Long Tail Keywords are the Latest SEO Buzz
The phrase The Long Tail was first coined by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 article of the same name on Wired Magazine. The article sub-title defines the term quite nicely:
Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.
The underlying principal of Long Tail theory is that the collective amount of products that are not in demand can far exceed the amount of high demand and best selling products. For all the techno babble, mathematic statistics and theory behind this idea see the ever evolving Wikipedia article on Long Tail.
One of my favorite bloggers, Maki of DoshDosh, wrote a piece not too long ago entitled “How to Find and Target Long Tail Keywords for More Search Engine Traffic” A truly great writer as well as excellent article formatter, Maki delivers an informative and very useful read.
What are long tail keywords?
They are simply multi-phrase search terms as opposed to one or two general keywords. Long tails are actually bringing more targeted traffic to websites that are optimized for specific phrases.
Here is an example. ‘Credit Cards‘ is the general keyword topic and long tail keywords within this niche includes terms such as the following:
- credit cards for people with bad credit
- list of low interest credit cards
- benefits of small business credit cards
- good canadian credit cards for students
Maki hits on some interesting topics in his article including; steps to take to optimize your long tail keywords, how to take a peek at which phrases are driving traffic to your competitors, and 5 web applications which provide long tail analysis. He also relates long tail optimization to quality Niche blogging in his companion article series “Tutorials on Niche Blogging.”
I can honestly tell you that DotSauce Domain Magazine receives a fair amount of traffic from long tail keywords as opposed to strong domain industry buzzwords that I may not rank for. Specific niche articles that I have written bring new unique visitors daily who are looking for some specific aspect of domain names or web development. I definitely want to continue capitalizing on that traffic and I suggest you do the same!
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August 15th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
I love your domain.
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August 19th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Sujan Patel says:
I love your domain.
I love it too, but I prefer the articles :)
I never heard of Long Tail before reading this! Either I need to read more or I just arrived too late @: DotSauce!
Either way, very helpful… **Reads some more on Long Tail**
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August 20th, 2007 at 8:27 am
Nice! I’ve one or two “long tails”. lol.
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September 17th, 2007 at 9:10 am
I too am an advocate of long tail keyword marketing. Our tool does not so much perform a long tail analysis, as it explicitly tells you what words to use in the title of your next blog posts in order to assuredly add more traffic to your site.
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October 7th, 2007 at 3:11 am
[...] you are a returning DotSauce reader, you may be aware that long tail keywords are the latest SEO buzz. A tactic which makes use of specific generic phrases to reach targeted customers and readers. This [...]
October 15th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
I’ve seen this phrase once before but didn’t quite get it until I read your concise explanation. Thank you.
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October 29th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
cool, i was just talking about this yesterday to a friend.
now i have something to send him!
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December 21st, 2007 at 4:00 am
Great post, Mark, so many people are unaware of this “long tail” phenomenon. Similarly with DotSauce, one of my websites receives most of its search engine traffic from long tailed searches. I wrote a blog entry about it here: Capturing Long Tail Search Traffic.
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June 2nd, 2008 at 9:40 pm
I have been trying to understand log tail keywords for a long time. Finlay in this blog the witter defied it. While I still have questions at least knowing what they are is a starting point. Thanks.
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September 24th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
I run a local business directory and find that long-tail keywords are great in driving traffic. For instance, someone looking for a Dentist will usually type in the search box: dentists in houston or some other phrase.
Long-tail keywords work.
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