Things We’ve Noticed

What terms are you tracking?
Web analytics company OneStat.com released a report that states more than 50 percent of searchers query 2 word and 3 word phrases. Four word phrases came in third at 17.11 percent and one word phrases came in a rather surprising fourth with only 11.43 percent.

It’s valuable information; however, even more valuable would be if you knew what terms bring the most traffic to your site specifically. Do you know if users search for your brand using one word, two word or three word phrases? How about six or seven words? If you don’t, you should. Knowing what terms users query to find your site, combined with aggressive keyword research, will help to you craft the most complete picture as to what words your site should be targeting.

Interestingly, the report also broke down numbers based on country, showing us that unless you live in Germany, putting a lot of effort into taking one word phrases may not the way to go.

People Don’t Care About PageRank… Well, not really
If a recent Cr8asite thread is any indication (and we think it is), site owners are no longer driving themselves crazy worrying about the size of that little green bar. According to Cre8asite forum members, the Toolbar PageRank (TBPR) craze is “nonsense”. The only sites that should show some semblance of PR concern are new sites looking for validation from other sites. According to forum member EGOL, however, TBPR may have one other benefit. He says the higher your PR, the more likely your updates will make it into the SERP quickly. The lower your PR, well, grab a chair it could be awhile.

David Harry wrote an interesting article recently on TBPR called The Google Toolbar PageRank Demystified that further documents PageRanks deflating balloon. If PR is your thing it may be worth a read.

Google Base Adds Rich Text
Google Base becomes more eBay-like with the addition of a rich text editor that lets posters easily reuse HTML tags. Cool?

SEW: Is Link “Bait” Kosher?
A thread over at SEW asks if link baiting should be considered manipulating the search engines. Huh? I can’t fully understand that line of thinking. To me, link baiting is SEO at its best: Create something unique, useful and relevant and your audience will eat the bait and reward you with traffic (and conversions). Create something no one is interested in and you “win” the drowned sewage-infested boot. It makes sense to me. Why would creating something that excites users, something that they’ll want to link to, be considered manipulating the search engines? I have no idea.

It Needs to be Said
Microsoft has a sense of humor. Thanks to Scoble for pointing this one out. Heh, poor Mac boy. It’s not his fault.

This one is just for fun
We like to keep our Valleywag support at a minimum, but if you have a second and a sense of humor I can’t help but point you over to Trackback Mountain. It’s pretty funny, even if Brokeback references are so last winter.

Lisa Barone is a writer, content marketer & VP of strategy at Overit Media. She's also a very active Twitterer, much to the dismay of the rest of the world.

See Lisa's author page for links to connect on social media.

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