I am sitting here pondering if this trendy buzz topic produces anything of actual use or importance that will actually contribute to a web site. To me, long tail is garbage and I’ll explain why shortly. If you don’t know what I’m referring to when I speak of “Long Tail SEO” or “Long Tail Search”, it’s basically any search phrase thats more than 3-4 words long. The long tail is a way to target a broader niche or audience as people start to search for longer and longer phrases in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

So you’re probably wondering what good is the long tail? Honestly I can see it working in specific applications; such as digital downloads, one page sales sites, however the long tail is only going to produce garbage traffic for a large percentage of webmasters out there. The good thing about long tail search is if you’re a webmaster who just loves to see a hit to their site, then you’re going to love the long tail; however if you’re a more in depth webmaster and into stats and tracking what the people are doing while they’re there, and if they come back, you’re going to be disappointed.

The long tail search results generally have a high bounce rate (usually near 100%) and a low return rate (usually about 0%). How does that help your site? What benefit are you getting if a person comes to your site, views one page then leaves, never comes back and doesn’t partake in any action for your site? It’s just a hit in your log, a inflated stat to show off to your friends, and nothing more! A conversation probably goes like this for 90% of webmasters who are going nuts for the long tail:

Bob: “Hey John, check it out I got 43251 visitors from google last month”
John: “Thats great bob, how much did you earn, how many came back, and how many viewed more than one page?”
Bob: “Well John, 40000 of those were one hit wonders from obscure keywords, they didn’t come back, and my earnings are still flat”
John: “Hey Bob, then what good is 43251 visitors from Google, if they don’t contribute to your site?”
Bob: “Well they look good in stats, hopefully I don’t have to explain them to any one else”
John: “They sure do Bob, they sure do…”

Like our friends Bob & John above, have you taken a look at the results from “Long Tail” keywords? I’d like to hear your thoughts and results with the long tail of search results. Don’t get me wrong, Long Tail search is a real thing, and if applied correctly to certain sites it can be beneficial, however this article only covers the scope of forums, and if you think the login tail is good or bad for the site.