The Art of the Long Tail

At the root of every PPC campaign is a comprehensive list of keywords. These terms direct, regulate, and qualify all of the paid traffic that enters your site. However, it is very easy to lose focus on the relevancy of your keywords when you want the world to know about your products. Enter the long tail keyword…

Long tail variations are very qualified adaptations of more common single term keywords. Rather than placing focus on the 10-20 most popular keywords for your site, long tails would employ qualifiers in order to better target specific groups of people who are more likely to buy your products.

Let’s say your online store sells digital cameras, and you naturally want to bid on that term. Although the keyword “digital cameras” generates an average of 16,600,000 searches queries/month, this term is highly unqualified. You may generate a lot of traffic for your site in a very short period of time, however you will see your monthly budget disappear right before your eyes (unless your store happens to be Best Buy, Wal-Mart or Circuit City).

Instead, try to focus your efforts on detailed variations of the term “digital cameras.” Adding related descriptors (compact, cheap, new, buy, 3X, mini, SLR, discount, etc.) is an easy way to qualify your keyword lists. In order to really reach customers that are looking to buy, utilize brand names and model numbers. Pair your revised keyword list with some relevant ads and in the great words of Carl Weathers - “Baby you got a stew goin’!”

*TIP: Long tail keyword variations have far less competition than standard terms and therefore come to you at a lower average cost-per-click so you can really make the most out of your monthly budget.