Long tail search, in essence, refers to search terms that contain 3 or more words. These search terms are very targeted, and are quickly becoming the norm when people are searching for information about whatever they’re looking for.
If you aren’t taking advantage of long tail search in your marketing strategies, you are missing out on a key source of traffic – and, if you sell products or services – revenue.
Long Tail Search = More (Quality) Traffic
While many marketers tend to target very competitive key words, it can take a long time for your marketing efforts to pay off. By making use of long tail search keywords, however, the traffic you’ll receive will be better quality.
The visitors that land on your site based on a long tail search query are more likely to find what they need because their search term was so specific.
For example, a long tail search such as “digital cameras for $150 or less” will net you better traffic than the generic term “digital cameras.”
People who land on your site via a specific term will find the information more relevant to them, and are more likely to make a purchase.
Long Tail Search = Less Competition
Many marketers are still focusing on highly competitive keywords. By optimizing your site to integrate long tail search keywords, you will be met with less competition. The more specific you get, the less competition there will be.
Using the example I mentioned above, consider this: many people are searching for digital cameras, but not everyone wants to find digital cameras for $150 or less.
You can be as specific as you need to be in order to drive traffic to your site based on these longer search terms, and you’ll find that you aren’t competing as much for this kind of traffic.
Targeting Long Tail Search on Your Blog
About a month ago I wrote a blog post about email marketing and wanted to perform an experiment on how it ranked for a long tail search term.
I knew that I’d have an extremely difficult time ranking for “email marketing” so I decided to shoot for “what is email marketing”. Of course there’s a significant difference in the volume of searches between the two, but here’s why I did it.
Email Marketing = 1,400,000,000 results, and I don’t rank in the top 100
What is Email Marketing = 105,000,000 results, and I rank #9 on Google
There’s a saying that is quite relevant here, and goes something like this. “A small percentage of something is better than a larger percentage of nothing.”
In other words, if I’m off the charts and no where to be seen for the “email marketing” search term I won’t be getting any traffic. However, if I’m on page 1 of Google for the “what is email marketing” search term I might get a few hits a day.
Over the past 30 days, “what is email marketing” ranks #14 on my keyword referrals for Google search and brought in 32 visitors. Here’s proof from Google Analytics:
While 32 visitors a month doesn’t seem like much, consider that in the same report I ran, I had nearly 5,000 long tail search terms bringing me organic traffic from Google.
It adds up, trust me — and it can certainly add up for you and your blog as well.
Focusing on Long Tail Search
The majority of searches performed are of the long tail search variety. Rather than typing in a generic word or two and sifting through pages of results to find what they’re looking for, searchers are much more likely to type in longer phrases to immediately find the specific information they need.
By integrating long tail search keywords, you are much more likely to draw more targeted traffic and rank higher for difficult keywords.
If you’re looking for more and better quality traffic; dream of encountering less competition and desire to rank higher for difficult keywords, you should start focusing on long tail search and the benefits it can bring to your site.
Great overview Brian.
I always try to have a keyword in mind AFTER I write a post.
On occasion I’ll target one from the get-to, but it’s always good practice to have something to rank for in mind after creating a reader focused post.
When I write my posts, I’m almost always targeting a specific long tail search term. Since I rank pretty well in Google, I’m able to focus a little more generic than most, but usually still find it easier to nail a particular long tail term.
Great article Brian. I just started creating some landing pages with long tail search terms using Genesis and a custom theme. Will see how well it works to bring some additional traffic to our main website.
Example: I setup http://howtolistonthemls.com and optimized it using Scribe SEO, and within 2-3 weeks it’s already on page 2 (#12) of Google search results.
Thanks for making the best framework out there!
- Fred Romano
Fred – awesome to hear about the success you’re having with Scribe and your landing pages. I bet with some more effort and deliberate incoming links, you’ll be able to manage to crack page 1 in no time!
As an aside, I still love the site you built.
I’ve only started thinking about the strategic use of long tail keywords in the last three months and started using Scribe. The impact on my posts has been really noticeable. I wrote a post entitled “how to build customer relationships for success” and spent some time making sure I’d used long tail phrases at the same time as trying to make it useful for the reader and within a few days noticed I was getting a trickle of traffic each day from Google. It’s not many visits but even if you just write one post a week like that your traffic starts to build and as you say it’s quality traffic.
Are you using Google Webmaster Tools to report the ranking position or a third party tool?
