Example of Long-tail Keyword phrases

A Short Tale About Long-tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords now attract a lot of attention from SEO specialists as voice search options stretch out the phrases people use to search online. Focusing SEO work on long-tail search phrases specific to your value propositions gives your business a couple of profitable benefits.

Long-Tail Keyword Phrases are a Profitable Pursuit for Organic Leads

Small business have tight marketing budgets, so each dollar of time and money needs to be spent wisely. Long-tail keyword strategies fit that need well. Focusing onsite SEO with these hyper-targeted keyword sets can help you punch above your weight to improve SERP performance.

1. A Bluer Long-Tail Ocean with Less Competition

A Blue Ocean in business is one with fewer sharks circling. Long-tail keywords give your business a chance to chase prospects in less competitive spaces. They have always allowed you as a business to focus your SEO and ad budgets on those specific searches that most describe your product or service.

You can now achieve better SERPs with the same budget if executed well. And, raise the quality of the clicks and improve conversion rates. In the past, these phrases got a lot less traffic because the customer had to type the whole phrase into a search field. Few had that patience! Speaking the phrase is much easier!

The bottom line: It doesn’t take as much effort to get your pages to rank well for your targeted long-tail keywords. And the leads likely will be better qualified.

2. Higher Conversion Rates for Organic Traffic

Long-tail keyword research using Google-based searches will uncover a number of longtail phrase candidates that indicate buyer’s intent. You can also explore terms that may apply to different parts of your sales funnel. Informational searches at the top, for instance, and price discovery queries at the bottom.

Have Fun Exploring Longtail Keyword Phrases

You do need to get serious about focusing on longtail keywords to meet the needs of voice-searching prospects. But have fun with the exploration process! Start with your own data. Which terms are popping up in Google Analytics for your sites? What does your Search Console report? What keywords do you find in your social channel data? There lies the foundation for the rest of your search!

SEO tools also exist that can crunch word lists and generate options. These tools can accelerate your work. But manual labor can also be productive, and often more enlightening because you learn as you go. So, have fun browsing around the internet: Try a bunch of different word combinations to see what companies pop up on page one.

  • If you pop up, perhaps you have that phrase covered already.
  • If your competitors pop up, that could become a priority phrase.
  • When third-party links dominate (Yelp, etc.) perhaps that phrase needs more thought, at it clearly has some stiff competition already.

Then review the suggestions that Google typically offers at the bottom of each results page. Which make sense to include, or at least explore further? Try the same exercise in Bing, and see whether results align and if new ideas pop up.

Your list is going to grow exponentially now. Start to prioritize and winnow. Then get back to your strategic objective. If it is brand awareness, top-of-funnel inquiries go first. If you seek to improve conversion rates, terms focused on imminent buying intent take the lead.

Longtail Keywords Do Need to Lead to Great Content!

Target list built? Start optimizing your pages by adding them to your content.

  • Update current content where feasible
  • Craft new content around the top terms on your list

Your long-tail targeting is only as strong as your content. Creating hard-to-read copy that talks to Google more than it talks to your prospective customer fails the optimization test. Google is getting better at measuring the human-focused content quality, as well. So keep writing for people first, then optimize as needed.

Of course, there are hundreds of combinations of even one longtail keyword phrase, so you could drive yourself crazy trying to create content to feature each variation. Our advice? Do NOT do that. Organic SEO is a long game. Prioritize all your new targeted phrases and start from the top, testing each set as you go.

Work with the SEO Pros at KO Websites

Want help with all this? Talk to SEOPros/KO Websites. We have been offering digital marketing services in the Bay Area and nationally for close to 20 years. Put our hard-won expertise to work for you.