20 July 2010

Long Tail and Short Tail Keywords

Keyword research is a practice used by search engine optimization professionals to find and research actual search terms people enter into the search engines when conducting a search. The long tail in keyword research is basically an expansion of a core, generic, high volume keyword phrase to include numerous combination’s and permutations of the keywords and their associated or relevant phrases. These phrases individually are unlikely to account for a great deal of searches, but when taken as a whole, can provide significant traffic. The long-tail is unlikely ever to exceed searches for a brand name if the brand name is reasonably well established, but the volume of converting traffic these terms can generate by nature of their specificity and relevance is worth investigating.

Comprehensive long-tail keyword research can be a highly effective strategy, since people making long-tail searches are arguably further along in the buying cycle (a significant amount of prior knowledge is needed in order for the searcher to know which words to use), so conversion rates can be higher. Recent long-tail keyword research has found that long-tail searches often exhibit a higher conversion rate by up to 200% compared to short-tail (generic) keywords, and can be extremely profitable for search engine marketers in terms of a lower cost per action and higher return on investment.

Since long-tail keywords are naturally more specific in nature than short-tail keywords, long-tail keywords present a great opportunity for search marketers to provide highly relevant ads which cater for the specific needs of highly-qualified searchers. If done skillfully, a paid search campaign with long-tail keywords can exhibit a considerably higher CTR than one with short-tail keywords. What’s more, since paid search click prices (CPCs) vary depending on a real-time supply and demand auction, long-tails can often be cheaper by up to 50% due to less competition.

Many company leaders and managers have their own interpretation of how they want their brand to be portrayed and ostensibly perceived online. A luxury second hand car dealer, for example, may only want to include the words ‘pre-owned automobiles’ on their web site, and not ‘used cars’. The fact that thousands of people are searching for a used car, and very few are searching for a pre-owned automobile needs to be communicated.

Depending on what a company sells or offers, overlooking the likelihood of the inclusion of geographical locations in the search query may be highly detrimental. The following are examples of queries with city names included in a search: ‘homes for rent Edmonton’, ‘used car dealer New York’, ‘Montreal hotels’, ‘Vancouver Chinese restaurants’ etc.

Poor minds talk about people average minds talk about events great minds talk about ideas.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Nexonta Technologies Inc

Ideas!