Are Long Tail Keywords Important? Let’s Find Out
Small Business owners on the web should know the importance of embedding good keywords in their web site and blog copy. But, are you aware of the importance of Long Tail Keywords.
Long tail keywords are more like phrases or sentences. The attached article shows just how important they can be.
How Long-Tail Keywords Can Generate More Traffic To Your Site
So … here is How Long-Tail Keywords Can Generate More Traffic To Your Site.
Are you looking for more search engine visitors for your website? Here’s what you need to understand about search engines… they’re not the primary source of your targeted visitors. Rather, using targeted long-tail keywords within your content will boost the amount of monthly search visitors you receive.
Yes, those long-tail keywords you use won’t be in Google’s top 10 list, and that 60 percent of the organic clicks go to those keywords in the top three search results. However, you still have 40 percent to work with, right?
Therefore, if you’re constantly uploading high-quality content using long-tail keywords, the amount of traffic you see from search engines increases. You’ll be able to attract the paying customers and boost your brand.
Okay, so you see why it’s beneficial to have long tail key phrases. Now, it’s time to find out how to maintain your organic traffic.
The Importance Of Long-Tail Keywords
A number of folks are under the mistaken impression that keyword research isn’t important. However, research, especially when it comes to long-tail keywords – is important in engaging and inspiring readers to take action.
According to a Statistica research study, 50 percent of your attention needs to be placed on long-tail keywords to ensure successful on-page optimization. How long should a long-tail keyword be? The minimum is four words; but, the longer the keyword, the easier it’ll be to rank high for that particular keyword.
Here are some helpful steps to carry out a successful long-tail keyword research:
- Your base keyword is writing. Use Google Keyword Planner to come up with long-tail variations. Type “writing” in and hit “Get Ideas”.
- Click “Keywords Tab” to find all keywords that relate to writing.
- Find the most relevant keywords that are also in-demand. You want to make sure your base keyword is relevant since you’ll expand upon it for your longer variations.
- Copy a relevant keyword into the search box to find your long-tail variation.
And, if you want 50 long-tail versions, here are three things you can use:
- Go to 7Search, clicking on the Advertisers tab
- Hit “enter your keywords” tab to continue
- Enter the keywords in and hit the green button
- Recognize the relevant long-tail keywords
When using these keywords, write your content and use a long-tail keyword for your bullet points and subtitle.
What’s The Intent Of Long-Tail Keyword?
The intent of a certain keywords is actually more important than the actual keyword. Tom Fanelli said when people think of a keyword’s intent, they come up with good keywords. Thus, your content is greatly improved because of this. The idea of long-tail keywords is to address a searcher’s needs and or solve a problem that ranks well on Google.
When using a keyword strategy, don’t become agitated with the changes that occur with Google’s algorithm Instead, put attention on what matters, and you’re good to go! When you have long-tail keywords, you’ll have a higher conversion rate than if you had used a base keyword.
What kind of buying cycle does your keyword go into? Remember, some customers prefer not to purchase products right away. Instead, they like to browse. So, again, where does your keyword fall?
If customers have yet to make up their minds, they’ll look for informational keywords such as:
- Workouts to lose weight
- How to make money through the Internet
- Make money through the Internet for free
When searchers finally get ready to make a purchase, they’ll use keywords that showcase commercial intent such as:
- Weight loss programs
- Survival knife reviews
- Discount women’s clothing
Commercial keywords that have certain prefixes (words that are before a keyword) or suffixes (words that are after a keyword) tend to help with the long-tail keyword result. Some popular suffixes and prefixes include:
- Buy
- Purchase
- Discount
- Deal
- Review
- Coupon
- Shipping
Using both commercial and informational intent keywords boosts your search ranking, especially when the keywords are used in high-quality content.
What Are Some Benefits Of Using Long-Tail Keywords?
1 – Increase Search Rankings
The top result on Google gets nearly 37 percent clicks, which means that’s a lot of traffic you can get ahold of. Thus, you want to spend time coming up with the best possible content using your long-tail keywords and promote it to your target audience. Re-purpose the content so people constantly benefits from it.
If you find it hard to attain good search engine rankings, there could be 13 reasons why such as duplicate content within your website. You can either make your content unique or remove it.
Once you do this, put attention on the audience by writing content that addresses their issues and optimizing it for search engines. Don’t just use long-tail keywords for fun, use it for an intent.
One key ranking factor is on-page keyword usage, and should never be ignored in SEO.
Remember, when your audience is happy with your content, they’re going to share it with other people they know.
2 – Attain More Visitors
Google knows how important user intent is, which is why it’ll give you more search traffic… but only if you have high-quality content that’s useful for your readers. For instance, you have the long-tail keyword of “weight loss guide for beginners”. As your articles become in-depth and are high-quality, they’ll show up for other long-tail search terms like:
- Free weight loss guides for beginners
- Best beginner weight loss guides
With more long-tail keywords added to your repertoire, the more traffic you’re going to see.
3 – Better Your Conversion Rate
When it comes to CRO and SEO, the two work in harmony. Everything must work in conjunction with each other – content, call to action, site load time, etc. And, the reason is that on-site conversions start at site design.
Search users tend to convert through various industries. However, you need to put attention on the most effective keywords at every buying cycle stage. Thus, your landing page should be created with your users in mind. Failure to do that means everything else fails.
