What happened to the Long Tail of search?
Many of us will remember how, just a few years ago, many search engines and digital marketing agencies espoused the benefits of bidding for long tail search queries.
It was widely believed in some circles – indeed, some evangelised continuously – that users would gradually use a selection of keywords when searching, especially for travel products.
The theory went that search phrases such as “holiday rome”, for example, would be replaced by something along the lines of “city break rome pantheon april gatwick four star”.
There were some who even suggested long tail search queries would transform keyword bidding and SEO practices within two years.
So did it happen?
The MD of a London-based search agency, whom we met with yesterday, suggests it has not at all.
Consumers, our man with the data tells us, are refining their search phrase each time, rather than using long tail search queries to find specific travel product if they do not find appropriate results the first time.
For example: “holiday rome” becomes “city break rome” or “weekend away vatican” or “hotel rome weekend”. The use of lengthy and detailed phrases to hopefully narrow the number of results just hasn’t proven popular as many first believed.
What are the reasons for this?
Consumers may be sceptical that long, meandering search phrases do not return the required and, most importantly, quality information.
Secondly, users have perhaps found that refining the initial search with more detail is a far more successful method.
Or it could be something else entirely.
Indeed, these could be the wildly incorrect thoughts of a crazy digital marketer, so any additional comments readers have would be much appreciated.
Kevin May, editor, Travolution
