Something weird is going on in this world. Either there is a sudden uptick in people Googling about poop in the streets of India, or my blog has become the authority on the subject. Either way, this is not good.
Yesterday on my blog, there was a huge spike in page views for a post entitled 17 Things I Learned While Traveling in India. The post got 125 page views but usually averages about two a day. The chart below illustrates the sudden uptick.
A look at the search terms showed me that 12 people Googled some variation of “poop’ and “India” and found their way to my obscure blog.
It wasn’t a huge surprise that poop terms led people to the aforementioned post because as you can see from the excerpt below, number 4 on the list of 17 things I learned in India dealt with the subject.
4. Stepping in sacred cow poop feels the same as stepping in regular poop
One might think that sacred cow poop would somehow feel different when squished between the toes in sandals, but I can confirm that it feels the same as any other poop that I’ve been unlucky enough to step in.
But why the sudden spike? Curious as to how exactly this led people to my blog, I entered the search terms into Google, and to my surprise, I found that I am an expert on fecal matter in the streets of south-central Asia.
For example, lets take a look at this first term, “Where in India do they poop in the street?”
Boom! My blog is #1 out of 2.57 million results.
Clicking over to Google Images, 3 of the top 5 images for “pooping in the streets of India“ are mine also. There you can see my foot on the left, then a photo I took of a handful of Indian people sleeping. (They can sleep anywhere.) And on the right is a dinner we ate, though I am not sure how or why that ranks so high.
Typing in the other terms, I got the same results. If you are Googling poop in India, my post ranks right at the top or very near the top.
I also typed in the other search terms of the day, which included Taj Hotel, Greece Photography Tour and Indian Housewife Bathing Naked Photos. Trust me, you DON’T want to Google the last one. I saw things I won’t soon forget, none of which had anything to do with my blog and a lot of things that can only be described as “bad naked.”
On another dubious note, the f-bomb I dropped during a moment of silence a few years ago is holding strong. I am still the authority on awkward f-bombs, keeping ahead of Tom Hanks, Vice-President Biden and the Pope!
Take that Pope and Biden!
Back to the original question: Has my blog always ranked this high in poop related searches or is there a sudden worldwide interest in Indian sanitation and sewage? I will probably never know. I do know that I am a little sad that I am internet famous for a poop foot photo. I’d prefer to rank high with search terms like “best travel blog in the world” or “famous photographer” or “world’s sexiest blogger.” Maybe someday I’ll get there. For now, I’ll have to take internet traffic wherever I can get it.
___________________________
Fellow bloggers, what strange search terms lead people to your pages?
What are you internet famous for?
Planet Bell 
Reblogged this on gunawaniwa.
Thanks for the re-blog.
Some things can never be explained. India just dropped a little lower on the list of countries I want to visit. However, I still think the electrical helpers I met in Afghanistan from India were some of the finest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.
India is my favorite country and Indian people are among my favorite, but yes, it is very dirty in places. It is a different culture for sure, but the southern part of the country is much cleaner I must say.
When you are feeling down and frustrated, at least you can rest easy knowing that you are an expert sought the world over for your opinion on one topic!
This inspired me to look up the results for one of my site’s dubious top search terms. I am pleased to report that anything along the lines of “naked sexy jungle Ecuador man” no longer lists my blog in the top of the rankings! I feel like I dodged a bullet on that one.
Naked, sexy, jungle, Ecuador man. I was just about to search for that, so you saved me some time.
Well, you know how the saying goes: “There is no such thing as bad press!” So, enjoy your 15 minutes of fame while it lasts. There’s bound to be some other Indian fecal fanatic out there just waiting to steal your thunder. In fact, we are headed to India this summer, so it just might be me, especially now that I know it generates so many page views! 🙂
On another note, I was happy to see that there is a fellow blogger out there who enjoys analyzing stats, search terms and results as much as I do!
Agreed, I’ll take what press I can get. It is interesting seeing what posts get shared and get views and which ones don’t. I feel like my best posts are lost in oblivion but a poop foot photo is popular. Strange.
We know exactly where you are coming from. We think we posted a wonderful blog entry full of wit and wisdom and it receives next to no traffic. An ok entry with ‘sex’ in the title (just to see if it increased traffic, ok) receives more traffic than any other post by a long way.
