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Monday, August 18, 2008

The Secret of Winning is Focus

I don't know why I haven't seen this before. I read a press release recently from which I learned that vanpan.com has secured (is anything in cyberspace, or elsewhere for that matter, ever secured?)a 22nd place result ranking for the search term "crappy Chrysler". Actually, as evidence of my unyielding diligence, I ran the search myself. I'm not clear whether VanPanMan's search was for the terms (crappy and chrysler) or the phrase "crappy Chrysler". When I searched the terms I found him in a number 2 and 10 position. When I searched the phrase, it was also at number 2. But things are fluid.

I started wondering what sort of search would lead one of my pithy missives to show up high on the hit parade. Here are my results.

Thematic Searches:
  1. Wittiest Blog - TC'sW didn't appear in the resuts - but I only checked the first 473,280 results.
  2. Handsomest Blogger - Google is an imperfect system...obviously.
Term Searches:
  1. Loon - The results were a cluttered jumble of fowl, idiots, and foul idiots...And the Workshop was not to be seen.
  2. Loon & Obama - The field was too crowded for obvious reasons.
  3. Loon & "Andre the Giant" - Rank 4.
  4. "Andre the Giant" & villanelle - Rank 3. We are getting warmer.
  5. Loon & "Andre the Giant" & villanelle - Rank 1. Nailed it.
As I probed and prodded The Index of Everything, as Google will soon be known, it occurred to me that the secret of winning is focus. Being number one is simply a function of choosing the right measuring stick(s). The Workshop, by nature if not design, is simply to eccentric and erratic to become your one-stop-shop for information on Andre the Giant or French poetic forms or loons. But if you happen to be interested in all three...come on in and pull up a chair. I've got your number.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree completely that focus is the key to winning. Reverse engineering to see where "you may already be a winner" helps too.

That being the case, I present 5 other very pertinent Google search terms for which the workshop is the NUMBER 1 returned site:

- "winning loon metalworker" (#1 of 938)
- "metalworker haiku loon" (#1 of 707)
- "haiku workshop metalworker" (#1 of 881)
- "limbo minivan dream catcher" (#1 of 566)
- "metalworker road rage loon" (#1 of 464)

Tubalcain's Workshop rules the long tail search term game.

Are there specific search terms for which you would like to remain the top search result?

What you have achieved is very impressive -- total domination for these terms.

Anonymous said...

Focus: see the loon, be the loon.

Anonymous said...

If you want to go with something "loon" focused, that would probably be pretty easy. I wouldn't think there would be much competition.

I just discovered (and am passing this along, as I'm sure you would have identified this on your own) that vanpan ranks #10 for "crying indian pictures" - I didn't even know that until just now.

Not bad.