{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
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    "type" : "single",
    "title" : "Don't Forget the Long Tail: It Can Deliver Value |Digital.gov",
    "description": "Don't Forget the Long Tail: It Can Deliver Value",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/02/13/dont-forget-the-long-tail-it-can-deliver-value/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"Don't Forget the Long Tail: It Can Deliver Value","summary" : "Top tasks matter. Visitors come to your website with specific goals in mind. Using a top-task methodology can be particularly useful when redesigning your homepage.","date" : "2015-02-13T11:10:37-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"ammie-farraj-feijoo" : "Ammie Farraj Feijoo"},"topics" : {
        
            "analytics" : "Analytics",
            "content-strategy" : "Content strategy",
            "search" : "Search"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2015-02-13-dont-forget-the-long-tail-it-can-deliver-value.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2015/02/2015-02-13-dont-forget-the-long-tail-it-can-deliver-value.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/02/2015-02-13-dont-forget-the-long-tail-it-can-deliver-value.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2015/02/2015-02-13-dont-forget-the-long-tail-it-can-deliver-value.md","slug" : "dont-forget-the-long-tail-it-can-deliver-value","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/02/13/dont-forget-the-long-tail-it-can-deliver-value/","content" :"\u003cp\u003eTop tasks matter. Visitors come to your website with specific goals in mind. Using a \u003ca href=\"https://digital.gov/2014/07/02/using-top-tasks-to-be-top-notch-federal-reserve-board-usability-case-study/\"\u003etop-task methodology\u003c/a\u003e can be particularly useful when redesigning your homepage. But, top tasks aren’t the whole story.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur government websites also have a large range of tiny tasks that, when managed carefully, have the potential to deliver value.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ca href=\"http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/first-chapter/26/books/strangers-long-neck\"\u003eThe Stranger\u0026rsquo;s Long Neck\u003c/a\u003e, Gerry McGovern explains how, when visitors come to your website, they have a small set of top tasks they want to complete quickly and easily. He calls these tasks the “long neck.” They’re also sometimes referred to as the “short head.”\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2015/02/450-x-254-DG-Search-long-neck_body_tail-graph-from-Gerry-McGovern-The-Strangers-Long-Neck.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Graph showing long neck, body, and tail; from Gerry McGovern\u0026#39;s The Stranger\u0026#39;s Long Neck.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to McGovern, the breakdown is:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e5% of content accounts for 25% of the demand (the long neck);\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e35% of content accounts for 55% of the demand (the body);\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e60% of content accounts for 20% of the demand (the long tail).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAmazon and other businesses have realized great success by focusing on the long tail. A former Amazon employee once \u003ca href=\"http://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/2005/01/definitions_fin.html#comment-3415583\"\u003eexplained why they focus on the long tail\u003c/a\u003e instead of bestsellers by saying, \u0026ldquo;We sold more books today that didn\u0026rsquo;t sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday.\u0026rdquo;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile a tongue twister, it drives home how a search box (with good, relevant content behind it) can meet the demands of the long tail.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt \u003ca href=\"http://search.digitalgov.gov/\"\u003eDigitalGov Search\u003c/a\u003e, we power the search box on 1,500 government websites and, like Amazon, we’ve found that we got more searches on terms today that didn\u0026rsquo;t get searched yesterday than we got searches today on all the terms that got searched yesterday—by quite a bit!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNumber of searches on terms today that didn\u0026rsquo;t get any searches yesterday: 50,713.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNumber of searches today on all the terms that got searched on yesterday: 31,215.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDo your search analytics tell the same story? Look at them, and use them to deliver value and help your site’s visitors complete their long tail tasks.\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}