Visibility

There have been many articles written, and much discussion, about long-tail keywords. To set the stage, here's a brief definition. Long-tail keywords are search phrases that tend to be longer than just 2 - 3 words. Often, a searcher will use a long-tail keyword in a follow-up search after trying a short, broad keyword phrase because the broad phrase returned only general results, not specifically what the searcher was looking for.
Long-tail keyword phrases characteristically:
•    Consist of at least four words or more.
•    Indicate a high degree of precision regarding the searcher's goal. Searchers who use long-tail keywords tend to be pretty far along in the research, selection or purchasing process.
•    Are less competitive than broad, short keyword phrases in terms of search engine ranking. In other words, it is easier to achieve higher rankings in the search engines with long-tail keywords than with short, broad keyword phrases.
•    Receive far fewer searches (lower search frequency) than short, broad keyword phrases.

The utility and value of long-tail keywords has undergone some dramatic changes in the past few years. These changes are reflected in how long-tail keywords can best be applied in both organic search and Pay-Per-Click (PPC). Let's look at organic search first.

The use of long-tail keywords in organic search over the past few years has been affected primarily by three trends:
1.    Increasing complexity of the search engine algorithms and changes in the way search results are presented.
2.    Increasing organic search competition due to the inclusion of “blended” search results such as images, videos, tweets, etc.
3.    Reduced expertise and effort required for creating new web pages and other web content.

Let’s examine each of these trends briefly.

 Search engines have improved in their ability to determine meaning and intent from search phrases. For example, they offer alternative search suggestions when keywords are being entered and when words are misspelled. More importantly, search engines are better able to “understand” the meaning behind a long-tail search phrase and can present results that are highly relevant. Often those relevant results don’t contain the exact phrase that the searcher typed – the search engines are improving in their ability to substitute content that has the same meaning as the search phrase without having to match on the exact words.

Second, blended search results that include not only web pages but also tweets, images, video clips, and location-based listings provide a richer environment for the searcher to choose from. Using long-tail keywords not only on your web pages, but on other social media sites as well, can provide a solid benefit in the amount of real estate in the organic results that you can gain ranking for and associate with your brand.

The third trend in organic search is in reference to the many available and popular online social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn that simplify the creation of content and provide alternative ways to market your brand. In addition, the development of ordinary web pages is greatly simplified through blogging tools like Blogger, Wordpress and Typepad.  Social media sites provide additional opportunities to rank for long-tail keyword phrases, although the resulting increase in the number of pages indexed by the search engines can make it increasingly difficult to rank on page one for targeted keyword phrases, short or long, that are relevant to your brand.

In the past, organic SEO tended to focus on a small handful of relatively short, higher-frequency keywords that were pushed heavily on a limited set of web pages. Today, SEO experts should include a longer list of long-tail keywords as well as a wider variety of content placement options.

Let’s shift our focus over to the use of long-tail keywords in PPC. Curiously enough, the use of long-tail keywords in PPC has followed a trend that’s quite the opposite from SEO. While each of the three major search engines has its own set of rules, let’s look specifically at Google AdWords and examine how long-tail keyword usage has changed.

Google currently allows advertisers to sponsor thousands of keywords in an AdWords account. (There are variations for new and established accounts.) Just a few years ago, savvy advertisers could take advantage of this fact and exact-match on thousands of long-tail keywords rather than a few short, broad-matched phrases. While most of their keywords would languish unused most of the time, enough clicks would come in to make the plan worthwhile for two reasons. First, long-tail keywords weren’t fought over, so the cost per click was sometimes mere pennies. Second, as we’ve already mentioned, long-tail keywords tend to be highly targeted, so the click quality was excellent as measured by conversion rates.

This approach must have consumed vast amounts of Google's legendary processing and storage capacity, however, so, around the time that Google introduced the Quality Score concept, they began penalizing AdGroups that contained lots of low frequency keywords by reducing the overall click-through-rate of the AdGroup. This had the effect of pushing ad positions down while, at the same time, increasing the cost per click for the advertiser.

That brings us to where we are today. Apparently, ratcheting up click costs wasn’t enough to discourage some advertisers so Google tightened the screws further by actually disabling long-tail keywords that were not generating enough impressions, in Google’s opinion. Infrequently-searched keywords generate few clicks and very little revenue for Google, so in a sense, one can understand this move. However, sometimes a low-frequency keyword phrase can actually deliver a few conversions before being shut off, and that hurts.

On the surface this may seem innocent enough, just the cost of doing business, but the net result is that Google seems to be forcing advertisers to sponsor mostly broad keywords, using broad and phrase matching options, in order to still pursue those long-tail, high-quality keywords. Sure, broad and phrase matched keywords generate a higher number of impressions, but also a greater number of low quality clicks. Ultimately, this has led to higher PPC costs for advertisers and greater revenues for Google.

In summary, the use of long-tail keywords has seen a complete reversal over the past five years. Today, long-tail keywords can no longer be targeted explicitly and profitably through PPC, but they have found a new life in the organic search world. You could say that the long-tail keyword isn’t dead; it’s just moved somewhere else.