Comments on: Mike Levin From Hittail Is The Reason I Don’t Call Myself An Seo

By: Mike Levin of HitTail

Mike Levin of HitTail — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:10:16 +0000

Thanks for the links Geoff. Gary is one of HitTail's many enthusiastic supporters. Be sure to check out his most recent article. And SES was awesome!

By: Solomon Rothman

Solomon Rothman — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:38:25 +0000

The comments are moderated, but I generally approve everything. I’ve got some comment upgrades I’ve been dying to add, but am currently absolutely slammed. I wish you luck on your future projects as well. This thread has been fun to write / follow and I hope you enjoyed the discussion as well. I don’t know if I’ll be going to SES; after working 60+ hour weeks it’s hard to get excited about paying a bunch of money to go to a SE conference. Of course I would probably qualify to present or speak, but I’d rather just express my opinions in my blog.

Are you speaking there Mike or are you an exhibitor or an attendee? PS. I’m not baiting, but sincerely interested.

By: Solomon Rothman

Solomon Rothman — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 23:08:39 +0000

Hey Mike, regarding your pr firm example, you don’t show up for any of the derivatives, like pr firms, public relations firm, or public relations firms. When I pick a target I try to rank for all the derivaties (or plural versions) of the trophy phrase as well (see pr examples above). I’m surprised that while Conors ranks for pr firm I can’t find them on the first page for any other 2 word / 3 word combination of that keyword?

By: Solomon Rothman

Solomon Rothman — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 22:52:51 +0000

I was using a personal example for fun. I'll use an example in the same industry you just mentioned. SS|PR is one of our clients. They currently rank for: pr agency publicity firms , pr agencies, public relations agency, public relations agencies, public relations firm I could post more rankings to include hundreds of search terms and lots of traffic and all of that improvement in a short period of time (months not years). They didn't use to rank for any of that!!! I'm not done either, as I'm currently in development of an enhanced site with a lot of link bait potential that should really push them over the edge. SS|PR use to not be in the top 10 pages, now they're on the front page for a whole list of terms and closing in on many more. Gotta love that! And for real estate try (these 3 word searches are more competitive than most two word searches) real estate news real estate magazine real estate information RISMedia is our client from that search and were about to launch something huge with REALLY aggressive search marketing plans already in the works see RISMedia.info. Their entire online publication is being redesigned right now. How's that? I'm was just giving some examples, not trying to have a pissing match. Also make sure to watch "pr firm" it's one of my targets when I finish a complete re-design for SS|PR. I'm going to be on the first page for THAT search, the EXACT search you just mentioned.

By: Mike Levin of HitTail

Mike Levin of HitTail — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 22:31:58 +0000

Actually, I said 3 words are generally easier than 2. Sure, there's exceptions, and these latest examples of yours are the to have even enough traffic to show up on Google Trends. Thanks. It's nice to see a decent example. But since we're trading keywords, try pr firm. Now THAT converts.

By: Solomon Rothman

Solomon Rothman — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 21:16:50 +0000

Hey Mike you can't say 3 words is harder than 2 words, because it greatly depends on the particular phrase. For example my personal site ranks for a few 1 word searches (a bunch of two words ones as well, but I wanted to use 1 as an example) on google "slept" (not a particularly useful search, but cool huh?), but I consider the phrase "watch free movie" to be much harder (of which I'm #11, but will be in break the top 10 later this month).

By: Mike Levin of HitTail

Mike Levin of HitTail — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 20:55:21 +0000

Yes, long-tail terms are usually 3+ words, and fairly easy. The tough ones are the 2-word combo’s. HitTail generally doesn’t help with those.

By: Mike Levin of HitTail

Mike Levin of HitTail — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 19:11:44 +0000

Barry, you're right. 3-words is where things start to get easy. 8 words, while a cinch, is too unique for multiple occurrences. The sweet spot is 3 to 5. Therefore, we only brag about competitive 2-word combo's above the longtail space anymore, because that's what separates out the pro's. We're really positioning HitTail as a mass-market, anyone can do it thing. Our SEO services are a completely different matter.

