hong Kong and Singapore. The Singapore readership in on a site where a very popular and avuncular social network leader writes on the subject of “Clean Eating.” He provides occasional links to my columns and has even posted a few as permanent resources for his followers.

It’s interesting to me that I have so many readers in Ukraine-Russia and China. I suppose that people there have “hijacked” my content (with or without attribution, who knows?) and appear to read everything I write. Some sites are commercial (e.g., department stores), others are pornographic sites. All are in a Slavic language. I don’t object, mind you. I write this column for educational purposes. There is no revenue, and I have no interest in commercializing it.

This might also be a good time to mention that I have a wonderful and intrepid volunteer editor, a person who makes my writing clearer, checks my facts, and whose digital resources are almost as vast as Google’s (slight exaggeration there). Her acumen in all things health and nutrition is only exceeded by her generous heart and her interest in spreading the word about good nutrition and healthy eating. I am unabashedly in awe of her.

So, since Google seems to be the main, continuing source of new readers, I encourage this method of using that search engine. Just as Google has a “feeling lucky” search function, you could do the same. Just type “The Nutrition Debate” (in quotes) in the “window,” (or, thenutritiondebate(dot)com), hit “enter,” and let ‘er rip. I guarantee that my blog will come up on the first page, or in the latter case, first.

Of course, if you want to do a more targeted search, you could do something more “advanced.” Enter “The Nutrition Debate” and another word or phrase of interest to you (or a column number, i.e., #xxx. Let Google do the work! To see how well this works, I just entered “the nutrition debate triglycerides” and all ten (10) Google results were columns that I have written on triglycerides. This works very well in the absence of “tags,” “labels,” or “key words.”

On the other hand, if you’d like to see a list of all the columns I’ve written, in some browsers you can see a list.“The Nutrition Debate List of Columns, appears at the top right corner of the post, listed under “Favorite Links and Videos.” This works in Chrome, but, alas, not in IE.

So, if you are one of those who rely on Google (or another search engine), as I do, I encourage you to try this “advanced search technique.” I am too much of a Luddite, or troglodyte, and too lazy at this point, to go back over 500 columns and enter tags, labels and key words. Use technology to search instead. It works for me. Just Google “the nutrition debate” and another key word or phrase, and press “enter.”

Then, if you like what you have read, go to the RSS feed and get my blog delivered every morning to your hand-held device, tablet, laptop, or work station. And please, send me your comments and ideas. I’m always looking for your feedback and subjects of interest to you, me and my readers. It’s helps me get educated too.