Search Engine Optimization And Long Tail Search - Is It Real

Writing by Nick Stamoulis on Thursday, 3 of July , 2008 at 7:11 pm

Marketing Pilgrim’s post on Long Tail keywords being short on proof reports on a Wall Street Journal article on the same topic. The article’s author, Anita Elberse a marketing professor at Harvard Business School, questions whether or not long tail search will stand the test of time. From a search engine optimization perspective, the question is whether or not we can afford to ignore them.

When looking for keywords and phrases that searches are likely to use to find our pages, search engine optimization takes every possible angle for each related keyword. If long tail is going to be effective, we need to be prepared. It is often too late to, down the track, suddenly go back and try to optimize for missed key phrases. Acting from day one puts the page there ready for any search terms when they occur.

As the article on Marketing Pilgrim states:

Just because they have been more defined in their search (3, 4, 5 word phrases rather than one word generalities) doesn’t mean they aren’t one of the masses. It just means they are further along in the buying cycle, which means they are closer to the time of purchase this making them most valuable to a lot of marketers.

You may not gain a mass of traffic from a long tail, but as stated in the excerpt, the traffic you do get may be closer to spending their money - this equates to much higher conversions so search engine optimization of these keywords and phrases is still important.

What is often forgotten in discussions such as this is the one simple fact: If it isn’t going to hurt the page, go ahead - if it delivers one more sale then your in front. Search engine optimization is not just about attracting the masses - it is directed towards getting every visitor possible, even if they come in trickles - many trickles still cause floods.

Category: SEO

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