With the new age of the internet comes an improved ability to track user behavior. Better tracking means increased accountability for all internet marketers, SEO included. Obtaining a better understanding of search behavior will prove to be imperative as competition for high rankings increases. In order to meet the higher standard for performance, research and development will receive more attention. Advancements will take place in this arena by SEOs utilizing customized search engines and long tail keywords.
A customized search engine refers to a user modified search engine that produces web results based on a set of predefined parameters. These parameters include: designating a list of URLs for the spiders to crawl, refining a search by topical category such as health care or sports, only searching a website’s “neighborhood” (the site’s inbound and outbound links), and narrowing results to include only certain languages, regions, file formats, or RSS feeds. The three big search engines all have there own version of a customized search engine. Google has Google Co-op Customized Search Engine, launched on May 10, 2006. Yahoo has Rollyo, released in September 2005, and MSN has the Advanced Live Search Box, a feature of Windows Live Search introduced to the public on March 8, 2006. Each of these engines provides the code in order for the owner of the customized search engine to place the search box on their website and tailor it to the look of the site. Not only can customized search engines improve a users experience when visiting a website, but by experimenting with different parameters and results, SEOs will gain a better understanding of their customer’s search behavior. According to a report by the Aberdeen Group released in February 2007, within the next 24 months 96% of all ecommerce web sites will have a search tool on their website. Among companies that track how many visitors convert to sales, 60% found that search tools convert customers at a rate of 5% or higher. It will be this conversion rate that will lead to the use of more customized search engines; however the SEO must take this opportunity to expand his or her knowledge of search behavior. One way to do this is too use the customized search engine to expand on the understanding of what keywords customers are using to search for different products and services. The search engine box can be programmed to record the search terms used, and functionality can be added that allows users to click on the most recent search keywords in order to perform that search.
As methods for discovering more qualified search terms improves, keyword research will once again have its day in the sun. SEOs will start dedicating the necessary time towards optimizing for “long tail” keywords. Long tail keywords are the thousands of multi word search queries that lead customers to find a website, but are rarely optimized for because they generate such a small number of monthly searches. The buzz regarding long tail keywords has been around since 2005, but still receives little attention due to the conventional 80-20 rule that has been so thoroughly ingrained in the traditional marketer’s mind. This rule refers to the idea that the group of high volume keywords in a category make up 80% of a website’s traffic and converting sales. Typically people focus on the top ten or twenty keywords that are bringing in thousands of visitors, because clients are happy to see the broad keywords bring in traffic and ranking high. The truth is, however, that not only does the sum of the low volume keywords bring in more visitors than the high volume ones, but they typically convert better as well. Use of long tail keywords represent a searcher that is further along in the buying process than someone who types in only one or two broad keywords. As measurability increases on the Internet, the SEO will be forced to develop extensive long tail keyword strategies that lead to more conversions in order to report a better return on investment (ROI).
