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Are Long Tail Keywords Suffering Traffic Setback?

May 3, 2010 By

This year’s May Day (May 1st) – historically an anniversary observing the Red Revolution in Russia in 1917 – saw a flurry of activity on SEO forums regarding rankings drops for long tail keywords (keyword phrases longer than 4-5 words).

SEO pros and other webmasters have been discussing what they’ve been observing with their traffic for the last several days – even one saying “webmasters from very clean, very large websites report dramatic drops in long tail search traffic. MAYDAY seems to be the appropriate shout-out for those affected.”

Many complaints poured into the WebmasterWorld thread talking about rankings drops for phrases longer than 3 keywords…one post even says his “traffic dropped 50% in a few days, 100,000′s of long tail k/w.”

Another says he was seeing some recovery by mid-April just to see 90% of his long tail keyword traffic fall off by MAYDAY…then many more began saying they’re experiencing the same thing.

WebmasterWorld administrator Tedster gives some insight into what maybe happening – and that is Google is making a change in how they approach their phrase-based indexing, which is made possible by their new Caffeine infrastructure. Before, long tail keyword search results were “best guesses” – interpretations on what you’re trying to say.

Assume that any five words put together could constitute a long-tail keyword phrase – that’s literally so many combinations that your head will spin off, including any computers. Therefore, Google simply guessed what you were trying to look for.

“Something very real has shifted at Google, but apparently it takes a certain type of webmaster/website to notice it – significant long tail traffic closely monitored in detail,” Tedster says.

If you target long tail keywords, are you seeing any significant decline in traffic?

This year’s MAYDAY certainly was certainly a milestone in Google’s update with Caffeine…check back again for more on Caffeine and what it means but don’t be too concerned about this if you have a good, crawlable site with engaging content that’s relevant to your market – in the end, that’s what matters!

Filed Under: Forum Watch, SEO Technology, Site Architecture Tagged With: , ,

Site Speed Now a Ranking Factor on Google

April 12, 2010 By

In a post from way back on December 4th, we alerted you to a new addition to Google’s ranking algorithm – site speed.

At the time, Google added site speed to their Webmaster tools utility, comparing your site against others in your niche in terms of how fast they load. At that time, Google said it would be adding this factor to its algorithm in the coming months.

Well that day has arrived so now we can begin to get a clearer picture on how this will affect rankings. Will faster loading sites enjoy rankings over another site that may take a second longer to load?

According to various forums on the topic that have been brewing through today since the implementation of this factor was announced last Friday, this new ranking factor should hardly impact anyone except for a few specific queries (that we don’t know about right now unfortunately). In fact, the change has been in play for about 2 weeks so you would know by now if page speed is affecting your rankings.

Google will measure page speed two ways: (1) How a page responds to the Googlebot and (2) Load time as measured by the Google Toolbar.

Different posts on WebMasterWorld, DigitalPoints and Google Webmaster forums confirm that this isn’t a major factor in the over 200 elements that make up Google’s ranking algorithm. However, there are some good tips in there if you think you’re rankings are being affected by this change.

Filed Under: Forum Watch, SEO Technology Tagged With: , , ,

404 Redirects, Search Engine Rankings and Conversions

March 29, 2010 By

Inevitably in the life time of a website, you’re going to have pages that are no longer relevant. Perhaps the information is simply outdated or you don’t offer that particular product or service anymore.

What’s a webmaster to do in this instance?

If you’ve spent any time online, there’s no doubt that you have encountered a webpage saying “Error 404” or something like that. Whether a URL was typed in wrong or you were simply looking for something that didn’t exist anymore, a 404 error message indicates to you and the search engines that this page no longer exists.

Having a lot of 404 redirects isn’t necessarily a bad thing in the eyes of Google and other search engines…however, 404 redirects should be setup in a way that’s inviting to the reader and encourages them to stay on your site.

According to Google employee John Mu, 404 redirects are not a problem for the search engine, especially if the page helps a user find related information within the site.

