Long Tail Keyword Analysis

20 to 25% of search queries that Google gets in any one day are unique. The queries have never been seen before. This statistic was given at the recent Google searchology event.

I spent some time analysing the searches that resulted in a visit to my website during the previous month. Here are some of the stats:

• 42% of queries were unique
• 85% of queries were made up of 3 words or more
• The longest search query was 17 words!

The figures aren’t surprising. Having a blog means that I rank well for a large number of longtail searches on the subject of adWords, pay per click or Google. Search queries are getting longer and queries with 3 words or more are much more common now than they were previously.

Some observations:

Keyword analysis is a good way to uncover hot topics and common questions or concerns

For example, quite a few people came to my blog because they searched, in different ways, on the topic of adWords being expensive. It’s interesting to know this and I can take action by writing more on the topic or addressing it in a frequently asked questions section.

Of course I had to have written something on the topic in order to rank for the combination of “adWords” and “expensive” in the first place. There are obviously a range of other popular topics that I haven’t written about and therefore the search phrases don’t appear in my log files. However, blogging is a great way of producing a variety and volume of content to get visibility for those long tail phrases in the first place.

Did people get the information they wanted with the long tail searches?

People phrase things awkwardly, or use odd combinations of words, in an attempt to get information on something they don’t know a great deal about, particularly when the topic is complex. I tried out quite a few of the searches trying to assess the experience from the perspective of the searcher. Sometimes I thought there was a good chance they got relevant information. Sometimes the content probably didn’t cover what they wanted to know and just happened to contain the same words as the query but in a different context. That’s going to happen and the searcher may just leave immediately to try again. Maybe they weren’t part of my target audience anyway. However, it really made me have another look at overall usability and reminded me how important it is to have clear navigation and help people find what they want.

Details are good but focus on the overall trends

I love the detail in analytics and could happily spend hours pondering some puzzling aspect of the data. There are always a few puzzling things as well. One of the keywords someone used was the single word “Australia”. I’ve no idea how someone arrived at my website from that because of course I don’t rank anywhere for the word Australia (I checked :-). The details are interesting and can offer insights. However, overall trends and some key pieces of information are what is important.

On that note, I’ll finish with a link. I just ordered Avinash Kaushik’s book on web analytics.