Thanks for a great explanation Brian, very helpful.
Since blogging (and my site) are completely secondary to my real job at Copyblogger Media, I’m not able to spend as much time on analytics and reporting as I’d like. I don’t use any specific tools for this, other than the old-fashioned Googling and looking up where I rank.
Robert, I agree with you. Like most people, my first few months of blogging were a challenge. I didn’t understand SEO (um, I still don’t) and I wasn’t seeing much traffic from Google searches. However, once I began learning more and started using an SEO plugin, formatting my key words, etc., I am now seeing a steady flow of search engine traffic over the last three months.
If you continue to write quality content over the next year, using the search word information gleaned from articles like this one, just imagine how many readers you’ll have around this time next year. Keep it up, my friend.
Thanks for the encouragement Charles, really appreciate it!
It takes time to learn doesn’t it? But as you say focusing on a few things, delivering quality regularly and sticking to it really does pay off and has to be much better in the long term.
Looking forward to sharing the learning journey with you Charles.
I’ve use long tails a few times and haven’t been in it enough to see a payoff, looking forward to it though. What does scribe do for you? I use wp with genesis and generate, just started yesterday that’s how I found you. Very interested in moving forward but need some direction with codes.
Thanks
I had never heard of the term “long tail search” until ezinearticles.com had wrote some articles on the subject. But I didn’t really understand it then. But , now I completely understand what the term means and how to use it. Thanks for the clarification. I’ll begin using it.
Also, do you use a goggle analytics wordpress plugin to track your post traffic?
Like I mentioned to Robert, I don’t have nearly enough time to dive head first into my analytics. Right now, all I use it Google Analytics to look stuff up when I get time.
Back in January when I re-devoted myself to blogging consistently I spent a few hours really looking into the traffic I was getting. When I realized just how much long tail search was bringing in, I chose to pursue that route when it came to focus.
Great post, Brian. Over the years, I’ve learned to be more specific in my search as well. It think it’s a trust thing. Some years back, I think we all made searching a little more complicated than it had to be. We’d search in robot languages.
Now, people are more casual in their search terms. I know it wasn’t until about a year or two ago that I would just talk to Google… just naturally ask questions or whatever I needed to do. And it hasn’t failed me yet.
I think it’s something to consider when trying to rank. Sometimes I fail to think about how I search when I’m targeting a keyword. Shame on me.
Great information.
I was spoiled years ago when I created a pregnancy site as I was able to rank for some pretty general terms.
Things have changed, and there’s so much more content available on the internet, which ultimately means way more competition. Honing in on long tail allows you to spend more time writing and less time determined to crack page 1 on Google for something like “shoes.”
I’ve been using a long tail custom report in Google Analytics as a means to analyze how I’m doing. Long tail is super important!
Sounds like things are working out for you, Scott, on your long tail – eh?
They are
Loving these articles Brian!
It’s definitely easier to rank for long tail searches than more general terms. What kind of link building are you doing after writing your post…if any?
The only link building I am doing right now is trying to link to at least 2-3 of my other blog posts each time I write something new.
Read so many articles on Long Tail Search – used to regularly visit Rand Fishkin over at SEOMoz, but your phrase “A small percentage of something is better than a larger percentage of nothing.” is probably the best summary I’ve seen.
I did take on StudioPress for the phrase “genesis pro plus package” and you know… I might just be ahead!
Enjoyed the read Brian.
Thanks Keith, appreciate it. That statement is so true, and it took me really diving into Google Analytics to understand just how true it is.
Although many of your previous articles have proved to be quite helpful to me, this one knocks my socks off. I’m going to need to digest this a bit more, and will read through this article again…more slowly…later this afternoon.
Beginning June 1st, I plan to reorganize my main blog’s content surrounding the controversial issues in Christianity that go largely ignored (or not often blogged about), and I’m dong research right now on key words. This is a bit outside of my comfort zone, so very timely. Thanks!
Sorry to knock your socks of Charles, but that’s what I’m here to do – right?
When you start your reorg and hone in on long tail search terms, make sure you use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to do research on terms.
Not only will you be able to type in a broad term and get suggestions for longer tail terms, you’ll also be able to see how the search volume and relative competition as well.
Yes, most definitely. That’s what I’ve been researching. It’s quite helpful.
(PS: That topic might be a great follow-up article to this one. Hint, hint.)
