Steve Johnston
The Google Blog of a Google Consultant

Google & The Long Tail of Search: To help people comprehend how long the tail of search is, I have often used a reference that I remember reading but had long lost being able to cite directly; namely '50% of the search terms typed into Google are so unique they will never be typed in again'. Today, however, I am moving on from this quote to a new one that I can cite. Udi Manber, VP of Google Engineering said at a recent conference, that there are three reasons why Search is only going to get harder in the future. One of these I already use - "scale and diversity are almost beyond comprehension" - one of which is not particularly relevant to this point, but the third will replace my previous reference: "20 to 25% of the queries we see today, we have never seen before". I will convert this into '1 in 4 of the expressions typed into Google today have never been seen by Google before'. Ponder that for a moment. Google is tapped into our collective consciousness. It's astonishing.

Feel like I have really arrived today. Google has added Sitelinks to my site when searching for me as a Google Consultant. It may not be happening on all datacentres yet, so there is a screen grab below. My current understanding of why and how these links appear is as follows: The site needs to be perceived as an authority for the search terms the Sitelinks appear for - i.e. enough high-reputation and relevant inbound links - (I don't get Sitelinks when you search for Steve Johnston only for Google Consultant); Onsite link patterns and anchor text combined with off site link patterns and anchor text suggest the key pages and the labels to use; Users' search refinement patterns and site visits - as tracked by Google - help qualify user needs and the prioritisation of the pages in the Sitelinks list.