martinibuster - 10:51 pm on Jun 1, 2010 (gmt 0)

But peripheral topics keep getting brought in to confuse matters.

You misunderstood my post and inadvertently introduced peripheral topics.

...whether or not someone's site is doing well really isn't relevant to this thread.

I did not ask if the site is doing well. I asked whether the queries that were underperforming (because of AdWords advertisers buying their way to the top) were short phrases or longtail phrases. ;) The reason I asked is because a solution to the problem depends on the kind of query being made. I offered one possible solution above. If anyone else cares to offer another solution then please give it up. ;)