Using Google Analytics to Track My Job Prospects

I use Google Analytics to track visits to both my blog and my personal web page. One feature present in most analytics systems is tracking the keywords people used to get to your site. This helps with such dark arts as search engine optimization where you might try to increase your relevance in searches using so the so-called "organic" listing.

My blog generally receives traffic form Google searches, and the eclectic nature of my blog is reflected in the multitude of search terms people use to get here. Common topics are ColdFusion, marketing, Microsoft and Melbourne Business School. I think that's a pretty good mapping to the actual content.

On the other hand, traffic to my personal site, which has almost no content whatsoever, is driven almost entirely by a single keyword search: Scott Arbeitman. Again, that's a pretty good mapping to the content of my personal site. But who are these people who Google me? From the topic of this post, you might have guessed: recruiters. IT recruiters, to be exact. They usually find my name on LinkedIn or some forum discussing technologies they might be trying to find someone with skills in.

Recently, I have seen the traffic to my personal site drop off considerably. People just aren't googling my name as much as they used to. The reason, no doubt, is that there are simply less recruiters trying to hire IT staff in Melbourne with my credentials. That's not a worry to me at the moment, but for my peers looking for work, hang in there! And for God sakes, start blogging. At the very least, you'll know if people are googling you.