Bungee Bones Key Word/Category Selection Guide

The interaction between a user and a directory is different than it is between the user and a search engine. The major difference is the origin and source of the search terms used to look for the requested sites. Search engine do not provide search terms for users, users must come up with their own.  There is the possibility of misspellings, reverse word order, inclusion of minor words, etc. With a directory such as  Bungee Bones users will be selecting categories we provide. Since we provide you the same categories, there is a much lower chance of human error miscommunication . Directories function more intuitively.

Bungee Bones developes a multi-tier category system that ties or "bungees" the category concepts together into category phrases describing your website. The major thing to think about is how users will work their way down through the multiple category lists to get to your listing. Often, the same category will show up in more than one location and can provide subtle differences in meaning. For example, one could select Real estate in the category 1 level, agencies in level 2, and residential in level three (real estate -> agencies -> residential). You could also go with home and garden -> real estate -> residential for a secondary listing. For a third minor listing you can go with Business -> Real Estate -> Agencies. Another could be  Financial Services -> Real Estate Services -> Sales. When they appear in the directory, your ad can be displayed in any of those categories, along with your "Bungeed" keyword group something like this:

Real Estate -> Agencies -> Residential
Home and Garden -> Real Estate -> Residential
Business -> Real Estate -> Agencies
Financial Services -> Real Estate Services -> Sales

In addition to the multiple selection paths this system provides to the user, the multiple phrases bungeed together also convey a subtle meaning to the reader that can be gleaned quickly with just a glance. Often, just a glance is all a listing will get from a visitor as they scurry through listings looking for what they want so as a directory listing you need to capture the users attention as quickly as possible.

Notice that no matter which path the user takes to get to your listing  the user is being fed the potential search terms to use. The main point is that in a directory the user is being fed the search terms while in a search engine query the user needs to create their own search terms. And a main reason for this article is to get you to realize that what we are doing with the categories is laying down a "cookie trail" to your website. Keyword "popularity" is much less important in a directory than it is with a search engine.

Each one of these phrases pulled the following number of results from Google:

Real Estate -> Agencies -> Residential 8,620,000
Home and Garden -> Real Estate -> Residential 36,900,000
Business -> Real Estate -> Agencies  114,000,000
Financial Services -> Real Estate Services -> Sales 38,000,000

These results show more about webmaster's habits and Google's algorithms than it does about user's search habits. Here are some tools that can help you decide what search terms people use on their own (with you laying the cookie trail).

Overture's Keyword selection tool returns the following about prople's search usage of the above terms

Real Estate -> Agencies -> Residential  38

Home and Garden -> Real Estate -> Residential  0

Business -> Real Estate -> Agencies 0

Financial Services -> Real Estate Services -> Sales 0

but some of the individual terms get searched for in huge numbers

"real estate"  searched for 3057037 times

"real estate agency" searched for  77471 times

"residential real estate" 4617  times.

These results tell me people really don't do detailed searches. 3 million people entered the search term "real estate" (at overture) last month but if you enter that term at Google you get 360 million results. A lot of people are entering very vague and broad search terms with the result that they get ridiculously large results that no one could possibly look through. The directory system provides users a "multiple choice" approach as an aid for them to create much more elaborate search filters than they would have gotten on their own. The only way to achieve such elaborate search term is to use modifiers such as quotes but there is no way to check how many users actually use them.

So keep in mind that your category selection is all about laying down the best cookie trail you can.