SEO / SEM Blog by Search Circus

The term “long tail” Has been around for at least a few years now, but if you read the latest assessments of long tail search, you’ll find that there’s still no consensus as to how much time Internet marketing professionals should spend chasing it. Are long tail keywords crucial to a commercial Website’s success? Or should they be ignored?

First, let’s back up a bit and explain what long tail keywords are. As the name implies, they’re keyphrases that are long. They usually contain at least four words. Furthermore, they’re not keyphrases that are searched for a lot. For example if you own a rock climbing gym in Cleveland, you may want to go after a long tail keyphrase like beginner rock climbing lessons in cleveland. The truth is, there are probably not a lot of people typing that phrase into Google, but if you optimize for that long tail keyword, you’ll be able to attract the few who do search for it.

Now back to the topic at hand: are long tail keyphrases worth the trouble? There are as many opinions about that as there are Internet marketing professionals. And the latest report by the Rimm-Kaufmann Group should only fuel the controversy.

That’s because the report states 5 key findings that all Internet marketing professionals should consider:

1. The value of long tail keywords depends on several factors, the nature of a company being the most important. One company only earned 8% of its sales from long tail keywords, while another claimed that 83% of sales were from long tail keywords.
2. The type of product is also important. Since people will search for different products using differently, what works for one product or service won’t necessarily work for another.
3. The budget that Internet marketing professionals and companies set for a campaign does not necessarily affect the success of chasing long tail keywords. In other words, spending more money to chase more long tail keyphrases won’t necessarily result in better ROI.
4. Internet marketing professionals have had the most success with long tail keywords were retailers selling SKU-based products.
5. Long tail keywords can help all online advertisers and Internet marketing professionals, but the amount to which it helps can vary greatly. Even that aforementioned company that only earned 8% of its sales through long tail keywords had a positive, if small, ROI by going after those keywords.

While there’s still a lot of discussion about the effectiveness of long tail keywords among Internet marketing professionals, one thing remains clear: long tail keywords can help any online business. What’s contested now is how much businesses and Internet marketing professionals can benefit from them.