Here is a classic example of SEO in action. When performing Search Engine Optimization on a website, you target keyword terms. Typically you emphasize the big terms, the ones that drive the most traffic, aka the Juicy Head (as I heard Seth Godin say it) of the curve. Your SEO efforts also yield rankings for other minor terms, that maybe only deliver a fraction of the traffic a juicy head term would, but taken collectively with all the minor terms, they may add up to match or exceed the major terms, this is the classic Long Tail.
So I am going to show you an example of the Juicy Head and the Long Tail in action, Here is a snapshot of traffic stats for one of our client websites, Party Ideas and Event Planning website bestpartyever.com. Keep in mind here that Google and Yahoo use different factors to rank websites, and the psychology and demographic of the user of each search engine is different.
Notice over this short period of time, Yahoo delivered more total traffic, spread across almost 3x as many keyword terms (the long tail). Where as Google traffic was more concentrated over 4 main terms (the juicy head). 0$ in PPC was spent over this period. This has a lot to do with how quickly the different search engines index and start ranking websites.. but I think you get the drift. SEO for the Major Terms for a big traffic punch, but don’t forget the minor ones that over time will drive just as much or not more traffic.
