As the world of search starts to become more natural to more people, a recent study has found searchers are less likely to use 1-3 generic keywords in their search, and are starting to get more detailed and use 4-6 words. This is known as long-tail searching.

This is according to a story from Hitwise, Longer Search Terms Becoming Popular.

To break it down - the first percentage is from February 2008 and the second is from February of 2009:

6-word searches: 4.38% –> 4.71%
5-word searches: 8.29% –> 8.72%
4-word searches: 14.53% –> 14.98%
3-word searches: 21.84% –> 21.68%
2-word searches: 24.73% –> 23.47%
1-word searches: 21.04% –> 20.48%

As you can see, six, five, and four word searches are increasing. While three, two, and one word searches are all decreasing.

This tells me that people are learning from search. Someone can’t just put in “coffee grinder” and expect to find what they’re looking for. They need to type in “krups automatic coffee grinder.”

This is exciting for another reason, as well. Research suggests that the longer a search term, the more inclined someone is to buying a particular item or service. This makes absolute sense, right? If you were just browsing for a toy car for your son, you’d type “toy car.” But if you were looking to buy a “yellow hot rod toy car”, you would search for that particular model with the intention to buy that product.

Ultimately, this trend is good for both searchers and for businesses. Searchers can skip the fluff and spam while going to websites that are selling exactly what they’re looking for. Optimizing your website using search engine marketing has never been so crucial. Find the audience looking to buy your product and rank high on the search engine result pages for business success!