With respect to site visitors and conversions, static 404 redirects are very uninviting, breaking the conversion process much of the time. Let’s say you sell power tools and someone is looking for a particular model band saw but the product is obsolete and is no longer manufactured. If that prospective buyer finds a link to their preferred saw on your site clicks the link and comes to a static page that says “Error 404” and nothing else, they will most likely go elsewhere to find their saw.

Static 404 pages are also a problem for search engine spiders since they find pages on your site through following links. If there are no links on a 404 page, it will not know where to go.

Five must haves for a 404 redirect page include:

  • An apology for the error (even if the visitor is at-fault)
  • A search box that’s prominently displayed
  • A link to your site map
  • A link to your home page
  • Links to other main areas on your site

The above example could include a picture of a carpenter who’s frustrated that he can’t find a tool he needs on a job, adding some humor and empathy to the customer’s predicament.

If you’re 404 redirect pages are static, spruce them up by including a template of your site along with some of the elements mentioned above.

The point is – do not have static 404 redirect pages. They could cost you dearly both in terms of search engine rankings and conversions.

Filed Under: Forum Watch, Online Marketing, SEO Technology, Site Architecture, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , , ,

Avoid Using “Click Here” or Other Simple Phrases

March 26, 2010 By

We’ve discussed before the power of ‘anchor-text links,’ or text that includes a link to another page on your site that has further information on a topic, product or service. The anchor-text you use can have a tremendous impact on your rankings.

But too many sites out there still rely on “click-here” or “more…” or other simple phrases centered on the same thing. How many times have you seen the phrase “Click here for more information” on a website – not very inviting is it?

For many companies, “click-here” or “more information” is perhaps the most widely used text on their site. Besides the uninviting tone of those phrases, companies who use them are missing out on a lot of ranking opportunities.

This New Jersey Transit Authority site is a perfect example – at the end of each paragraph seen below, they have a “more info” link directing potential passengers to the service’s transit schedule. Instead, it would be better if they drop the “more info” altogether and integrate the link into the copy – such as:

Memorial Day Schedule Information

Memorial Day Weekend bus and rail schedule information is now available!


Not only does this link take advantage of internal link structure to increase keyword exposure, it gives the reader a better idea of where they’re going.

So be aware of how you’re linking out to other sites and to other pages within your site. Avoid common phrases like “click here,” etc. Continuing to use those phrases means you will be missing out on great ranking opportunities – not to mention, the confusion your visitors are likely to experience.

Filed Under: Forum Watch, Site Architecture, Tip of the Day Tagged With: , , , ,

Facebook Visitors Surpass Google Homepage

March 17, 2010 By

Enjoying phenomenal growth over the last year, social networking site Facebook has now overtaken Google’s homepage as the Internet’s most visited site.

This event signals what many have been saying for awhile – the Internet is becoming more sociable than searchable. Facebook and Google combines accounted for 14% of all Internet visits last week according to online marketing research firm Hitwise.

A year ago, Facebook accounted for 2% of all Internet visits but as of last week, accounted for 7.07%. Google accounted for 7.03% of Internet visits. In addition to visits, Facebook membership has grown tremendously as well, surpassing 200 million subscribers last April, doubling that to 400 million in just under a year.

“The true value of Facebook and social networks is just becoming clear to marketers,” said Augie Ray, analyst at Forrester Research.

Hitwise’s data only counted visits to Google’s homepage, not its other properties like Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube and its new social networking site Buzz. Developed as a response to Facebook, subscribers can logon to share videos, feeds and other items from their other social networking accounts.

Take all of Google’s sites into consideration and they account for 11.03% of Internet visits last week.

Facebook’s trajectory as seen on the graph indicates that it will soar past Google in the next few months. Social networking sites come and go though, as seen by MySpace’s decline in the last couple of years. But last December, users spent an average of 5.5 hours per month on social networking sites, an 82% increase over the year before according to the Nielsen research firm.

Data like this confirms the importance of adopting social media into your overall online marketing strategy. Building a good Facebook profile and exploring other outlets that can benefit your business is no longer a taboo thing, it’s definitely entered mainstream thought in the online marketing world.

Filed Under: Forum Watch, Online Marketing, SEO Technology Tagged With: , , ,
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