According to a recent report, the value of individual keywords is decreasing slightly as people are beginning to use longer and longer search queries when using a search engine.

Hitwise, a company that focuses on search trends and analyses of Internet markets, released a recent report on US traffic. The report found that Google users are using more longtail search queries in an effort to create more accurate results, rather than using single search terms or two-word queries. As Google continues to dominate the search engine market, these results have some significance for the world of SEO.

Such reports also confirm how important Google is when you want to attract website traffic. In the US, 73% of search traffic goes through Google, while Yahoo!, which used to be in the lead for the US search engine market, is down to just over 16% of searches. MSN is even further behind. Google’s results in the UK and Europe are similar, with the search engine drawing well over three-quarters of search traffic.

According to Hitwise, one and two word searches are down by three and five percent respectively this year, while longer searches are increasingly rapidly. The report found that six, seven and even eight word queries are increasingly being used as people search for ways to find more precise results.

The report brings up the question: should you be focusing on targeting for longer query terms? This is difficult to answer with a definite ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Your SEO strategy should already be taking longer queries into account. Although short query searches are decreasing in frequency, they are by no means uncommon and represent a large chunk of traffic to lose.

Possibly the best approach to take is if your keyword or key phrase selection works for longer queries while not cutting you out of short query searches. However, this is still up for debate and some companies are still experimenting. For best results, it’s good to have an expert on board such as SEO Consult.

The Hitwise report also showed that more than half of all search queries in the time studied were at least three words in length. More than one third of search queries were four words or longer. As search queries get longer and more specific, the way you highlight the specific usefulness of your website to every viewer becomes more important. This sounds like an enormous task, but it can be as simple as ensuring that your website is optimised for local searches as well as international ones. For instance, where someone looking for gerberas in Bristol might once have searched ‘flower shop’ they are now more likely to search ‘flower shop gerberas Bristol’.

Ultimately, what this report shows is that sites have to be even more precise in choosing their keywords and search engine optimisation strategy, which is where SEO Consult excels. As search engine users become more and more sophisticated in the ways they search, smart companies will need to ensure their SEO keeps up.

Get Involved