15/05/2007 - Can The Long Tail Produce Rich Pickings Indefinitely?
There has been much written about the so called Long Tail over recent months, but can it continue to deliver results?
Trying to seek enquiries or sales from specific search terms applies as much to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as it does to Pay per click (PPC) advertising. However, it is normally referred to in the context of PPC, primarily because the cost of a PPC campaign is very visible and immediate. The costs associated with a long term SEO strategy are probably somewhere between IT/Web build/marketing, and the results less trackable.
However, whether you are trying to reach the top end of the Search Engine Result Page by PPC or SEO for the term ‘Range Rover Sport short term lease’ you are working at the long tail. So how is this likely to develop over the coming months?
At first glance it would appear an almost certainty that the cost of optimising for these terms either for PPC or SEO will go up. Why? Because now that the ‘head’ terms (those highly trafficked generic terms) in any industry are driven to a high level where some companies wont even be able to cover the cost of the advertising, attention is turning to the tail. The ‘head’ terms will if not already, become dominated by a/ brand builders who aren’t so concerned about specific return on investment of each term, b/ novices, who are starting out at PPC and finding the lay of the land, and c/ the companies that are either further up the supply chain, or those that simply have better deals with their suppliers. These guys are still making a return on PPC after the others have fallen off.
So the above, combined with all the trade press attention given to the Long Tail, it’s safe to assume that it’s getting much attention. But as competition picks up, what’s happening to the returns?
Well, if you are in an industry with a huge Long Tail; and Travel is a prime example, you will need some software to manage these terms. This will include managing your bids, and the timing of your bids etc. It will also take into account the competitive environment; ie what bid is required to get to the position you want. This level of automation makes it almost irrelevant how many terms you are managing. So you can be as competitive for 10,000 long tail terms as you would for the highly trafficked 250.
All of this means that things are getting harder for the smaller, less well resourced companies. The companies that can’t respond to PPC changes quickly, and don’t have the tools to spot windows of opportunity.
From an SEO perspective, things aren’t really all that different. Niche terms that a few years ago would be very easy to gain a good natural position for are getting tougher. Content management systems make managing your site in an SEO friendly way easier. But whilst less visible than PPC, the best content management systems and best SEO advise all can be prohibitively expensive for smaller retailers.
In the old days a few inbound links to a keyword stuffed page with repetitive meta information may have done the trick. Not any more. Even for a natural position for a Long Tail term you need to be taking into account your whole site structure, and the ‘neighbourhood’ you site sits in. Think of it as the textual bed that the target page sits in. Building a textual bed that will support your SEO ambitions all takes time and resource.
So as we all become more aware of the long tail, the winners will probably be the well resourced companies that have good deals with their wholesalers and manufacturers and buy in large quantities. However, just as we might think the days of the Internet levelling the competitive playing field behind us, social media sites and blogs take off. The content available, is growing like never before as millions of people post their views and experiences. Some will be nonsense, but some will be respected and valued. As this commercial and non commercial information merges and grows so to do the long tail opportunities.
PS. David Soskins of Cheapflights produced an excellent presentation recently on the Long Tail in travel and covers it from a very broad perspective. Social networking sites and blogs give a voice to anyone, deserved or not. But as this quantity of knowledge and experience gets published online, a long tail… an almost unimaginable long tail… is starting to develop. What becomes difficult is making it all accessible. ‘Surface’ search engines in some ways gather the head of the long tail; the information they regard as important. But how do we organise the tail and make a particular detail of information that is invaluable to me right now available to me?
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Internet Retail Technologies Ltd ( IRT ) works with manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to help them enjoy greater advantage from internet distribution. Through offering consulting services, and web distribution services and channels, IRT helps is network of partners start or further develop their online sales and marketing strategies.
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