The Key To Better SEO -- Long Tail Search Optimization - Search Engines - SE Optimization

Long tail search optimization is a phrase that has been thrown around the seo world for about 3 years now. The concept is very simple, but it is vital to the success of any website.

The "long tail" of search refers to the phrases that are not searched for as much as popular ones, but when put together make up the majority of searches for that niche. This entire concept only exists because people don't search with keywords, they search with phrases. It is basically the 80/20 rule of the seo world. Instead of optimizing for the popular phrases that get 20% of the traffic, why not optimize for the other 80%?

Here is a quick example, since it is really hard to explain in words. All data is taken from Overture's keyword tool. The first column is the number of searches in the month, the second column is the search query.

Head

46777 - SEO

Tail

11373 - seo Services9814 - dw230 seo9084 - seo company6450 - seo tool5071 - search engine optimization seoetc...

As you can see, the head, which most SEO blogs and sites would optimize for, gets 46,000 searches every month. However, there are tens of millions of results for that search, so it is nearly impossible to get good rankings for it. So, why not optimize for the rest of the possible searches, like "seo services" "search engine optimization seo", etc. When those phrases are put together they get many times more searches per month than just "SEO," and they are much easier to optimize for.

Basically you should "niche" your keywords by making them more and more specific. This way you can get all of the traffic that you would have lost if you optimized just for the main phrase. It is a very simple concept, but it does make the difference between a highly ranked page and a poorly ranked page.

Now you might be thinking, "Don't the SEO experts say to concentrate on just a few phrases?". In a way, yes they do. However, when they say that they are talking on a per-page basis, and not for your entire site. Each page should only have a handful of phrases, but your entire site should have many.

Now learn a ton of Article Marketing Tips and Techniques