Longer Search Queries are Flat

Long Live the Long Tail!

Buried beneath the news that Google once again dominated the world of search with over 71% market share (as reported by Hitwise) was a very valuable bit of information related to the percentage of U.S. clicks by the number of keywords in the query.

"Longer search queries," according the announcement, "averaging searches of five to more than eight words in length, were flat between October and September 2009".Searches of eight or more words however increased 1 percent while shorter search queries (those averaging one to four words long) were flat from month to month. Searches of one word comprise the majority of searches (24.13% of all queries) but based solely on the chart below you can see how important it is to focus on search phrases of two to six words.

Pete Prestipino

Digital marketing executive with proven experience in all aspects of search engine optimization (SEO), performance-based advertising, consumer-generated/social media, email marketing, lead generation, Web design, usability, and analytics. - 20-year Internet marketing veteran, currently serving as the Digital Marketing Campaign Manager at Antenna Group (formerly Chicago Digital). - Former Editor-In-Chief of Website Magazine, and a regular speaker on Web technology digital marketing strategy - Author of several books on digital marketing Including Web 360: The Fundamentals of Web Success; Affiliate 360: The Fundamentals of Performance Marketing; Domains 360: The Fundamentals of Buying & Selling Domain Names, and SEO 360: The Fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization.