What people search for has changed
21 December 2005 12:50 PM | SEO and Marketing
As I look at my stats I can see several key
differences between what people searched for in 2001
and what they search for now in 2005. Back in 2001, I
could get an easy 100 -120 visitors a day just for
"science fiction search engine" (without quotes)
across all engines, with ranking that were worse back
then than they are now. You don't see that kind of
traffic today. People don't look for specialized
search engines, the same way they did 5 years ago.
Google and Inktomi fed engines led for most of that
traffic.
Given that everything is the same or better, it just seems that searching habits have changed.
I also notice a marked decrease in content site webmasters looking for niche directories to add their URL's too. I wonder about that, back when I started:
1. Most directories were free.
2. Search engines were not that good.
3. SEO was still a lot about submitting it was a part of the culture.
4. Google had not destroyed all competition.
5. The quality sites in the web were always listed in directories.
I do not think content webmasters look for directories as much, the main people that are looking are SEO's, commercial webmasters and submission spammers.
Now, this is neither good nor bad, and this is not to say that a well spidered well optimized niche directory does not get traffic from the search engines. Traffic can be very good indeed - but it is different traffic - people searching for different things and different keyword phrases than they used to.
Given that everything is the same or better, it just seems that searching habits have changed.
I also notice a marked decrease in content site webmasters looking for niche directories to add their URL's too. I wonder about that, back when I started:
1. Most directories were free.
2. Search engines were not that good.
3. SEO was still a lot about submitting it was a part of the culture.
4. Google had not destroyed all competition.
5. The quality sites in the web were always listed in directories.
I do not think content webmasters look for directories as much, the main people that are looking are SEO's, commercial webmasters and submission spammers.
Now, this is neither good nor bad, and this is not to say that a well spidered well optimized niche directory does not get traffic from the search engines. Traffic can be very good indeed - but it is different traffic - people searching for different things and different keyword phrases than they used to.
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