March 31st, 2010 by Susie

Using long tail key phrases as part of your search engine optimization strategy is something that can bring great results even in really competitive industries. There are usually a few really common searches that are performed all the time, a handful of fairly common ones, and a huge number of less frequently searched upon combinations. Picking up the frog example, the common searches would be something like ‘frogs’, ‘British frogs’, and ‘tree frogs’. Then there would be some directly related to commerce, like ‘buy frogs in London’ and ‘live frog food’.

After the obvious search terms, there are a huge number of rarely searched upon terms forming the long tail. These rare searches could be specific species like ‘Painted belly monkey frog’ or ‘horned toad’, or they could be location specific, like ‘buy frog food in Llandudno’, or something entirely different. The long tail is growing all the time. SEO experts estimate that up to 25% of all searches performed today will be new and unique, and belonging to the long tail of some topic.

When choosing which keywords are best for your site and your SEO strategy, it’s very tempting to go for the terms that are most commonly searched on. However, the most common terms are also what the most other websites will be targeting. Particularly if yours is a high competitive industry, the long tail can be an excellent resource.

While keywords which are long tail are less commonly searched for, traffic levels may still be quite significant. Because they are more specific, they are also more monetisable. Conversion is the ultimate goal of SEO, after all. If a user searches for ‘buy live frog food in Llandudno’ and your North Wales pet shop can rank well, the chances it will result in a sale are very high. If you can provide an information page on horned toads, that will get you a higher percentage of the traffic for that search than a page on general frogs, because there are thousands of those and most search traffic will go to the top few. There is less competition and the user goes straight to relevant content. If you can find the right long tail keywords, they can make a huge difference to your SEO.

The same theory also works when buying advertising space or running a PPC campaign from search providers like Google. Long tail keywords are often cheaper because they are less commonly used and competition for them is low. Opportunities to leverage the long tail of search distribution do exist, so it is well worth including some long tail terms in your keyword plan and create excellent content on your landing pages.

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