Does the long tail/geo description/spamming the SE/DD method work

[earlpearl]

Even with the importance of G maps....the long tail for local still works.

Yesterday was one of those seasonal big days for us. Total traffic approached our highest daily numbers.

We had a huge number of contacts off the web.

Of over 200 (about 80% higher than normal) SE visits about 40%(80) were the most relevant kind....combinations of relevant location (MD/ or DC/ or Virginia) and combinations of our business type. (does not include visits essentially using the business name)

Of these every darn one was unique with each variation being queried only once. BakedJakes methodology still works. And btw, a number of those 80 represented the famous DD method!!

I'm actually surprised at this volume relative to the importance of G maps...and w/in G maps my business site isn't usually number 1 as it is in most of these combo terms.

[earlpearl]

Boy was I ONE DAY EARLY. Today, I noticed that Google Onebox/G maps has now been extended for organic searches with state names. It wasn't there yesterday.

That really changes the landscape.

Earlier, following the above post, Mike Blumenthal and I were pm'ing about the traffic, how it surprised me and his observations on limits of the onebox.

Well, with the onebox visability expanding dramatically that is going to dramatically change things moving forward.

Not only did they expand geographical terms for the onebox they expanded into secondary terms.

It appears that the G onebox is dramatically spreading through a wide territory of local type searches....and it is happening RIGHT NOW.

Btw; for more up to date awareness of the onebox read Mike's blog http://www.blumenthals.com/blog.

One thing that I believe is powerful about this is that as the onebox spreads other sources of advertising on the web, outside of Google become less effective.

For instance, serps listings in YP lose visability and get pushed down on either the first page or latter pages. Verticals for different industries such as nursing schools, automobiles, caterers etc. all get pushed down in visability in serps all below the onebox. Furthermore....once a user goes into a onebox data base, all the non-specific sources such as IYP or verticals vanish.

The net result....less reason to advertise elsewhere....more reason to advertise w/google.

Pretty shifty, sneaky, and smart IMHO.

Dave

[A.N.Onym]

Well, I tend to believe that smart web site owners need to count on direct website traffic, not Google. Google will follow

[kichus]

Well, I tend to believe that smart web site owners need to count on direct website traffic, not Google. Google will follow

I got a different experience.... 60% + traffic is driving from Google and the direct traffic follows that...

when a new site launches... my first target as a traffic source will be Search Engines... and once I started receiving traffic from them.. I see the graph for the Direct traffic also increasing...

I could be wrong though...

[A.N.Onym]

Of course, the initial traffic is from Google. But you should aim higher Aiming to get links from targeted website with real people is the ultimate goal, not sneaking links somewhere for SEO.