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SEO: Pool Tables and the Longtail

Dec 13, 2011

After reading that heading, your response might have been “is SEO really that random?!”.

But read on, and I’ll show you there’s a connection. And more importantly it’s a connection that creates sales.

Let’s start with a story about pool tables.

I want a pool table in my house. Have done for a while now. So I began searching online using Google, my search engine of choice. Here’s the search terms I used, in order:

[Pool Tables] – I’m researching. What’s on offer? Am I ready to buy? No.
I find out there’s d a vast range of prices and a huge difference in quality. I’m interested in getting something like you’d find in a pub.
[pub pool tables] – I’m still ‘just looking’ but I now have a focus.
This search brings a mixture of pub and pool related results. I discover there are different brands, pay-to-play, free-play, and different sizes.
[7ft freeplay pool table] – Now I’m discovering the decent brands.
[supreme winner 7ft freeplay pool table ] – I’ve found the one I want.
But due to the size, delivery is going to cost a fortune.
[supreme winner 7ft pool table free delivery] – Got it.
Found the exact pool table I want and company who’ll deliver it for free. Am I ready to buy now? Yes.

As you can see this is a very simple example of how by optimising content your web pages for longer, more specific phrases you can target visitors with a high chance of converting them into a sale.

Longtail = More Specific Variations of a Given Search Term

But wait, won’t shorthead phrases (like [pool table]) be searched much more than more specific phrases?

Of course they will.

But if you look at a diagram of the average longtail, you’ll see the sum of all the longtail search terms is higher than that of the few shorthead search terms.

So by targeting the more specific search phrases, you win three times:

In total, you’re targeting more focused searchers
You are targeting people who are more likely to convert
There will be less competition for the search terms, so you’ll stand a better chase of ranking

And there’s an added bonus too…

As you start to gain authority and rank for all those specific phrases, you’re also becoming more and more relevant for the shorter generic phrases too.

How do you work out what your longtail is?

The best place to start would be your website analytics package. By checking your ’sources’, you can determine how your visitors are finding your content, and then with one of the hundred ‘keyword generator’ tools out there, you can produce a list of long tail search terms on which to focus your seo efforts.

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Gary - search, find and analyse
In 2010, we achieved full Google accreditation and had more search-related ‘can you help us?’ conversations than you can shake a USB stick at.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is fundamental to the planning, building and growing of a website, simply because Google (and its competitors) wants to feature unique, useful and jaw-droppingly interesting websites in its search results.

With every development Google rolls out, the SEO landscape expands and this will continue in 2011. Instant Search and Search Suggestions now make the longtail just as important as that elusive vanity phrase. Site Previews will enable users to pick sites based on look and layout. There’s more to search than just picking the right keywords.

However, the point of greatest interest will be where search and social media meet. The websites that succeed in search will be the ones that make a positive contribution to the social graph of their online communities.

And what about analytics? Now you can track almost everything, the challenge is to ensure business decisions and strategies are based on data that really matters. So 2011’s key question won’t be “How are we monitoring our visitors’ behaviour?” It’s going to be “What are we going to do with this insight?”

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