Lots of search engine marketing experts have been throwing around the term "long tail" for a while now. However, I have rarely seen or heard of anyone accurately explaining what they mean by "long tail" and how to use it to your benefit in search engine marketing campaigns.

I have to admit that I was not sure at first what was meant by long tail. I thought, as it seems many others also do, that the term referred to long keyword phrases consisting of 3+ words. While this may be true, it is not necessarily always the case.

"Long Tail" is actually a statistical term that describes a business strategy like Amazon's that sells a large number of unique items each in relatively small quantities.

When it comes to search engine marketing, this same idea of long tail has been applied to keyword analysis. Most websites, when they analyze their traffic reports will see that they get a good number of visits from branded and generic terms.  For example, a website might see that 60% of its traffic comes from 10 keyword phrases that include the company name and its branded products.

The additional 40% of the website traffic may come from 90 other keywords that are more specific, and in a lot of cases, contain more words.

The following chart from Search Engine People does a good job of illustrating what I mean:

From a search engine marketing strategic standpoint, this type of analysis can be very beneficial.  The generic, branded, or the head, terms should be the area where you focus your organic SEO efforts. These are terms that get lots of searches and produce the most qualified visitors.

The more specific, or the long tail, terms are less searched but are typically conducted by people that are further along in the buying process and therefore have a higher conversion rate. They also generally have lower cost per click (CPC) bids which makes them great targets for your PPC campaigns.

What are some examples of you effectively using a long tail strategy in your search engine marketing efforts?

What other Internet marketing terms do you find confusing?

Let me know...