Many websites are often launched in a hurry by their owners, without paying much attention to the proper optimization of their content. They do some quick research on the keywords they should be targeting based on the product they want to sell or the niche they want to write about.
Most of the time, the resulting keywords they decide to use are what we call short-tail keywords, for example, Nike shoes, coffee machines, baby carriages, etc.
These keyword phrases get millions of searches each month and, for a newbie, light up your eyes with dollar signs.
The problem with this is that the keyword phrases they have decided on are not really buyer keywords but more generic and not really that good for optimizing your content. They would also be competing against large corporations that have been around for decades and have huge advertising budgets.
You may think that the more searches are done for a keyword phrase, the more traffic you will bring to your website or blog.
This couldn’t be further from the truth…!
However, in this article I will explain why this is not the case and why you should use long-tail keywords for SEO (search engine optimization).
-
Long tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are keyword phrases that have a “tail” that contributes to the organic keywords entered in an online search that your site visitors use (or query) when searching the Internet, whether they simply look for information or to purchase your particular service or product.
Short-tail keyphrases are usually no longer than 1-2 words. Long-tail keywords are usually much longer, but more importantly, they are also much more specific.
-
So! What is a long tail keyword?
As mentioned above, these keywords are expressions related to your main topic. Long-tail keywords have much less competition as people dismiss them due to not enough people searching for that particular set of words. They are much easier to target and consistently produce more shopper-friendly website traffic.
Unlike conventional keywords (coffee machines or Nike shoes), long-tail keyword expressions typically have 3 or more words, and usually no more than 5. They are a direct connection to a keyword phrase that a person I would type in a search engine (Google, Bing or Yahoo) which will help narrow down your search. These keyword phrases are what you should focus on and use when optimizing your site’s content.
By using long-tail keywords, you will dramatically increase the likelihood that your potential customer will be a buyer. This is compared to using short tail keywords which will generate more search results but not necessarily produce buyers.
-
Examples of long tail keywords
Try typing “coffee machines” into a search engine, it will return about 16 million sites, but if you type “isomac coffee machines Australia” it will only return 18k sites. 18 thousand search results is still too high. Other experts may go as far as to say that the returned search results of 18,000 are just fine. It shows that by using more specific keywords, you can reduce the competition and improve your chances.
My recommendation and personal preference is to look for search results in the region of three hundred to eight thousand. Now this may not always be the case. If you’re looking for local searches, these numbers would become irrelevant and you might be seeing only a few hundred searches.
As a general rule of thumb, when you decide to use local search, it’s not worth doing less than 50 searches per month.
It is less complicated to rank on the first page, as well as get web traffic with long-tail keyword phrases, compared to less specific, short-tail keyword phrases.
-
Other long tail examples:
• Australia baby carrier
• types of tea without caffeine
• types of tea without caffeine
• wholesale cheap nike shoes free shipping
-
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Long Tail Keywords
Targeting long tail phrases is a must for SEO purposes and also to help you get your business or blog indexed faster as a result of fewer competitors and more than likely to be seen by the right audience i.e. customers who are ready to buy him. . You should also use this strategy for your site content, your blog, your videos, your website design, as well as your off-page optimization strategies.
-
Long Tail SEO Strategy
Search engines are becoming more and more personalized, so it is very important to focus on long-tail keywords in your SEO campaigns.
-
How to find long tail keywords for SEO?
There are many different ways to locate long-tail keywords. You could possibly use keyword research tools or you can even spy on your competition to find unique keywords that no one is using.
Below are some of the tools I use to find long tail keywords:
• Google Keyword Tool
• Google Autocomplete Tool
• Use of Google Search
• Automatic suggestion from Google
Finally, when doing research on the keywords you are going to use, remember to look at phases that span 3-5 words related to your main topic. They are narrow and buyer specific. And finally have fewer searches.
I hope this clarifies what long tail keywords are and why they are necessary for your search engine optimization (SEO).