How to get more search engine hits? Do a piece on the search engines! Hehehe. Sometimes I'm so clever I shock myself. I'm sure nobody has ever done something like this before. [/bragadoccio]

Seriously though, I started peeking around at what people really are searching for and was a bit surprised. First off, most of the search engines give you a peek into what is being searched. Take a look:

Altavista Top Queries
Top 5 Gaining Queries
miss universe
amber frey
amelia vega
miss universe 2003
martha stewart
Top 5 Declining Queries
memorial day
Matrix Reloaded
Bob Hope
indy 500
VBScript.NET

Google Zeitgeist
Top 5 Gaining Queries
lance armstrong
seabiscuit
bob hope
angelina jolie
eiffel tower
Top 5 Declining Queries
british open
celia cruz
ronaldinho
orlando bloom
beyonce

What does all this tell us? Most obviously it screams out that internet users as a whole are primarily entertainment mongers. The astonishing thing it says is that users of Ask Jeeves are generally looking for more serious news related items than users of the other major engines. The other really astonishing thing is that sex searches aren't nearly as prevalent as generally believed.

Credit where due. Most of these links were found at Search Engine Watch