What is the Long Tail (keywords)?

The Long Tail by Chris Anderson

"First, the book became a bestseller (rather ironic for a book about the power of niches) (...)"

In this 2006 management classic, Chris Anderson explains why we will sell less from more in the future. Or in other words; how a greater variety of products can be profitably offered through the Internet.

Above is the famous picture; products further to the right of the picture are becoming increasingly attractive to producers.

What causes this?

1. Through the democratization of the means of production

On the Internet, production tools (for example, WordPress for creating a website) are offered for free or at a very attractive price. This puts production at the fingertips of more and more people. A shift is also taking place through collaborative production as in the case of the encyclopedia Wikipedia, for example. Contributing to such projects improves your reputation, which is increasingly important and easier to find and check online.

2. Through the democratization of distribution

Internet stores do not have to hold inventory and can therefore offer more variants of the same product without incurring distribution costs. Customers decide which variants they want to buy instead of the store offering a number of best sellers.

3. By bringing supply and demand together

The Internet has made it necessary to put less and less effort into discovering niche products. For example, radio used to be the only medium to discover new music, now Spotify and torrent sites make it much more accessible to listen and share new music.

This book clearly lays out why and how niche markets are becoming more important now and in the future and is therefore a classic. It gives structure to a number of ideas I already had about the implications of the rise of the Internet. An inspiring book and must read for anyone wanting or interested in doing business online.

One small downside to this book is that it does use examples a lot. The book is 250 pages and it could have been 150 without compromising the content.

Entrepreneurship with the long tail strategy in SEO and SEA

The concept of the "Long Tail" as described by Chris Anderson (2006) also has applications for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEA (Search Engine Advertising). This term refers to the strategy of targeting a large number of niche keywords, as opposed to only the most popular and competitive keywords.

In SEO, applying the long tail strategy means focusing on long, specific keywords (long tail keywords) that have less search volume but often a higher conversion rate. While these keywords may drive less traffic to your website, the traffic they attract is often more relevant and therefore more valuable.

For SEA, using the long tail strategy means targeting ads to specific, less competitive keywords. Because these words are less competitive, the cost per click can be lower, which can lead to a higher return on the ad investment.

In either case, the long tail strategy can help companies maximize their visibility and make more efficient use of their marketing budget. By targeting a wider variety of keywords, companies can reach a wider audience while improving the effectiveness of their SEO and SEA efforts.

Example

For the example, let's assume a clothing company wants to improve its online marketing. With the current SEO strategy, the company is trying to rank for keywords "men's clothing" and "women's pants." By applying the long tail strategy, the company adapts the SEO strategy to rank on specific keywords such as "blue men's sweaters," "white women's pants size s" and "black sneakers men." Although the search volume is lower on these keywords, the competition is also lower. This allows the company to rank on long tail keywords, which in the long run will also contribute to visibility on the original keywords "men's clothing" and "women's shoes."

The differences between short tail and long tail

Short tail keywords are general search terms with one to three words that discuss a broad topic. These keywords generally have a higher search volume than long tail keywords. Thus, long tail keywords are generally less popular searches, but more specific than short tail keywords. Although the search volume is lower, it is more likely to answer the user's query.

Key differences between short tail and long tail:

Resources

Anderson, C. (2006). The long tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more. Hachette UK.