Long Tails, Short Tails, and Secret Recipes

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is key for any business. Whether or not you climb the rankings by compiling inbound or outbound links or by buying advertising, the bottom line is that you want to be found when people are searching for content that you provide. Unfortunately, all businesses are, to some extent, at the mercy of search giant Google. Complicating matters is the fact that Google has some very secretive recipes for success for those who are trying to get better rankings organically (by this I mean, not paying for them). We’re talking about a recipe that is more complicated than the Colonel’s chicken or Dr. Pepper’s delicious liquid treat. Complicating matters even further is the fact that Google is constantly changing the variables within their secret equation for success. Even the savviest SEO strategists aren’t privy to Google’s algorithms, although there are certain sources that can at least offer some perspective into the constant change.

Enter SEOMoz. Aside from offering a bunch of great tools to help your company better understand and execute SEO strategies, they also provide a very informative blog. One of my favorite features on this blog is their White Board Fridays, which offer up some excellent insights into what’s going on in the world of SEO.

In a posting last week, Rank Fishkin, CEO & Co-Founder of SEOmoz, provided some insight into Google’s latest round of algorithmic changes, which included the weight of search rankings on long tail versus short tail keyword links. Before you jump ship, I’ll give you a short, succinct explanation of the difference. Long tail keyword links are links that are lengthier and more specific, while the short tail keywords are concise and general.

For instance, if I want to reference a posting about the ways Twitter could be improved, I have some options. Consider the following options:

As much as everyone loves Twitter, I think there are ways it can be improved.

OR

Don’t get me wrong, I love the social networking site, but there are three ways to improve Twitter.

The first selection isn’t going to yield me any special traffic in search rankings, because I’m certainly not the only one who has ever linked a general keyword like “improved.” So even though more people may include that keyword in what they are searching for, my link will be up against a whole lot of competition. But in the second selection, I am being very specific in the link about what my posting is about. So, even though not nearly as many people will perform such a specific search, those that do will see that link on the first page of Google’s results (which is the case with this one), and users will no doubt be interested in checking out something that pops up for the exact search they performed (ie, this will make for a higher conversion rate). Many will go even more specific than this, but the key is to find the right balance where you aren’t sacrificing too much on either end.

Recently, however, Google has adjusted the importance of the long- and short-tailed keywords. What does this mean exactly? Well, Google makes adjustments all the time and, in the end, usually the end result washes out and things pretty much get back to the status quo. So don’t necessarily disregard the importance of long- and short-tail links just yet, but definitely take a look at the video below, which suggests some possibilities that Google is playing with when it comes to what is weighed in search rankings. If you’re head is spinning right now, don’t worry — it’s a lot to take in. The important thing is to learn a little more each day about how you can improve your SEO; even little strides have the potential to make a huge difference.

(Thanks to Rand Fishkin for keeping us up to date on all this stuff; I had the opportunity to sit in on some of his session at the Search Engine Strategies conference this past March, and he really knows his stuff.)

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