May 22, 2007 Comments
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It's no secret that "top x" lists are popular with bloggers. They're a good way to draw attention and to pull in links from other blogs. If you're anything like me though, you often find yourself with 9 good items or 11 good items, but have trouble hitting that supposedly magic number ten. No worries! As it turns out, a "Top Seven" list could score you more links and requires you to do 30% less thinking.
Russ Jones of The Google Cache blog claims "7 is the new 10."
I was able to determine: do people really like top 10 stories? or has that number become so trite, so overused, that top 10 lists are ignored and overlooked. My guess, top 6 stories would be the most successful, my adversary (VP Malcolm Young) guessed top 7 lists.
In fact, after taking the time to run a search at Digg to find out how many "top x" lists made it on to the front page, here's some of what he found:
| Top ? | Stories Submitted |
Stories Popular |
Success Rate |
| Top 10 | 1690 | 653 | 39% |
| Top 9 | 10 | 2 | 20% |
| Top 8 | 25 | 1 | 4% |
| Top 7 | 90 | 53 | 59% |
You can view the numbers broken down for everything from Top 12 lists down to Top 3 lists on Russ's site.
Hat tip to Jordan at Marketing Pilgrim.
Jennifer Laycock is the Editor of Search Engine Guide, an educational web site aimed at translating the search marketing world into something that small business owners can understand. Jennifer specializes in common sense search engine marketing, viral marketing and customer outreach via social media and blogs. A former search marketing consultant and in-house trainer, Jennifer’s clients have included companies like Verizon, American Greetings and Highlights for Children. Her primary clients now are a little girl named Elnora and a little boy named Emmitt.
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