subject: How to Understand the Longtail [print this page] Most of the Internet is home to websites that receive minimal traffic. These sites have been called the longtail. The most popular websites receive a large proportion of Internet traffic but there are millions more websites which receive only no visits a year. Below are some figures showing the unique traffic levels needed to be one of the most popular websites.
- To become the number 1 website in the world you need more than 540 million unique visitors per month.
- To become a top 10 website you need at least 230 million visitors per month.
- To become a top 50 website you need at least 41 million visitors per month.
- To become a top 100 website you need at least 22 million visitors per month.
- To become a top 500 website you need at least 7.4 million visitors per month.
- To become a top 1,000 website you need at least 4.1 million visitors per month.
What is even more amazing is that this information only counts unique visitors. A website in the top 1,000 will have less than 1% of the traffic of the most popular website. Although traffic reporting is often wrong, the number can be seen as quite accurate.
This means that information overload is a very real problem for Internet users. There are far more sites on the web than you can ever visit in your life time. Everyone has visited websites that you will never visit again but there are a lot of sites that we seldom visit but often try to find again. There are many websites that offer solutions to such a problem. Bookmark services allow you to bookmark websites online! Furthermore, plenty of time is often spent re-registering accounts for sites you have already signed up for, simply because you have forgotten the login details. There is also password management software which will allow you to manage your account details. So when it comes to finding a website again, you will not have to spend hours searching for it!
Although the sheer number of websites may often appear daunting when trying to find something, search engines are normally great at filtering out less relevant results. Furthermore, if you use a few intelligent online tools and sites you can make browsing the Internet a lot easier and less time consuming. As mentioned, you can use tools which will save websites you may want to return to and manage your account information. These services can be accessed through one easy to use personalized home page or account. Whilst most people can use the most popular websites effectively, navigating the longtail is often trickier. By utilizing a couple of free online tools you can make browsing easier to deal with.
