Our MyST Blogsite generates highly qualified leads compared to other venues of online lead generation. One of the primary reasons is we have a trust factor, which we built (and continue to build) by providing dependable and accurate information through the blogsite. As a result, actions are more meaningful for business and the customer."
If you think a top ten ranking on a popular term is a guarantee for success, think again...
Everyone wants a top ten ranking on a popular search term. They offer bragging rights and they're lucrative, right? Not necessarily, and Excite has the data to prove that popular top tens represent very small amounts of business.
"The most interesting statistic however, was that while the top 10 searches were thousands of times more popular than the average search, these top-10 searches represented only 3% of our total volume. 97% of our traffic came from the “long tail” – queries asked a little over once a day." -- Joe Krause (co-founder of Excite)
I submit that not only are popular terms smaller with respect to potential business segments, they are typically ambiguous. Plays is a good example; broadway, ESPN, and the NFL would all love #1 for this term yet sizeable portions of each audience are simply not quality prospects.
"Overture figured it out... but it wasn’t a traditional advertising marketplace like television ... it was a special kind of marketplace where small advertisers could reach small markets efficiently." e.g. - Blogsites as Advertorials
Of ten-plus million queries a day, the average search was nearly unique.
Our own search engine referer statistics bears this out - hundreds and thousands of clicks from search requests that are mostly unique. This confirms my hunch that it's more important to pay attention to the last search query entered before the searcher decides they've found what they're looking for.
I spoke with a group of bloggers in Phoenix recently. What I found is that very few had any business from their blogs despite a lot of effort. I have 5 closings and 7 active buyers directly from [our MyST blogsite] in 2008. I know because I ask. One person told me they have been reading my blog for almost a year before they called me to buy a property."
