The term "long tail marketing" was coined by Wired Magazine writer Chris Anderson in an October 2004 article.
In it he mentioned how ecommerce sites like Amazon and Netflix sold large number of unique items in smaller quantities, as well as selling fewer more popular items in larger quantities.
Anderson even wrote a book called The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.
This makes sense when we think about how the internet has allowed people to search for just about anything any time.
Want the 1980s cult British cartoon hit Count Duckula? You can find it.
(I did!) Why build shopping cart SEO strategy based on long tail? Take a generic keyword like "shirts.
" If you sell shirts, you could write an article on your website all about shirts to try to drive shoppers to your store.
But this wouldn't be very targeted.
Many people would search for shirts, but they'd likely be looking for specific kinds of shirts, not generic "shirts.
" What if you got more specific? Instead of trying to optimize your whole site for "shirts," what if you used specific pages and articles to optimize for more specific terms that were searched for less often?

• Extra Large Hawaiian Shirt
• White Pinstriped Blouse
• Ruffly Tacky Pirate Shirt
• Justin Beiber Pink T-shirt With Unicorns and Hearts

Here are 5 excellent reasons for you to build shopping cart SEO strategy based on the long tail strategy.

• Analyze data more clearly.
  Because your keywords are more targeted, it's easier to know why your product pages are or aren't working.
  It's easier to tweak images and copy because you know specifically what shoppers are looking for.
  
• Searches are more targeted.
  People who come to your site are less likely to be looky-loos and more likely to buy.
  Someone looking for a "Justin Beiber Pink T-shirt with Unicorns and Hearts" is a lot further along in the sales funnel than someone looking for a "shirt.
  "
• Less competition for keywords.
  Theoretically, you have less SEO competition for more targeted keywords.
  The truth is that many merchants know about long tail SEO, so in competitive spaces still expect to have lots of competition.
  But you can get more creative using long tail.
  For instance, it may be hard to rank for"Justin Beiber Pink T-shirt with Unicorns and Hearts" but "Selena Gomez Pink T-shirt with Unicorns and Hearts" might not be so hard to rank for.
  You can guess that those two shirts appeal to the same market segment.
  
• Pay less for pay per click.
  Again, don't expect that your competitors are foolish.
  But you can apply the same principles to PPC as you can to SEO.
  Use popular long tail keywords to brainstorm for others that are less expensive but deliver results.
  
• Less shopping cart abandonment.
  Shoppers who arrive on your site with a specific goal in mind are less likely to leave.
  You can offer targeted ads and promotions to entice them to buy-and buy now.
  

Give the long tail strategy a try when designing your SEO strategy for your online business.
It can't hurt and you may be surprised at the new leads you discover!