SEO less useful after more than 2 or 3 keywords?

Well, they would say that...

[chiyo]

Its a spin peice on Traffik of course but Jeremy Sanchez from Position Tech also provides some interesting thoughts.

[traffick.com...]

Based on what keywords PT/Ink are seeing he states..

"..1) Very few search queries are alike. For every 50 clicks a URL receives, 90 percent of the search queries are different.

2) 75% of all search queries are three terms or longer.

AND...

Once a searcher moves beyond a three or four term search query the need for optimization is not as important. In the past..

[msgraph]

"..1) Very few search queries are alike. For every 50 clicks a URL receives, 90 percent of the search queries are different.

2) 75% of all search queries are three terms or longer.

That's not what my traffic logs show.

[agerhart]

I also don't think that the user's statement is justifiable.

[bigjohnt]

Keep in mind the Ink/Pt stats are coming from the "bottom" of the pile, superceded in most cases by PPC<Goverture>, directory listings and whatnot. As Ink is the BACKUP dbase for many SE's, their data will be slightly different than incoming referral logs.
This is the leading reason that their searches have three or more words. One or two word searches are yeilding results from other sources higher up in the food chain, and don;t hit the Ink dbase.
(I think they alluded to this somewhere in the article)

[chiyo]

great analysis bigjohn.. that makes a lot of sense

[WebGuerrilla]

>>(I think they alluded to this somewhere in the article)

It makes sense that most of the search queries we see are longer than three terms because most one or two term searches at these engines would represent a directory result from Looksmart, ODP, or paid placements from Overture.

I think the use of Ink for secondary results does certainly account for the stats given.

What will be intereting to see is how those numbers change now that Ink is getting top-of-the-fold billing at AOL.