It’s the way of the world now, unfortunately. Sex, swearing and so called celebrities are the most popular internet search terms, or so it appears to us.
That is true, sadly. Computers have become porn machines occasionally used for research 😦 There is a lot of awesome stuff on the web and a lot of trash too.
Talk about a coincidence, when I get up in the morning, the first thing I usually do is turn on the local news station to find out what is going on in the world. The first story was about how more than 600 million people in India don’t use a “loo” to do their business, and that there is a media push to get them to “take it out of the streets”. (people poop, not cow poop)
So then I get my morning cup of coffee and sit down at my computer to check e-mail. And, there you are, at the top of the list with your Indian poop story.
To move on, and back to the cows, I might be in the minority when I say that the smell of fresh, warm cow poop in the morning brings back fond memories. I grew up on a farm, (back when), and I can remember going out to the milk barn early in the morning with my dad to milk our two cows. Nothing like a fresh cow pie with steam wafting upward.
So, needless to say, when I traveled around India several years back, I was probably one of the few who didn’t mind the ubiquitous sacred cow poop. I also have a picture of my foot and sandal, much like yours above. It seems that poop and India just go together, like it or not.
Looks like it’s given you your 15 minutes of fame. 🙂
Maybe people are searching for poo in Indie due to this campaign and are finding my website since I am an expert. I can see why fresh cow poo would bring back pleasant memories for you.
When I took that photo of my foot on the street, it did draw attention from several locals. I get a feeling they see that often though.
I am often amused and bewildered by some search terms that led someone to my blog.
‘Fun things to do in the mud’ was a recent head scratcher.
Fun things to do in the mud…that is bizarre. There must be an abundance of mud and a shortage of fun where this person lives.
Yesterday someone arrived at my site searching for ‘how to clean a drain’. Perhaps I unknowingly am a plumber?
That is strange for sure. I wonder if they found what they were looking for among your travel photos.
So when you are the #1 travel blog, you can tell people about the famous step that made it all possible.
Yes I will. I will frame the photo of my foot.
I think the moral of this story is to avoid wearing sandals in India. Thanks for the tip. I will heed your advice this summer!
Wearing sandals in India does put your foot at risk, but it is so hot there you won’t want shoes. It is a real catch-22.
Where are you visiting in India?
Ha! This is awesome. You have so many great posts and everyone is focused on the one with poop in it 🙂
I am internet famous for my mini top hat tutorial – it’s on the first page of Google. I had no idea when I was writing it (or really any of my blog posts) that it would actually rank anywhere near the first few pages of Google.
I love reading the search terms. One that I can remember off the top of head: ‘is it creepy that I want to cuddle my neighbor’
Weird, huh?
I was actually the one who Googled “is it creepy that I want to cuddle my neighbor.” I was surprised to land at your website. I don’t have that problem anymore, because I was forced to move and can’t be within 100 feet of my ex-neighbor.
This post is still getting lots of hits so I guess there is a worldwide interest in the defecation habits of people in south-central Asia. And I am the expert.
Quite the distinction eh? 🙂 I almost wrote a post like this once… on discovering that the search term “she pooping” got someone to my site. I shudder to imagine what this person was looking for!
It is scary to think about what people are searching for. At least I am an expert on something.
Reblogged this on Badfish Out of Water and commented:
I thought I was getting fairly knowledgable about poop in foreign countries, but apparently, there are experts. Jeff Bell at Planet Bell is one of those. Check this out!
I found my way here courtesy of the Badfish 🙂
Moral of story – if you want to increase your stats, write about shit! 🙂
Yes, you are right about this!
So, “Where in India do they poop in the street?”
Pretty much everywhere really. Definitely in the big cities and allong the railroad tracks. I remember waking up on a train, me and my friend sat in the door opening of the train one early morning to watch the world as it passed by. We mostly saw bums. Hundreds of bums that were taking a shit next to the railroad tracks.
It is sad, really. There are more cell phones than toilets in the country. Having a toilet is a huge luxury when you suddenly don’t have one!
This is some funny shit. Seriously.
HAHAHA. Yes, it is.
Stupid question just occurred to me:
Why doo only boys and men
in public pee and poo ?
What doo all the girls
and women doo?
Unfortunately, both men and women do it in public because there is a major shortage of restroom facilities in India. It is a sad situation.