The Long Tail.
This is one of those phrases I hear more and more. And at the risk of betraying my own ignorance, it is one of those phrases where I think I know what it means…at least in relation to search marketing. I think.
Approximately 90% of the traffic on the search engines is tied up into a small number, maybe 10% of the keywords. The other 10% of the traffic, which is still A LOT of traffic, is tied up in more specific, niche, specialized phrases and words. Those words make up the "long tail." For example, "television" is not in the long tail. "32 inch LCD HDTV with input for my computer" is. Click here for a series of graphical representations. Ignore the picture of the monkey with the long tail, though.
Feel free to put your own definitions up in the comments section, as long as you make them as simple as possible. Also, are there any other marketing phrases you can think of that could use a good "plain english" definition? Let’s hear them.
Longtail is used for business as part of a niche staretegy to increase range of keywords used to easily target one’s site and increase chances of visitors going to your landing pages and hope to bring potential buyers.