Today’s webinar, Long Tail Versus Short Tail Keywords, made me think of Indiana Jones.  (No, not because of the spiders crawling all over the webpages!)  In the opening credits with the sepia map in the background, the little plane traces its red line from exotic location to remote landing to middle of nowhere to the exact right spot to find the lost ark.

If Indy had used Google, he might have started by typing in “ark.”  It’s a short-tail keyword, a mere three letters.  After paging through a zillion pages of Noah’s ark replicas, complete with zebras and chimpanzees, he’d get a little frustrated, but instead of lashing out at his trusty laptop with his whip, he’d get more specific.  He’d try typing “ark of the covenant.”  His little airplane is getting closer.  He still has to stop to rebut the scurrilous claims of Dr. Rene Belloq on Wikipedia, but that takes mere moments.  Then he tries the long tail search for “ark of the covenant Cairo” and Google gives him a handy amulet with an address.  His plane arrives and now all he has to do is beat the Nazis, survive the snakes, and rescue the girl.

Indy, like most searchers, is getting savvier in his techniques.  He’ll be quicker to find the temple of doom and the holy grail.  He’ll breeze right by the film versions of Doom and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  By the time he gets to looking for the crystal skull, it’s a wonder the search takes long enough to film.

Similarly, the purveyors of lost arks and the like can make themselves easier to find by optimizing for exactly the kind of long tail keywords Dr. Jones used in his research.  While there are relatively few archaeologists and evil empires searching for precious relics, those who search for “ark of the covenant Cairo” are ready to buy.