MyLongTail, free new tool for SEO

Hello all,

I'm resisting the temptation to post this in Google Optimization as the most popular area. But none-the-less, I'm hoping this will not get deleted. I'm a long-time search optimizer, and I went to work for a New York public relations firm. We've taken our formula for search engine optimization, and turned it into a free public beta. We're looking for some beta testers. It has a very different approach to SEO than most tools/people. Its works a lot like analytics software, looking at the actual activity on your site in order to issue writing suggestions about what keywords it thinks could be performing a lot better for you. We're the PR firm that launched Amazon.com, Priceline and Vonage, so it's pretty serious. If anyone is interested, PM me or Google it. If it's not against forum rules, I'd like to give the link. Thanks.

Hi Mike,
I went ahead and moved this to the most relevant forum.
You can post the url... so long as it's not a "live link".

I took a quick look at your site. Aren't you just replicating what Urchin 5 or Google Analytics can do except you can watch it in real time? I can use Urchin to show me hundreds upon hundreds of keywords under which we are found.

Good point..

But if they are have added the option to watch it realtime they have taken a system like urchin and made it better.

Even though they are not breaking new ground maybe there is benefit to it because they have added something.

True, but I make no keyword decisions based upon only a day or two of data. I take a look for the month using Urchin. You can then see which ones are worth going after. After a while I look over 3-6 months to see for sure whether it may be a viable search term. Bottomline... real time keyword hits are fun to see but useless to base decisions upon.

MyLongTail is designed to just zero in on words that would do well with some optimizing. It actually uses algorithms to look at those thousands upon thousands of words, and comes up with a small suggested list.

People who are actually already able to make those determinations from analytics may not need MyLongTail.

It is perhaps best for people working in your average marketing department, allowing them to do some very effective SEO. It would also work for SEO's looking for an auto-suggestion tool that gets its data right off the site.

Part of the appeal is that's all it does, and it does it in real-time, so it's got something of an addictive quality (yes, it's fun!). But it's also useful because the algorithm spots terms that will become producers with just a little more effort.

The wonderful and cute name MyLongTail has served it's purpose, and we're positioning the tool to grow up fast, and join the ranks of Google and eBay, as a noun, verb and present participle. You can go to Google, be a Googler and engage in Googling. Similarly now, you can go to HitTail, be a HitTailor and engage in HitTailing.

We particularly like this new name, because in Retail, shelf space is limited. In HitTailing, shelf space is unlimited! As much as we like MyLongTail, we think with HitTail, we've got a name that will withstand the test of time and work its way into everyday language.

Thoughts?

We just added pop-up help windows. It's a small touch, but helps expain what to do after logged in.

And we just added demo to explain the rather difficult concept in a snazzy new way, trying to make it accessible to everyone: http://www.hittail.com/demo/ - HitTail Demo

unfortunately that is 100% inaccurate.

It is merely a limited function tracking script which is no different than any other tracking script... other than:

1. targets only a fraction of the real time useragent data available, and

2. cutoff at 350 unqiue terms.

Here the code:



Where's the algorithm?

IT DOES - organize the output data in a different 'meaningful' way... so sure it does add some value.

The major disadvantage I see with it [since the target audience are those that don't know anything about SEO, and cannot afford to hire a SEO or as implied don't need to hire a SEO [the market pitch] if they never get a search engine click - there is an absolute NULL of data... Since most of this audience also do not do PPC.

Therefore they DO NEED some SEO knowledge, or at minimum some amateur SEO to deliver a minimal amount of data - to have a change of doing SEO without any real knowledge or assistance using only this tool.

Thus kinda defeats tool's purpose/claims.

You're looking at the data capture code, which is pretty mundate stuff.

The keyword mining takes place on our end, and my statements are entirely accurate. You admit the keywords are organized. Well, that's what Google PageRank does... it organizes.

And that's where the smarts come into the picture in our case as well. It's as smart as we've made it today, and we can keep training it to get smarter. What is a keyword that's on the "edge" of performing for you? What are the clues? It's a lot like PageRank in that respect. People will continue to be delighted by the methods in which we ferret out the best suggestions.

And on the final statement, most of the things that SEOs do today are being done in a more-or-less automated fashion by blogging software. It's unfortunate, but true. I'm one of the folks who spelled out the significance of previous/next arrows that used keywords before there was a Movable Type or WordPress. And for folks who are willing to go with blogging software, maybe with a few template tweaks, they get 80% of the benefit with 20% of the work. Blogging is merely a way of deferring the technical SEO discussion.

But when using the HitTailing technique on website content proper (and not a blog), what you say is entirely true, and you do need SEO knowlege and expertise. We're not denying that.

We are being completely forward in our claims about what we are and are not accomplishing with HitTailing.

We're going to be creating a lot MORE SEO opportunities in mainstream marketing by letting it in the door in an easily understood and unintimidating form. You can always step them up to greater value-ad's. And people using HitTailing who want the same benefit on their main website content have a clearer understanding of what they're looking for in SEO.

Everyone wins.

Oh, and a funny corollary follow-up occurred to me.

Saying that our claim isn't true is like posting the WebTrends or Google Analytics JavaScript tracking code and asserting that they couldn't be be analytics packages because you don't see any reports. The "smarts" isn't in the tracking code... only the tracking is.

Paints a clearer picture - but then that poses a new question.



Who has access to my data?

Makes sense for a firm such as Connors to offer free if they can data mine thousands, 10's, 100's of thousands or millions of websites.

When a deal is too good to be true it usually is... much like Google I question why they got into free tracking...

Data mining in volumes reduces margin of error significantly.



That's usually the way it works.



Trialing it out on a volume of websites to see if it is better than guesswork... my guesses have always been better than the available keyword packages... if it improves productivity then an asset...

Course knowing Connors history with "the big guy&