Longer Search Terms

Last week was the Search Marketing Expo in Santa Clara, Ca.  I've been reviewing some of the topics they covered.  One interesting trend is that search terms continue to get longer.  According to Hitwise, the use of search terms containing 4 or 5 words grew over 13% since 2007.  While 1 and 2 word searches dropped 12.3% in the same time period.

As people get more experience with searching, it seems they've started to add the cross references that are important in getting the information they need.  Instead of searching "Legally Blonde", they're searching "Legally Blonde Durham Performing Arts Center".  Thus getting them to more pertinent info, more quickly.

It puts more emphasis on us to make sure each web page has as many searchable terms as possible.  This includes our headers and copy, as well as our metatags.  It's easy to let that slip on interior pages especially.  But it's vital to get these pages right, because that's normally where our richest content about upcoming events is housed.

Instead of settling for "Legally Blonde" in your description.  What about including "Legally Blonde The Musical", "Legally Blonde Tour", "Broadway Legally Blonde", "Legally Blonde Tickets", "Legally Blonde Soundtrack" and "Elle Woods".  And of course venue, location and dates.

Most of us aren't search experts first and foremost.  Luckily you don't have to come up with all the search term possibilities alone.  There are some easy tools to use.  For instance Google's Insights for Search will give you the top related searches when you enter an initial search term.  Taking these little steps can help you catch more of today's cross referenced searches.