What Are The Myths Behind Long-Tail Keywords
There are several myths circulating about long-tail keywords, especially since the release of the Google Hummingbird. These myths include:
1 – Focus Only On Long-Tail Keywords
Most keywords people are looking for come in two styles: short and long. Use keywords too much and you’re penalized, which reduces your traffic amount. Another issue is excessively using either keyword type as an anchor text.
A big reason to focus on both types is that the longer the keyword is, the lower the search result. In the end, it’s going to take time before you see any real results in both rankings and traffic.
2 – Using Precise Long-Time Keywords In A Headline
It may seem harmless enough but not ideal. Yes, benefits are there; but, it does have some drawbacks. You need to watch what your headlines have in them, as they’re the first thing people see. And, it’s what influences their decision to stay or go.
Here’s something to keep in mind: if your keyword flows naturally and smoothly while you read it, then go ahead and use it in the headline. If it doesn’t, it’s regarded as keyword stuffing and could result in a penalty for your content.
3 – Long-Tail Keywords Are Cheaper
If you do some research, you’re going to find that some long-tail keywords are actually quite costly… despite what PPC advertisers believe. The majority of SEO experts understand that long-tail keywords can be expensive and will take time to better your organic rankings.
Remember, the price you pay is based on intent, demand and perceived value.
Special Note: SEO takes a long time to master so you should never expect immediate results. Now, within weeks of starting a campaign is possible.
4 – Aim For Google’s First Page Search Results
While every blogger, website owner and content marketer wants first page of Google’s search results, it’s not that great of a goal to have. In fact, with today’s SEO, you could have first position an still not receive sales, leads or even clicks. The reason is the headline of the page… it doesn’t inspire people to click on it.
Without engaging, inspiring headlines, you’re not going to get traffic to visit your website, with more people hitting the back button if they do check it out. When people do this, Google takes notice and drops your rankings.
“How to” headlines or ones that have a number often get more clicks. With inspirational headlines, you’re encourage to write even higher-quality content, providing you with:
- Call-to-action
- Bullet points
- Subtitles
Make sure your headlines are written like a sentence, not capitalization of every word and not written in lowercase.
An Understanding of Long-Tail Ranking Elements
What elements provide your long-tail keywords with a boost in search engines? Google will use up to 200 factors to decide what’s useful and relevant on your content page before it’s given a ranking.
What are some elements Google uses?
1 – Keyword-Rich Headlines
Be sure you use relevant headlines, as most folks look at just the first two words to determine if the content will meet their needs. Say someone is searching for ways to make money from home. Some potential headlines they will click on include:
- Making Money From Home: 5 Steps To Help You Earn Money From Your House
- Top 5 Stay-At-Home Jobs That Earn You Cash
- How To Make Money To Pay Your Monthly Bills
Another option is to locate a popular article and rewrite it so that it’s your own.
Special Note: Remember, not to keyword stuff your article. And, when used in your headline, limit how many times it’s used in the body. The keyword density ought to be less than one percent. Your goal is to help people, not manipulate the search results and rankings.
2 – Internal Linking
What are internal links? They’re hyperlinks that point to webpages of the same domain. You must focus on the going-ons of your website because they’re in your control. Google will look closely at the links that point toward your archive and internal pages.
When content has internal links, Google notes that you care about your users’ experience. When you link your already-published articles, it means you meet their expectations and engage with them. The more links you give them to click, the more time they’re on your site. How do you do internal linking?
- Link to other applicable content pages
- Use breadcrumbs to make it easier for users to navigate the site
- Link to pages that are both helpful and useful (Remember, Google doesn’t like duplicate content)
- Link to a whole webpage, not just images
- Mix up the anchor text (excessively using an anchor text will penalize your website). If you use a particular keyword for your internal page, it doesn’t need to be used for the anchor text.
3 – Trusted Links
The Internet’s currency is links, which means you should have links that point back to your website. You can increase the ranking and search traffic without them but patience is key. There are two factors to look out for building links: Page Authority and Domain Authority. Be sure to find webpages that have high PA and DA numbers.
Another option is to have natural links from sites that have trusted links, which often comes in the form of blogger outreach or guest blogging. The best thing you can do is guest blog on websites that ranks high for your short or long-tail keywords.
4 – Social Engagement
When it comes social signals, social media is an important part of the SEO factor. That’s because people spend a good chunk of their time on Facebook, Pintrest, Instagram and Twitter. While they don’t directly boost your ranking, they can lead to engagement that will help. They also do the following:
- Decrease bounce rate
- Send high-quality links to your internal web pages
- Pass links mojo to your webpages
Don’t forget to use powerful call-to-action instructions to motivate people to take action.
Tools You Can Use For Your Long-Tail Keyword Research
Don’t waste your time with manual SEO. Instead, use any of the four important tools listed below in order to produce more monthly search visitors with your long-tail keyword;
- Ubersuggest – comes up with various suggestions and gives you easy-to-rank keywords/phrases as well as headlines suggestions. It can help with ideas to write on as well.
- io – This free SEO tool will provide up to 750 long-tail keyword variations. Type in the main keyword and hit the orange search button.
- Google Adwords Keyword Planner – A reliable Google tool that uses its own search engine for searches. The information is stored on its database. Ask a question-based keyword to come up with a longer keyword variation.
- Google-Related & Auto-Suggest
- Regular Google Search – Type in the keyword and you’ll see a list of long-tail, not-so competitive keywords relevant to your search.