The Long Tail in SEO can help you reach your SEO efforts much more easily. What is this SEO term and how can you use it to your advantage? Those using more than one SEO approach are best equipped to survive changes to the secret Google SEO algorithms. Consider doing LSI silos as well as Long Tail, article marketing and social marketing as well.
Long Tail Illustration:
If you’re going to try to hit Google spot # 1 on the word computer, you’re in for a very challenging journey as there are going to be millions of hits on the word ‘computer.’ However, if you decide to target used computers, Houston you just might get the results you’re hoping for. If you do a check on the number of hits for each term and you’ll quickly see there are still a lot of hits on both terms but the Long Tail term is going to be much easier to get to the top of the totem pole with.
What Are Your Potential Customers Searching For?
Take your target customer and think about what they’ll be searching for. Not only do you have a better chance of them finding you when you optimize for their targeted keywords but you’ll have a bit less competition fighting for those words.
Fewer Competitors = More Sales
When you go looking for something, the keywords you use are probably quite specific because you understand that you need to do more than a single word search. Most people who want to buy something online and want more than just very generic information will search with more than a word or two in their phrase.
Use keywords tools online when doing your SEO prep work like the Google tilde operator and some common sense when deciding to go after Long Tail keywords.
About Sean Rasmussen
Long Tail is the way to go in SEO. I have seen results already. And long term I am also getting good rankings for the individual words
Great to hear Renee, there is plenty of traffic out the for long tail keyphrases. Keep up the good work
I have also found the long tail keywords to be beneficial/
Hi Gee,
I think long tail keywords are the easiest for beginners.
Hi Sean,
I totally agree with Renee and Gee. I think targeting long tail keywords is the best place for a beginner to start because it’s a little easier to get the results you want.
I think the closer we get to the terms that people are using to search for something they want to buy; the better our results. For instance, I think people use different search terms when they’re looking for information as opposed to when they’re looking to actually buy.
I think we have to match up our keywords with the searcher’s intentions to get the best results. Or maybe, we need different posts to deal with different intentions? Do I have this right, Sean?
Pretty well on the money there Jazz!
You make a really interesting point right at the beginning of this post, Sean. Google’s secret algorithm is subject to change, and it is easy to find stories of sites having suffered when Google makes a change to its algorithm. Using different SEO and traffic generation methods seems like a great way to help mitigate this. Not unlike diversifying a share portfolio to reduce risk.
I’ve always liked long tail keywords because they usually let me find what I’m looking for more quickly on today’s congested ‘net.
This is the way I normally I’ll normally start to search and I’m assuming my approach to searching is similar to a significant portion of the market.
Do some research on the ‘net to determine what long tail keyword searches are being done by people looking for the type of product you’re marketing and then put the results that research to work for you.
Nothing much to add to what has already been said in this post except to say that I have to agree with everyone here. Long Tail Keywords are very beneficial and I am going to have to plug in my keyboard extension so I can make use of that illusive squiggly line for the google tidle operator
There are so many keywords out there that not getting the short tail doesnt really matter. Using a long tail also narrows down what a person is searching for so you can target your site more spefically for the keyword and get better results/conversions.
Keyword research has been my biggest hurdle in all that I have learned so far in internet marketing.
It’s just something that has taken me a while to learn, I think I have been trying too hard.
I bought Market Samurai and have been going through the video tutorials and enjoying the learning process that way.