I’ve never really thought much about long tail searches vs. traditional ones, but I am now! Do you typically begin with a post idea that’s targeted for long tail searches, or do you modify posts after you’ve written them in order to pick up long tail searches?
All of the posts that are published here have a long tail search term in mind. It’ll show because you’ll see that in the post permalink as well as the title of the post. It’s usually pretty obvious what each post is targeting.
Thanks Brian. I’m starting to think that blogging is more of a science than an art
Heh, that’s pretty funny – my good friend, co-worker and analytics freak Jessica just showed me a shirt she was wearing in regards to science and that “it works.”
Science always works. Except when it doesn’t, in which case, human error was likely at fault.
Hi Brian
This is a little off topic but I notice that you have not made use of any of the Facebook comment plugins. Would love to read a post on your thoughts on the value of them and whether they actually make a difference.
Social commenting systems such as Disqus and Livefyre are something I haven’t really had a chance to dive into. For some reason I really like the native WordPress commenting system, but I have committed to experimenting as well.
Once I get some time to check out the services (as I know an updated version of Livefyre is supposed to be out soon), I’ll let you know.
Great post. I recently had to explain this to a client, who found it extremely counterintuitive. It is sort of like Game Theory… the only way for everyone to get traffic is by ignoring the blond (the mega-keyword).
Governing Dynamics: Ignore the Blond – A Beautiful Mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CemLiSI5ox8
Heh, good analogy.
Yes, “ignore the major search terms and focus on the smaller ones” seems counterintuitive.
Neat, I’m doing something right! I’m only running one blog right now, and it’s all about tutorials, so I spend a lot of time thinking of what people might use to search and try and make my titles match that idea. “What are hooks?” and “how to upload a header image,” etc.
I guess I’ll have to continue with this strategy, especially since I have a new project in mind
The “something right” thing you’re doing (in my opinion) is running one blog. It’s so hard to do that (well) on more than one.
As for the tutorials, that’s definitely where a lot of my traffic comes from. Between my Code Snippets page and my Tutorials page, a lot of folks end up that way.
Great post Brian.
Just wish it was a little easier to explain to clients that trying to rank for say “shoes” just doesn’t work. Makes you want to get a long tail whip and say o.k. this is how it works. I have a better chance of hitting you with this than a short one. Make sense now!
Mike
Heh – that’s a pretty good visual, with the whip. Perhaps showing clients the types of sites (major retailers with millions in their budgets) that rank for generic terms is a place to start.
I don’t expect to come anywhere close to ranking for generic terms, which is why I aim for the longer tail ones.
Excellent post. As the size of the web continues to grow, targeting long tail search terms becomes more and more effective. I’ve seen this in action on several of my blogs.
Not that the Google Keyword Tool is that difficult to use whatsoever, but I did do a quick screencast on using it to find long tail keywords recently. Might be of help to some folks who are new to all of this.
I wish I could have prefaced the video with exactly what you’ve written here, Brian, as you’ve explained and demonstrated the concept of long tail search terms very effectively.
Thanks for the link to the screencast, Dave – hope that some folks check it out and it’s helpful to them.
Your contribution to this post proves the point that we discussed in the comments on my post from the other day. Good stuff.
Focus on long tail search can help us easy getting high ranking on search engines for that keyword because it could be a less competition, however, I think it also base on how many times that keyword is searched on search engines, if it’s a huge number, I’m sure it’ll not easy to get high ranking because many people could be focused on that keyword, and it now is high competition. BTW, focus on long tail search will easy help us doing SEO effectively, that’s just the tip.
I can clearly see the point here. In my daily job, I have to sell high-end products to many people, being the most expensive brand. I know there are a lot of cheap brands out there, but for my clients my offer is always the same: Instead of fighting and killing the market for a low end cheap product, why not target high end products with more revenue and less competition?
Somehow not all of them are up to it, however…
Your point is valid, now you are #7 in What is email marketing long tail search term. At the same time, you have the advantage of having a site already with Page Rank 7 so obviously you come up top. Newbies and new sites should work hard to come to page 1.
Hi Brain,
Thanks for great tips for long tail search terms but I want to ask you one question how did you judge that this long search phrase will benefit you?
I am confused about the example you have given regarding digital cameras. Hope you’ll clarify!
The bottom line is that it’s easier to rank for a long tail search term than it is a generic one. So if you’re in a niche that covers digital cameras, it’s far better to focus on something that might get searched less, but that you can compete for with rankings.
