What are long tail keywords?
You’ve probably heard the term, but didn’t really stop to think about it for a minute. More importantly, how can this help you?
At the time of writing this article, with my website (blog) being less than two months old, I have been using long-tail keywords in my articles, and during this time, I have landed on the first page of a search result with Google and Bing (and others as well) taking care of using SEO (search engine optimization).
Here are some examples you can try to prove this:
- Find keyword phrases – landed on the first page, position 3
- Learn about keyword phrases – landed on the first page, position 6
- Keyword tool to find sweet spots – landed on the first page, position 1
- The best tools for SEO keywords – landed on the first page, position 2
I could give 20 different keyword phrases that send me to the first page and it’s only day 50!
Long-tail keywords are keyword phrases that have a ‘tail’ added to the natural keywords entered into a search engine (namely Google, Bing, and many others), which is a natural way your visitors use (or ask questions) when searching the web, whether they’re simply looking for information or ready to buy your product or service.
Using the shortest keyword phrase, for example, “search engine optimization” (with double quotes) produces about 115 million results with a global average monthly search of about 823,000 and is competing with too many similar niches/related businesses. Remember, there are only ten places (on the first page) that you should be aiming for, as most users won’t scroll past the first page; Second at best.
If you expand the above example to a more natural search term, for example “search engine optimization tips”, the following will happen:
- This reduces the number of results, which is good news as it allows you to rank higher in the search results.
- The average monthly search may not decrease or may actually increase, which is also good news as more users are searching for this term as well.
- You are attracting a certain type of visitor based on the keyword phrase, in this case, the person is looking for SEO advice and may not be ready to buy your product or service yet. This is called a prospector.
- Using longer tail keyword phrases will stay in a higher position longer than a simple one or two keyword phrase due to the high volume of traffic and competition.
- The longer the keyword phrase, the more permutations of part or all of the phrase are used with other search terms and help you maintain top page presence in case a long-tail phrase becomes too cluttered.
There are many techniques for obtaining long-tail keyword phrases, and of course the most popular is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool (just search for ‘Keyword Tool’).