So, I’ve been working on this site for a client of mine for a while now — looking at stats, designs, user-flows and other ways to improve conversion and retention and just generally trying to enhance their online communications ecosystem. Their work focuses on all sorts of issues, but mainly those related to democracy, rights, and transparency.
One of them, however, happens to be sex worker’s rights. Occasionally, we’ll post something to the blog that covers that issue — always interesting and in depth. What’s interesting (and surprising/not surprising) is that these posts are often quite popular. They garner many hits a day from people searching for sex and a country or city that’s mentioned in the post. Virtually no one, however, is searching for “sex worker’s rights.”
We’re thinking about ways to try and pull these people in to see if we can’t convert them into interested members of our audience, but I’m not keeping my fingers crossed on this one. Without getting into too much detail, part of what’s interesting about this is that it also exposes a kind of weakness in Google’s search. Without appropriate cross-linking, Google seems to freely associate everything on the page without much regard to contextual relevance.
So a post with a short segment about sex workers worldwide and a riot in Tashkent becomes, in Google’s eyes, a sex worker’s riot in Tashkent. I guess they’re only SO good.
