The Long and the Short of it – Why Focusing on Long Tail Keywords is a Key to Success

May 03

MikeSEO , , No Comments

Embarking on a targeted SEO campaign can make your head spin. Determining all those essential keywords, creating unique content and developing a link building strategy are all time consuming and for many quite confusing.

So when it comes to keywords what should you be focusing on? Well, there was a time when single keywords would probably get the job done for you and in the early days site builders would literally stuff pages with keywords to propel them up the page rankings.  Today, it is not that simple.  Google in particular has developed various algorithms and software programs to wheedle out those sites that still employ such tactics, allowing only quality content to filter through into the rankings.

Single keywords are important, but it is long tail phrases which can really make the difference.  Here’s why: long tail keywords of three or four words will be more target specific, whereas single words will be more general.  For example, let’s say that you manage a website that sells greeting cards.  While [cards] may have a lot of search traffic, how many of those web surfers are actually looking for greeting cards?  Targeted a very broad keyword in this case won’t result in many visitors or sales.  Why? Because [cards] could mean “business cards”, “birthday cards”, “credit cards”, etc.  The term is too broad to deliver viable customers to your website.  By targeting longer-tail phrases like [birthday greeting cards], [cards for mom], [wedding anniversary cards], you will see an increase in “quality visitors” – those that are specifically looking for your product.

Think about it this way – in the real world you would not try to promote your greeting cards via advertisements in a bicycle magazine!  Reaching your target audience is the key to success in any business and in any type of marketing campaign. So you need to identify what your targets are looking for and how they are doing it.

It sounds simple enough, but so many people still don’t get it when it comes to developing keyword campaigns. Essentially you need to be clever and proactive when it comes to keywords.  Don’t be seduced by the large numbers of visitors a single keyword will attract each month – you will not receive the same numbers and instead, you may be wasting your efforts by developing a lack of “quality visitors”.  Adopt long tail keywords and apply them to the content on your website to target certain areas of your business and bring in visitors who are specifically looking for what you have to offer.