SEO Basics; What is a Long Tail Search?

If you read any articles connected to Search Engine Optimization you will hear the term long tail search. I am new to SEO and in no way an expert, but I am keen to learn as much as I can; especially as I've recently become a full-time freelance writer.

So what exactly is a long tail?

The term 'long tail' is based on the ideas of Chris Anderson. He released an article in 2004 for technology magazine Wired. In the article the long tail refers to how places like Amazon are able to make a lot of money be selling items that aren't necessarily the best sellers.

The word long tail refers to a graph that shows a small number of popular products will account for the graph's peak. If you were to imagine this graph you would see that these well known product will show as high points on the graph, but the less popular products will be all be in the graphs tail as it rapidly descends. The fact is though, that when combined these products that show in the graph's tail will be worth men than those in the peak. So this means that the fact that Amazon sells so many different products accounts for their success; the less popular products that only sell in small numbers end up leading to more profit than the best sellers.

What is a long tail search?

When people are searching for things on the internet they will use certain keywords. There will be some keywords that are more popular than others, but there will be related keywords that account for more searches overall. For example, I frequently write about Thailand. If I were to write something about where I live the obvious keyword would be 'Lopburi tourist information' and this would probably be the most popular term that people would tap into their search engine. Despite it maybe being the most popular typed in word, just using this keyword would miss out on many other searches. Many people might also be searching for things such as 'Thailand monkey festival' or 'Thailand sunflower festival; these are all things related to Lopburi tourist information, but unless I use them as keywords they won't do well in a search engine.

What does long tail search mean for SEO?

The advice seems to be that as well as using the popular key words to attract people to articles it is also worthwhile using these long tail key words. In the long term it might mean more clicks on an article overall. It has also been suggested that those using a long tail term are more deliberate in their search and so are likely more interested in what you have to say. The long tail search certainly seems worth understanding and more importantly using this knowledge to increase traffic seems like a great idea.

Sources

Search Engine Optimization Bible (2009) - Jerri L. Ledford - Wiley Publishing; USA

http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Search-Engine-Optimization-Help/What-is-the-Long-Tail-of-Search/