search engine help

[soniaR]

Let's say If someone was launching a site industry specific . How would one go about determining, on the keyword research side, how big (or small) the "tail" of the search terms in that industry are?

Basically, looking for a methodology to measure the value of being listed in the top for a few, hig volume search terms in the head vs. the value of having rankings for the thousands of smaller terms making up the tail. Other than simply using intuition and logic, one can't seem to think of a good way to do it.

[fatnewt]

Try each and measure the actual success of each, or review the results of someone in a similar field who has done the same.

I'm not sure if there's a better way to do what you say, exactly. But since your site likely contains multiple pages, why not try both strategies with different pages on your site?

[guruji]

Hi,
To approach an "industry," I'd want to get a look at what works for
that industry's longer standing niche publications. What concerns
re-surface regularly? Are they adequately addressed? Would these concerns be of more interest to customers or colleagues?

Would it be helpful to look at how a customer hears about and chooses
who to hire or buy from?
guruji

[Chris]

You don't really have to choose with a website & with SEO. With your homepage and or your main category pages you can optimize for the major terms. With your subsequent article or deep content pages you optimize for the obscure terms.