By Jeff Watts, SyndicateVoice Product Manager
Question: What do the following silly things have in common?
1. what is the approximate size of a banjo
2. redheads and the men that love them
3. how to hit the sasquatch
4. used men’s hunting socks
Answer: they are all actual phrases that searchers have typed in to discover various Bazaarvoice clients’ review content. (For the record, I cannot fathom why someone was searching for “used men’s hunting socks”.)
The long tail of search engine data tells a fascinating story that smart marketers are listening to. It is not just silly phrases like those above, but obscure and unique terms – perhaps used only once or twice – that give insight into what your visitors are really looking for. Long tail search terms might not match your page titles or your carefully crafted page descriptions, but they do match some other combination of words on your page – even when you are not anticipating them. For many sites, the unanticipated terms account for over 80% of the search terms and over 50% of the referrals, and this makes it imperative to understand how best to target those terms.
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