Great article! My only concern is that if you are too specific, a person may never search for your “longtail”.
My question would be for a normal non-blog site would you put these longtail words in your meta title tag or your meta description tag?
Hey Brian,
You’re so right with this blog post and how focusing on long tail keywords is very important than just one specific keywords. I’ve enjoyed focusing on longer keyword phrases because the blog posts that I’ve written have been a bit more fun and I’ve learned a lot from them as well. I do feel if you’re consistent with this method you will end up ranking for the larger keywords such as email marketing because your content will continually show up.
Thanks for the comment Justice – nice to see another person “seeing the light” when it comes to focus on long tail search. Good stuff.
I did a Google search for “what is email marketing” and you now rank #7…just 7 days after this post.
I’m doing some long tail research for key words and thought I’d give it a look. Interesting….
Another question for you, Brian. Where is it best to put the keywords? In the title? As a paragraph header? In the content itself? All of the above?
Also, I am going to be writing some controversial articles about Sex & Christianity. I did a Google keyword search for “Sexual Fornication” and it has Low competition with only 140 Global Monthly Searches. But some of the suggested keywords seem to be better, such as “biblical definition of fornication,” which has Low competition with 1,300 monthly searches.
If I chose to go with “sexual fornication,” where would it be best to include “biblical definition of fornication”?
Thank you in advance!
Charles, sorry for the delay in response to the comment. As you know, been sailing away…
For my keywords, I normall make sure they are in the post slug, the early part of the post title, for sure in the first paragraph and then a few times in the post content itself.
Google is smart, and you don’t want to overdo the stuffing of keywords in the content.
Not a problem. The last thing I expected you to do was reply while sailing. It’s kind of like texting while driving a race car. Not good.
Thanks for the info.
Actually, maybe one more question on this issue topic.
When choosing adwords, is it better to go with something that, for example, has LOW competition with 10,000 monthly hits, or MEDIUM/HIGH competition with 300,000 monthly hits?
Brian,
Great post. Just started using a service to track my long tails and how I can better use that information to drive traffic and sales….
So far so good. Glad to see I’m doing something right
Great post on this topic. Long tail is underrated but vital when so much money is used by big brands to muscle in on individual keywords.
But what will happen when big brands muscle into long tail? Go super long tail?
This post is aiming to rank for “long tail search” – how is it doing so far?
Heh, you saw right through it. It’s currently ranking #14 on Google.
Hello,
I have been managing an alternative news site for about 9 months now and REGRET not focusing on long tail keywords. I always thought targeting single keywords was the way to go… How wrong was I.
My question is… Can I insert relevant long tail keywords into articles / posts that have already been published? Will this make any difference?
I’m sure it will make some difference, though I don’t know how much. Your posts should be re-indexed on a semi-regular basis, so it shouldn’t take long and as far as I know can only help.
Hey Brian Gardner,
Thanks for sharing this insightful post.Targeting and working on long tail keyword is the best way to double the traffic,cause users are generally looking using such long tail keywords in their search rather than exact keywords.
And i am not sure as i had never used e-mail marketing.So can u explain me how and does e-mail marketing is really effective in driving traffic and increasing sales.
Very well written and great post looking forward for such more post.
Regards
Brett
Great article, im quite new to SEO and just starting to learn the ropes. When I use google, about 90% of the time im typing in three or more words in the query box. Long tail is all about knowing your product and your market. Great post Brian, keep them coming.
This was really good to know and I believe it makes the whole search thing more fun. Thanks Brian!
Whoa… Looks like I’m the last one to get to know this. I started blogging a few months back and though I try to keep up with SEO practices, this is pretty new to me.
Thanks Brian for sharing. I’m definitely trying this out from next month.
Again, thanks for the info.
Hi Brian, I am new to this, and although I think I understand what Long Tail Searches are and the great benefits, I am not sure where to start. I am a Realtor and would like to start some type of blog to draw clients in to market information in our area. How would I start this? Thanks
The best thing to do is think up a domain name, and go from there. Just writing and getting content out there is the quickest way to get your site indexed by Google and the potential traffic flow going.
I have worked the Long Tail Keyword strategy for years on my ecommerce sites and the conversion rate is always significantly higher – even with less traffic. Great tips here and something not a lot of people are aware of…..people are so concerned with volume of visitors, when the conversion rate is what they should be more concerned with. Volume does not equal sales – but finding qualified visitors does and that is what the long tail keyword is all about!