Long-Tail Keywords
An effective keyword strategy is the cornerstone of any internet business. Keyword specificity is an important consideration in getting this right. Generalized terms may garner higher numbers of searches, but this doesn't necessarily translate into sales or traffic.
General terms are often more competitive, so getting a top ranking for them is often much harder. More importantly, general terms will be less likely to attract the right kinds of visitors to your site.
Adding additional details to your optimized phrases, to make them more specific is referred to as creating long-tail keywords. This article will explore how this tactic can boost your business.
Location, Location, Location
As is well known, the place is one of the Four Ps of Marketing. When creating a long tail of Keywords to optimize your business's location, the degree of detail that your search should go into will depend on your target audience and their search habits. A company, based in a major city with products that are targeted at tourists,
who don't know the area very well, may not be able to get too specific with their search terms location for example: "traditional tea shops London". On the other hand, many local businesses need to ensure that they don't 'cast their net too wide.
Take the search term "restaurant New York", it receives roughly 8000 searches per month. If you somehow managed to beat out the competition, half of this number would be a great monthly business for a restaurant to attract, but if your business is a vegan restaurant in Syracuse New York, the chances of any of these searchers booking a table, at your establishment, are slim to none.
The term "Vegan restaurants Syracuse" is searched roughly 260 times a month; considerably less than 8000. The aforementioned restaurant would be more likely to get business from these searchers.
The lesson: businesses need to be realistic with the location terms they optimize. If you can get it right, a Long Keyword Tail, with location details in it, ensures that a realistic target audience can find your products or business.
Only Compete with The Competition
Long Tail Keywords are also important for optimizing your individual products. By adding additional descriptors to your products, you eliminate keyword competition that is not catering to the same market as your business.
For example, if two fashion retailers, one budget and the other upmarket, optimize only the highly competitive term; 'handbag', they will effectively be competing for the same traffic. Despite the fact that someone on a strict budget will have no interest in Loui Vuitton handbags and vice versa.
A smaller number of searchers who are genuinely interested in your product is, therefore, more desirable. A better term for the premium retailer may be "designer handbags" or "real leather handbags".
Use your keywords to refine your target audience. You will sacrifice some of keyword search volume but many of these searchers weren't interested in your business anyway.
Get The Most from A 'Long Tail'
Using a more specific long-tail product description is also a great way to get the most out of your SEO resources. The majority of traffic goes to the results on the first page. The first five results on Google receive 67.6% of clicks.
Often, getting your website on the first page of the results, for a less competitive term, is more profitable than making it to page two or three for a highly competitive term. You should focus on long keywords that include specific information about your products' features.
For example, for a small/medium-sized clothing store, the term "t-shirt" may be an unrealistic target to aim for.
On the other hand, optimizing your site for the term "women's t-shirts with recycled materials" is more realistic, and for the reasons explained, will provide more traffic for your website.
Long Tail Keywords: A Game of Moans (Trial & Error)
Ultimately, getting the right long-tail Keywords, for your website, is a balancing act between maximizing search volume, appealing to the right audience, and having realistic expectations for the terms you optimize.
This takes a fair bit of trial and error. rankingCoach has keyword optimization tools that make this process much easier.
It offers suggestions for keywords in your industry, shows you how competitive search terms are, and keeps you regularly updated on the effectiveness of your terms.
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