longtail The Rise of the Long Tail Keyword

Here's an interesting fact for SEO enthusiasts.

Hitwise reports that the length of our search queries has increased over the last 12 months. Comparing January 2009 to January 2008 reveals that longer search queries, averaging searches of 5 words or more in length, have increased by 10 percent.

During the same time period, shorter search queries, those averaging just 1 to 4 words in length, have decreased by 2 percent.

Take a look at this chart from Hitwise...

Percentage of U.S. clicks by number of keywords

Subject

Jan-08

Dec-08

Jan-09

Year-over-year percent change
1 word

20.96%

20.70%

20.29%

-3%
2 words

24.91%

24.13%

23.65%

-5%
3 words

22.03%

21.94%

21.92%

0%
4 words

14.54%

14.67%

14.89%

2%
5 words

8.20%

8.37%

8.68%

6%
6 words

4.32%

4.47%

4.65%

8%
7 words

2.23%

2.40%

2.49%

12%
8+ words

2.81%

3.31%

3.43%

22%

Especially impressive is the fact that long-tailed keywords of 8 words or more rose by a whopping 22 percent.

Are we finally figuring out how the search engines "think", and are thereby providing them with more data so that more relevant search results are produced? Or are we just getting better at copying and pasting text into our search bar?

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