The “long tail” is one of the most powerful principles of search engine marketing. Yet long tails in search yield extremely different results in terms of monetary value to the site owner.
Example #1: A site sells used beany babies and a visitor lands on the page by typing the long tail phrase “used beany babies with large purple tails”. If the visitor to the site converts and ends up buying a beany baby on the site, the owner makes a whopping $4.95 at most.
Example #2: A site sells custom wheels for Italian imports and a visitor lands on a page by typing the long tail phrase “custom wheel parts for Italian Ferraris.” If the visitor to the site converts and ends up buying custom Chrome wheels, the owner will likely make over $1,000 on this transaction.
So before venturing into the internet realm, think about the value of the long tail phrases people will search to find your site. It’s often just as hard to rank well for Beanie Babies as Custom Ferrari Wheels, but the outcomes are completely different.
