| Searchpath Articles Aug 2010 | | | | Now obviously my figure has to be taken with a |
| Long Tail of Search | | | | pinch of salt; after all, my sample was very small |
| The long tail of search is a term that you hear a lot | | | | when compared to the calculations made to come up |
| of in search circles these days. The principle behind it | | | | with the 70% figure. However, it may give you some |
| is that for every brand, there are a few main (head) | | | | reason to carry on focusing in head terms rather |
| terms that are perceived as being the ones to target | | | | than spending large amounts of time building content |
| by the internet marketers, but in reality generate less | | | | for your long tail if you are in doubt as to what to do |
| visits to the sites than the so called "long tail", which | | | | with a new site. |
| are more obscure search terms. | | | | Google Releases New Index - Caffeine |
| So for example, if you owned a luxury travel site, a | | | | Last week Google announced the "going live" of its |
| head search term to target when commencing an | | | | new index called Caffeine. Google says: "Caffeine |
| SEO campaign might be "luxury travel". A long tail | | | | provides 50 percent fresher results for web searches |
| term might be "elephant safari Thailand". Contrary to | | | | than our last index, and it's the largest collection of |
| common sense, the aggregate amount of website | | | | web content we've offered. Whether it's a news |
| visits gained by the head terms is actually less than all | | | | story, a blog or a forum post, you can now find links |
| the long tail terms put together. Or so the commonly | | | | to relevant content much sooner after it is published |
| accpeted wisdom goes. | | | | than was possible ever before." You can see the full |
| The percentage of the long tail visits to an average | | | | blog post here. |
| website is often given as around 70%. However, I | | | | I think this is a step forward for Google, and is a |
| have just done a quick bit of research on a selection | | | | step in evolution for the Search Engine. However, we |
| of our sites, and found that number to be nearer | | | | have not see any significant changes in the rankings |
| 30%. So, according to SearchPath clients, the long tail | | | | of our sites, so the changes may turn out to be |
| is much less a percentage of the link graph than is | | | | quite subtle. |
| commonly thought. | | | | |
