I’ve been holding off on writing about HitTail.com until I had enough time to give it a real going over. I’ve now been using it for about a couple of weeks and think I’ve got a pretty good impression of what it does and how it works.
So basic principle is that you add this chunk of code to your website and each time you get a search engine referral, they grab the data and parse it into their system. I know, I know, many of you aren’t big fans of giving yet another company access to your traffic patterns. I’m not a big fan of it either, but I will do it in exchange for something of value. To this point, HitTail has been worth it.
They’ll give you a great big list of all of your search terms much like any reasonable web statistics package will do for you. Then the magic starts. Through some mystical formula they pull out the long tail results that are likely to generate traffic for you if you were to invest some effort. The whole idea is to help you find good key phrases to pursue that you’re already into. Since you’re working within your strengths already you’re going to have a much better chance to rank well for the phrases they suggest.
Out of the list of terms that they suggest, you pull out the ones you like onto your “to do” list. You can delete the ones you don’t like or you feel are a little irrelevant. Then, you check in on your to do list when your hunting for some SEO fodder. This can also serve you extremely well during times when you’re experiencing writer’s block. Since it will be pulling suggestions from your previous writings, you should be able to relate to them fairly well and at least have something to say on the topic.
You do have to use the service in moderation though. If you rely on it for all of your new content, you won’t get a chance to grow and explore new areas. You’ll just end up writing about things you’ve already written about all the time. You still want to be exploring new topics and areas of interest on your own. When used properly though, you’ll be able to make better use of your content and work to give the people what they’re looking for.
Big thanks to John Chow for pointing this pretty cool tool out.
web development, writing
(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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8 responses so far ↓
1 Court // Apr 25, 2007 at 4:48 pm
That seems like a pretty cool idea. The stat counter I have already shows me all my keywords, but doesn’t give me an idea of which ones would be worth while… hmm I think I’ll have to try it out.
2 Marc // Apr 25, 2007 at 4:53 pm
It is pretty cool. As long as you don’t have a high traffic site, it’s free to sign up. As mentioned in the post, I’ve found it pretty useful.
3 Ryan // Apr 25, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Very interesting, I’ll have to look into this further. Thanks for the heads up!
4 Cade // Apr 26, 2007 at 2:42 am
I like this a lot. This sounds like it will save a lot of time. Is this something that you can get for free? Where do you go to get it? Do you feel that with the list of potential keywords that it is good to go after one or two keywords a lot or to spread it out over several keywords?
5 Marc // Apr 26, 2007 at 7:06 am
Yes it’s free for any site that has less than 100 000 visits per month. That covers most small websites and blogs. You can pay for extra features but there’s only one or two features that I might be interested in and so far I’m more than happy with the basic service.
Hittail.com to go get it.
In my experience, it’s better to have a wide variety of search phrases bringing you traffic. Focusing on just a few keywords is akin to putting all your eggs in one basket. The risk/rewards are very significant. I’m a low risk kind of person so I prefer to diversify.
6 vaket parking // May 4, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I used to have it on my site. But I believe they have started charging people for their premium services.
7 Marc // May 6, 2007 at 1:21 pm
If you’re pulling more than 100 000 visits per month. Then you should be pulling enough revenue in to pay for the service at $10/month. From what I’ve seen to this point it’s well worth that.
8 Marc // May 6, 2007 at 1:22 pm
My apologies, it’s $10/month for the bonus features. High volume sites are $50/month… I’m not sure it’s quite worth that much… I guess it depends what my revenue will be when I reach that point.