Ranking well for certain keywords can be pretty difficult if you’re a smaller business competing against businesses with a stronger online presence. If you’ve done some keyword research and found that your best keywords are highly competitive search terms, it’s time to focus on identifying long tail keywords to boost your search rankings.
Typically people use what we call “head” terms to search for content online; these are short, condensed search terms. For example, “tennis racquet” is a head term whereas “oversized tennis racquets vs. standard tennis racquets” would be a long tail keyword phrase. With longer keywords your user’s intent is clear, meaning you can target your content to a more specific audience. It’s obvious that fewer people will be using that exact search term, but those using long tail keywords are typically more qualified and more likely to fall within your target market.
Long tail keyword phrases also provide a much higher ROI. If you’re doing pay-per-click campaigns (PPC), you’ll find these types of keywords to be much less expensive than head terms.
So how do you discover what long tail keywords would be best for you and your business? As always, Google is a powerful tool. Their Keyword Planner is a great place to start your keyword research. Select six or seven phrases you think people would use to search for your business and see how those search terms rank. View Google’s suggested keywords to see if their suggested search terms are relevant to your products and services. Also, be sure to use a few different keyword research tools to get a good idea of search term performance across the Web.
Using Google Suggest will also help you narrow down long tail keywords for your business. Simply begin typing your primary keywords into the Google search box and Google will render search suggestions. These are phrases that people are searching for, and if relevant to your services, consider digging a little deeper and incorporating them into your content.
We recommend creating blog content that includes long tail keyword phrases in the post title, and specifically utilizing questions you think others would search for online as post titles.
If you need help with your online search placement, we can help. Contact us today.