By: Barry Hurd

Barry Hurd — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:56:33 +0000

I’m laughing, because isn’t a 3-word combo more long-tail than a 2-word combo? I would actually think that 3,4, and 5 word long-tail combos would be more focused on specific phrases that convert. Am I wrong? I think HitTail would be more suitably used for finding some incredibly obscure longtail 8 word phrases that convert 90% of the time.

By: Mike Levin of HitTail

Mike Levin of HitTail — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:37:34 +0000

Ah, but I believe I will convince even you, and value the opportunity. It’s like having the ultimate straight-man.

And now that I understand you think the long tail is non-mainstream, the entire discussion is making more sense to me now.

By: Israeli Rothman

Israeli Rothman — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:17:14 +0000

And anybody who suggests that a typepad blog, or anyblog that is on someone elses system is as good as an authortity source that belongs to and originates with the client is simply mistaken.

By: Israeli Rothman

Israeli Rothman — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:11:05 +0000

I understand that: we routinely do one and two word searches for our clients: the point is that you are touting obscure proper names and non-main-stream searches as proof: the only thing we consider proof of anything is what we do for our clients.

By: Mike Levin of HitTail

Mike Levin of HitTail — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 07:53:48 +0000

“Dude”, you’re chatting with the folks who created HitTail. We’re almost on page 1 for the 2-word combo long tail. And we’re converting many/day.

Needless to say, we eat 3-word combo’s for lunch. We’re at the point where we’re educating the rest of the world how to do the same… proper nouns or not.

By: Israeli Rothman

Israeli Rothman — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:47:04 +0000

Dude, it is not about your proper name! It is about people finding you who do not know your name! Internet advertising consultant is a searched for, coveted, targeted search (check it with Google) which brings up over 51,000,000 documents, and is searched for over 5000 times per month: it targets our market exactly, and 4 of the top five results are me or my representatives: I make one or two sales per week from this placement alone (my six month old blog and articles on associated content). When you have proof of performance like that, or like online advertising consultant, or just advertising consultant, you make money. Not a cut, just a fact.

By: Mike Levin of HitTail

Mike Levin of HitTail — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:54:48 +0000

Double-check the facts. Do that Google search. Do that Technorati search.

And it only took us 7 days to get into Google.

Thanks for allowing the comments to post!

By: Solomon Rothman

Solomon Rothman — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:09:16 +0000

We have some older posts in here (migrated from another blog), but this blog was launched on February 25, so it’s VERY new.

By: Israeli Rothman

Israeli Rothman — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:03:53 +0000

Type social media advertisig into Google: we already rank with this 45 day old blog.

By: Solomon Rothman

Solomon Rothman — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 14:02:06 +0000

Hi Mike, not looking for a pissing match just stating my opinion in my blog, that’s what they’re for. Also your point about 300,000 results for hittail has no relevancy, I wasn’t referring to your branding, you’ve spent a bunch of money building hittail, so I expect a lot of results when searching for your brand. I was referring to your blog, which is what this article is about. When you mention 700 results for our brand, remember this site and that brand where created 2 months ago.

If you watch this site we’ll achieve a pr of 5 or higher within 60 days (from 0 and a launch of 2 date of 2 months ago) and we’re picking up blog links and publicity.

This new blog is ranked higher then yours via technorati, but just wait it will rank higher in the serps and have more influence shortly. I quote you, because I like to write well rounded posts even when I’m expressing a negative opinion or critique of someone else.

I’m not one dimensional. Thanks for joining the conversation!

By: Mike Levin of HitTail

Mike Levin of HitTail — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 04:43:44 +0000

For any of you reading this, do the following experiment. Google HitTail. The number is around 300,000 results. Google socialmediasystems. The number is around 700. Also, check out the PageRank we’ve accumulated in 5 months.

I only write this to correct the facts of your second-to-last paragraph.

By: Mike Levin of HitTail

Mike Levin of HitTail — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 03:46:33 +0000

Uh, Solomon, thanks for the publicity. You won’t find any pissing match from me. You validate pretty much all of my points when the reader takes the time to carefully consider. You even posted my own words “HitTail recommends getting started with blogging software.”