Long-tail search marketing has always been an intriguing proposition as it is a way to target those visitors who are searching on irregular queries to a website.

Published: 24 Aug 2010

Long-tail search marketing has always been an intriguing proposition as it is a way to target those visitors who are searching on irregular queries to a website.

It is highlighted that long-tail keywords are generally very specific. This can be a real advantage in search marketing, because often more specific, niche key phrases reflect higher buying intent.

Specialists believe that when it comes to high volume keywords, their value can often be “hidden” if they are judged in isolation: tracking software must take into account the research cycle consumers go through over several weeks or even months, and are able to report on the first keyword they used to visit a site (often the most expensive) alongside the final keyword (often a brand term, longer search string), bookmark or URL type in they used when booking. This will often reveal that the “expensive”non-converting term is actually cheaper, and is part of a wider conversion journey.

Longer search queries

In its recent analysis focusing on percentage of clicks in the U. S. by number of keywords for June and July 2010, online competitive intelligence service Experian Hitwise found that longer search queries - those averaging five to eight words long - increased one percent from June to July. This is the second straight one percent monthly increase.

Four- to seven-word searches all increased one percent. Two-word searches comprised the majority of searches, amounting to 23.41 percent of all queries. Shorter search queries - one to four words - were flat from June 2010 to July 2010.

Opportunity

The long tail is definitely getting longer, says Barbara Pezzi, director of Web Marketing & e-Commerce, Fairmont Raffles Hotels.

“We are seeing the same shift in search queries, especially in those related to high volume destinations such as London, Sydney, Chicago, etc. At the same time, the recent Google “Mayday” update, also impacted long tail search results, by de-ranking sites (mostly larger ones) who might have ranked previously based on the authority of the site. High quality and relevant content is therefore even more important now, and it is admittedly harder to decide which terms to optimise for,” Pezzi told EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta.

She added, “However, I see this also as an opportunity: many sites will never be able to rank well for high volume terms such as “hotel + city name”, but with the right efforts, should be able to rank for longer, and often better converting, search queries.”

From a PPC perspective, Pezzi said, “The longer search queries allow to gain conversions at much more reasonable CPAs. Bidding on “hotel+ city name” is hardly viable in most cases, due to very high CPCs and low conversion rates, and those are the terms which we would often leave to the OTAs to bid on. 3-5 words searches allow for more cost effective bidding and better targeting. It is slightly more time consuming to set up, but at long as the campaign is structurally well built, with tight ad groups, it is much more effective than sticking with a few generic terms, or even worse, a few generic terms set on broad match.”

Travel Distribution Summit North America 2010

EyeforTravel is scheduled to conduct a session about the current state of the search landscape as part of its forthcoming Travel Distribution Summit North America 2010 event, to be held in Chicago (13-14 October). Rob Torres, Managing Director of Travel Vertical, Google Inc, and Krista Pappas, Global Director & Head of Business Development, Bing Travel at Microsoft are among the speakers scheduled to take part in this session.

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