According to a recent guest post on the Hitwise blog by Dustin Woodward, a Seattle-based SEO and web analytics specialist, the long tail of search might be even long than many of us assumed. Looking at Hitwise's data set of search terms used in the last three months, Woodard calculates that the top 1,000 search terms only account for about 10% of all search traffic. Woodard found about 14 million distinct search terms in Hitwise's data, with 'myspace' still being the most popular search query.
According to Woodard, the long tail of search is in fact far longer than most other reports have assumed. The top 100 search terms account for 5.7% of all search traffic and include keywords like 'myspace,' 'google,' 'bank of america,' and ' yahoo mail.' Those numbers are not unexpected. However, the top 1,000 search terms only account for 10.6% of all search traffic, and even the top 10,000 search terms only drive 18.5% of all search traffic.
Woodard also assumes that his data still underestimates the true size of the tail, as he deliberately filtered out all adult searches and only looked at data from the last three months. The fact that Hitwise relies on data from roughly 10 million U.S. users surely makes the data somewhat limited in its scope as well.
Also, looking at this data is yet another good reminder of the fact that search has replaced bookmarks and memorizing URLs for a lot of people. Most of the top search terms like 'google,' or 'usps,' are, after all, identical to their URLs.
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all Read/WriteWeb posts
If I know sokomethink thats it http://www.sokobanja.mobi
Posted by: Sokobanja | November 7, 2008 12:53 PM
Wow that chart really sums up what I thought all along; the web divides even more than it collects. The internet is wonderful in its vast array of data and even vaster ways in which we connect keywords to that data. Each person searches uniquely, and this is very important in driving visits to a larger swath of websites. This is great data for people looking at SEO keywords as it shows that you don't always have to compete for the "most searched" terms but rather you can focus on the most descriptive terms. IMO anyway. :)
Posted by: Shane McCallum | November 7, 2008 12:56 PM
I've found this to be applicable to individual sites as well. When showing clients Google Analytics, I'll run a CSV export of their Keyword that people found them with and create a long tail graph in Excel just for them to help illustrate the concept.
I recently gave a talk at SocialDevCamp East on Google Analytics with some discussion around using it to track social media initiatives, the recording of which can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/5qu5kd
Posted by: Chris Busse | November 7, 2008 1:43 PM
Thanks for this article, Frederic. It validates a thought I've had off and on over the past several months. I was wondering if I was the only one who just goes to a search engine (in my case, usually Google) and types in a term rather than bookmarking sites I've found.
Posted by: Easton Ellsworth | November 7, 2008 1:52 PM
Are you guys seriously still buying the whole 10 million people thing that Hitwise keeps lying about?
Posted by: Frank Pontis | November 7, 2008 2:31 PM
"I would like to tell you that the Internet has made such a level playing field that the end of the long tail is the place to be… Unfortunately it’s not."
"You can have a long-tail strategy, but you better also have a head, ’cause that’s where all the money is.
Google’s view on the future of business: An interview with CEO Eric Schmidt
Posted by: BizWriter.gr | November 10, 2008 1:52 AM
Pozdrav za sve dobre ljude
Posted by: Soko Banja | November 24, 2008 3:02 PM
Yoooo Hi to every one from Serbia
Posted by: Apartmani Sokobanja | November 24, 2008 3:04 PM
No, thanks to you
Posted by: Sokobanja
|
November 24, 2008 3:36 PM
Who is from Serbia?
Posted by: Apartmani u Soko banji | December 4, 2008 1:22 PM
I am from Serbia
Posted by: Soko Banja Apartmani | December 4, 2008 1:33 PM