The long-tail (3+ words) search space is where 70% of search queries occur. If you don’t believe it, ask yourself how many words are in the key terms you typically use to find what you want online. Even more important (and more amazing) is that Google says 25% of all search terms on any given day are search terms it is seeing for the first time. Long tail search queries are very difficult to research with Google and Bing keyword tools; they almost never appear. There are other ways to research the relevance of these terms to your market, though. Basically you want to examine web pages that are doing well for the market you want to target; with the following method: 1. Identify the 10-50 3-4
One of the most important considerations for choosing key terms is knowing the search patterns of the audience you are trying to reach. For example, if you have an ecommerce site, you are looking for buyers—which generally means a key term with a very specific product/service description—including the model number. On the other hand, if you are selling expensive or complex products, you are targeting shoppers and that is an entirely different keyword strategy. Below are some general pointers for choosing search terms based on purchase intent: Researchers/Browsers; Short, one-two word phrases. Not a lot of purchase value, but there is value in terms of thought-leadership. Shoppers: Two and t
A long-tail key term is generally any searchable term with more than 2 words. So the difference between short-tail terms (nearly all Google Adwords are short-tail) and long tail search terms is the number of words in the term. Short-tail search terms account for 30% of all search traffic, while long-tail accounts for 70%. Following are a couple of examples: Short tail: HPC Computers Long tail: HPC Computers for Research Institutions Short Tail: Intel Processors Long Tail: Fastest Intel Processors Looking at these examples, it’s easy to see why more complex terms will have a lower search volume than simple terms. This may be why Google offers mostly short-tail terms for purchase (Google on
