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We tend to have quite a problem with survivorship bias[1] on HN. We like to look at the cases where things went well and we assume that is because they did som

We tend to have quite a problem with survivorship bias[1] on HN. We like to look at the cases where things went well and we assume that is because they did something right that the others did not, and since the founder believe this, he will list the things he intentionally did that he thinks helped. In reality, it may have been something he was taking for granted, or it may have been that he happened to miss some common pitfalls. From one data point it is impossible to know if those are the factors that pushed him over the edge or not. Of course, one data point like this is useful if we look at all the other stories we get here on a daily basis. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias

webwright 17y ago
One thing that he did (dunno if he takes it for granted) is get a URL that matches with the top search phrase. If he'd named his company "GridFriend Creator", we'd be reading a VERY different article. Every time anyone links to him, it's like the George Bush "miserable failure" googlebomb [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb ]... Except that it's not frowned upon by Google.
- patio11 17y ago
  I think that is of fairly minor consequence to the overall success of my business. I've been #1 for that phrase for almost four years now -- and as of four years ago, it was worth about 150 visits a month, or substantially less than five sales. "Whee." It is worth more these days, but that is because people searching for [bingo card creator] are probably looking for Bingo Card Creator (for example, with five seconds of checking into my stats, I can guarantee at least 30% of folks searching for it last week and clicking on my site already have an account with me). (Have I mentioned that "Google owns navigation on the Internet"?)
  - ericd 17y ago
    Doesn't that help it also rank for "Bingo " and "Bingo Card ", though? I'm very hazy on how Google uses anchor text, but this is how I assumed it works. On a related note, I'd be very happy to pay you for an SEO consultation.
  - webwright 17y ago
    Hrm-- that's some pretty selective data. I'd be curious to hear you fill in the blanks on this sentence: "Organic searches with the word 'bingo card' makes up ___ percent of my sales." As you say, tho-- might be hard to parse out brand searches. But every single one of your holiday-specific landing pages benefits from "bingo card" being in your URL. Isn't long tail SEO a big part of your acquisition?

webwright 17y ago

One thing that he did (dunno if he takes it for granted) is get a URL that matches with the top search phrase. If he'd named his company "GridFriend Creator", we'd be reading a VERY different article. Every time anyone links to him, it's like the George Bush "miserable failure" googlebomb [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_bomb ]... Except that it's not frowned upon by Google.

patio11 17y ago
I think that is of fairly minor consequence to the overall success of my business. I've been #1 for that phrase for almost four years now -- and as of four years ago, it was worth about 150 visits a month, or substantially less than five sales. "Whee." It is worth more these days, but that is because people searching for [bingo card creator] are probably looking for Bingo Card Creator (for example, with five seconds of checking into my stats, I can guarantee at least 30% of folks searching for it last week and clicking on my site already have an account with me). (Have I mentioned that "Google owns navigation on the Internet"?)
- ericd 17y ago
  Doesn't that help it also rank for "Bingo " and "Bingo Card ", though? I'm very hazy on how Google uses anchor text, but this is how I assumed it works. On a related note, I'd be very happy to pay you for an SEO consultation.
- webwright 17y ago
  Hrm-- that's some pretty selective data. I'd be curious to hear you fill in the blanks on this sentence: "Organic searches with the word 'bingo card' makes up ___ percent of my sales." As you say, tho-- might be hard to parse out brand searches. But every single one of your holiday-specific landing pages benefits from "bingo card" being in your URL. Isn't long tail SEO a big part of your acquisition?