Hit Volume or Sales Volume... Which Do You Want?
 |
|
Check Website
What is Mayday change
Search engines are constantly looking for new ways of meeting the needs of Internet users and giving them the best of the best. So, among algorithmic changes, Google Mayday change was introduced in 2010. The Mayday rankings change implied that long tail queries receive priority in site ranking over head search. Head search is the top of the list of the most searched keywords, while the rest of the list (the key phrases that are rarely searched for) is usually referred to as the long tail of the search.
Why is long tail important?
Let`s consider any online shop, like Amazon or eBay, for example. They all have a top list of the most popular goods, of course. Do they make most of their money on selling those top ten items? Certainly, not. What if they eliminated all their other goods except for the top ten? Their businesses would soon come to an end as they have thousands of less popular goods that would generate the majority of their income. To say nothing of the disappointment to their customers who are used to a wide variety of choices.
It is the same with sites. Limiting keywords to 10-20 most popular key phrases may seem to us an excellent idea. But it dramatically narrows the number of visits to your site to these specific keyword searches. Judging from this example, business should offer plenty of choices to their customers, so the same trick works with the search: the more variety, the better.
How does it work?
Long tailed search is not a bunch of irrelevant words. In fact, long tailed queries are the words ignored because of the low number of searches or the length of the phrase, or both. They seem useless, but the number of different long-tailed search phrases can bring some significant traffic. There are two reasons for this: Long-tailed searches are less competitive. They bring more targeted audiences to your site. In fact, long tail of search uses more specific keyword phrases, whereas head of search is more generic. It is why the audience that comes from correctly selected low frequency phrase is more "yours" than the one from some generic term. For example, if you sell wooden doors, it`s hard to be the first in SERPs for the word "wooden doors". But the phrase "wooden interior doors with glass in Atlanta" would bring you visitors that are likely not only to visit but also to purchase.
Small as this issue may seem, long-tailed search is where you can get the most bang for your buck, simply because it meets the needs of the internet user more precisely. If the top 10 phrases would bring you lots of traffic, only up to 20% of that traffic will be converted, i.e. 20% of visitors would purchase the product or become your client.
With long-tailed search, the numbers are significantly different. Long tail keywords insure better results for your site, with an up to 80% conversion rate, according to SEO experts and marketers.
Additionally, this may be the way to reduce your bounce rate and increase the trust rank of your site.
Tips on using long-tail:
- Employ rarely tracked keywords or phrases
- Make use of descriptive language to accompany and surround your head search words.
- If you are trying to target local business, using long tail phrases that include words identifying your town or area, is the answer.
So, don`t take too long to consider long-tailed search targeting in your SEO. And don`t forget to "Like" the article!
2011-12-04 15:23 by Cancanit, Back To Top
Kit Rayan said...
Cancanit said...
@Kit You see, when targeting long tail of search, it does not mean you forget about your head search. You just use longer phrases within which your head search words are also used, so you don't drop them, you just expand them. High competitive words are in your text and people who are looking for shorter word phrases, will also find your site and it will be in the SERPs for these words as well as for the less competitive words.
Great content! Didn't know that. I'll try to use it on my site. Thanks!
Thanks for the explanation!
Haloti Ngata said...
Thanks for the informative article!
This is all theory. Reality is a bit different. How can you guarantee traffic from long tail? It will be next to nothing with long tail keywords!
2011-12-05 22:48:50