Cycling

Top 10s At CyclingEurope.org in 2011

I always find these lists fascinating. It’s the mathematician in me I think. Others may find them less riveting so if that’s you, you may like to move on…

They cover what is now, most of 2011 (only around 40 hours to go). The top page is fairly unsurprising. The ‘home page’ and ‘welcome’ pages are actually the same thing. Of more interest is the fact that the Eurovelo 5 pages continue to hold sway over their Eurovelo 8 equivalents. Nice to see ‘Good Vibrations’ attracting sufficient attention to squeeze into the top 10. The fascination with the entry at number 8 (I’m not going to type the words!) is because lots of people seem to search online for the brown things that you use to store or post things! I wish I had never written about them…

The top referrer continues to be the Wikipedia Eurovelo page (despite their efforts to censor the links that direct people here). The rest of the list is only remarkable in that it is unremarkable. All posts to this website are automatically posted to Facebook & Twitter so it’s no surprise that they feature in the list. Of these two, I’m increasingly using the latter over the former as it is more of a broadcasting network. The former is just narrowcasting to ‘friends’.

The dreaded b** makes another two appearances in the list of top search terms that brought people to CyclingEurope.org in the first place. I wonder if any of them stayed around after having realised that this is a website about cycling. Again, Eurovelo 5 attracts more people than Eurovelo 8 although I do hope that as I think and writeย about my future cycle from Athens to Cadiz in 2013, those positions may be reversed in 2012. I’m delighted that my passion for flat trekking / butterflyย bars attracts fellow converts (or potential converts). Ignoring the b** searches, the combined total of ‘butterfly bars’ and ‘butterfly handlebars’ would put it at number 2 in the list. I am not alone! And 600 people came this way to find out more about Reggie Ridgebackย Panorama. All these figures may appear small (the site after all received nearly 100,000 visitors in 2011) but you need to remember that the list here is just the top 10 and those searching for, say ‘Ridgeback Panorama 2010’ etc… appear further down the list. As do some other, rather less welcome searches, for example the people who have searched for ‘small erection’ and who were directed here because I called one of my posts in 2010 ‘A Small Erection‘ It related to the first time I had put up my then new tent!

The final top 10 tells me where you readers out there went after having become bored with my musing on CyclingEurope.org. At number one is the newly revamped website of the European Cyclists Federation (well worth a visit). It also makes an appearance at number 10. Again, I’m glad to see that many of you clicked on the many links to Amazon where the ‘inspirational’ Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike Called Reggie is for sale. There are many different versions of the link that appear below the top 10. Mapping sites (Google & Sanoodi) are popular destinations as is the Ortlieb websiteย for all those people who, like me, couldn’t figure out how to close their pannier bags once they got them home from the shop.

Roll on 2012. A happy New Year to one and all & happy cycling ๐Ÿ™‚

What do you think?