Aaron Wall: How Long is Your Keyword Tail?
Written by Aaron Wall (contact - e-mail) -- January 22nd, 2008 |
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30 Second Review of the Long Tail
Due to lowered incremental distribution and delivery costs, the emergence of social filters, and better recommendation algorithms, the future of business is less about selling one key product and more about selling a wide array of products.
Chris Anderson refers to this phenomenon as the Long Tail. The Long Tail applies to search because search is a recommendation engine, and keywords act like roads leading to your website and your products. Most keywords, unlike physical inventory, have little to no incremental cost after your initial research and optimization.
Head Keywords: Some websites, like a niche focused affiliate site or a mortgage calculator, end up heavily reliant on core keyword phrases, whereas most healthy websites have a traffic distribution that is spread out over a much wider keyword net.
The core industry keywords may have a lot of value, but if a #2 ranking slips to #7 that can result in something like a 70% reduction in traffic and sales. And it gets even uglier if that page gets filtered out of the search results.
When Head is Good: Not all head keywords are risky. Having a high percentage of your traffic come from brand related keywords represents brand strength. Building brands and changing the way people search is a long-term process though.
Non-brand head keywords could pose significant risk if you are too reliant upon them and build a business model that assumes the rankings will stay. For income stability look to your keyword tail.
Capture the Keyword Tail: If your industry is ever-changing and/or complex there is a good chance there are hundreds of thousands of related keywords people search for to find sites like your site.
Ranking for a few thousand long tail keywords creates a much more stable revenue stream than trying to dominate the rankings for a core keyword. Rankings shift all the time, but losses on some keywords will likely be offset by gains from improved rankings on other keywords.
You can use Compete Search Analytics to compare your site to other similar sites in your niche to determine if you are doing a good job capturing the keyword tail. If not, look for themes covered in their keywords that you missed on your site.
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January 23rd, 2008 at 2:07 am
you referer to a “something like a 70%” drop in traffic if your ranking falls from #2 to #7. Is that an average based on real data and if so, can you share more of the same kind of statistics?
January 23rd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
The fall off curve honestly depends on the market and the search engine. Yahoo!, for example, on highly commercial queries puts so many ads above the organic search results that you need to rank in the top couple to get much traffic.
There have been some studies by companies like Performics throughout the years.
From a few years back here are som CTR for paid ads from Atlas http://www.seobook.com/archives/000422.shtml
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I agree, it is about finding a balance of traffic bearing terms from the head, but also having enough of the long tail conversion that gives your site authority in the end. The authority developed as a result of having a piece of so many top 10 results is what forms a bond with your site and the search engines, so that if any related query pops up, your in the mix as far as the index is concerned.
Then, eventually the tail devours the head and you rank for obscure keyword and modifiers as well as the more general vertical categories that have the most (competitive traffic) but typically the most traffic as well.
January 1st, 2009 at 5:14 am
why girls shouldn’t cheat on boys
there was once a guy named jack who
had a
girlfriend
named
ashley.
ashley was the most popular girl in
school.
the three most
popular
guys were
tom, jack, and marcus. ashley
thought of
jack as
okay,
but
she really
liked marcus. marcus liked ashley also.
well of
course
he
did, everyone
did!
marcus and jack were worst enemies.
marcus tried to
steal
ashley away
everytime he had a chance to. one day,
marcus asked
ashley
if
she wanted
to
go to the movies. jack heard
everything….what
movie
theatre
and what
time.
jack approached the movies that night
and
followed ashley
and
marcus.
jack sat right behind them. he
watched them
get close
to
each
other and
kiss….not only kiss, but practically
get it
on in the
theatre.
marcus
told ashley “do you want to come to my
place and
skip this
boring
movie?” she
replied “hell yeah.”
jack had peeked through marcus’
window.
ashely and
him
were
messing
around and then they had sex.
jack watched the whole
thing.
the next day at school jack wasn’t
there. for
the next
few
days jack
wasn’t there. a week later his mother
found him in
his
closet
dead… he
commited suicide because he had loved
ashley so
much.
next
to
jack’s dead
body was a note.
a note that read: my dearest ashley, i
watched you
at the
movie
and at
marcus’ house and i will continue to
watch you.
i never
thought you
would
do something like this to me. i really
loved you
ashley. i
died
for you just
like jesus died for us.
always with you, jack
please foward this or jack will
haunt
you and try
to kill you because he wants everyone
to
know
about
marcus.
thank you.
please scroll down.
[’in loving memory of’]
**jack halagey**
what jack did to one person who did
not send
this…….
one girl was looking through her e-mail
and she
[’deleted’]
this
message
thinking it was another silly
forward…the
next day
she
[’was’]
[’found dead in’]
[’her bed’]
[’of course u don’t have to send this
but i
think
jack
halagey’ will come soon to get you like
tonight
when you are
still awake just sitting in bed’]
repost this as `why girls should’nt
`cheat on boys
or u will
lose
the one u love
if you don’t believe this..search jack
Report as Spam
kanaya bond (permalink)12:31amWHEN U R READING THIS DONT STOP OR
SOMETHING BAD WILL HAPPEN! MY NAME IS
SUMMER I AM 15 YEARS OLD i have BLONDE
HAIR ,MANY SCARS no NOSE OR EARS.. I
AM DEAD. IF U DONT COPY THIS JUST LIKE
FROM THE RING, COPY N POST THIS ON 5
MORE SITES.. OR.. I WILL APPEAR ONE
DARK QUIET NIGHT WHEN UR NOT ExPECTING
IT BY YOUR BED WITH A KNIFE AND KILL
U. THIS IS NO JOKE SOMETHING GOOD WILL
HAPPEN TO U IF YOU POST THIS ON 5 MORE PAGESZ
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ELD Danışmanlık 80 ‘den fazla referansıyla müşterilerine güven vermektedir.
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