The phrase “long-tail” refers to a more specific search query. It is usually more than two or three words long. Long-tail keywords are phrases or questions. You can enter them into search engines to find a product or service.
Long-tail keywords must be a primary content marketing tool in an SEO strategy. As a result, you can use keyword research to create content that answers your customers’ questions.
Go where the competition does not
Long-tail phrases do not generate as much search volume. But here’s a little secret: it can help your business by increasing traffic. The process of identifying low-competition topics that are hyper-specific to your business and tag your content with those keywords is known as keyword strategy.
Even in low-volume searches, keyword-rich content can produce excellent SERP results. It can also assist you in reaching your target audience and achieving higher conversion rates.
Google’s search results for the broad keyword cake, for example, yield more than 2 billion hits. That is a “head term” that may cause your website to freeze. People may search for recipes, brand names, trends, or variations of your seed keyword.
A related phrase “cake shop” yields 2 billion results due to its longer long tail. Every cake shop with an online presence appears to be competing for the top spot.
When you narrow that search to “cake shop Cleveland,” you get a million results. A more specific search, “cake shop fifth avenue Cleveland,” yields 1 million results. But the search intent is even more important than the number.
Someone conducting that last search is almost certainly looking for cake on Fifth Avenue in Cleveland. Do you want to sell cake on Fifth Avenue in Cleveland to a smaller number of searchers or to the billions who are interested in cake in any form or fashion?
Long tail keywords can provide higher click-through rates when combined with a more specific keyword. This can result in conversions and new customers.
Develop and execute long-tail SEO
To carry out a long-tail SEO strategy, you must first determine your specific goals for your long-tail keywords. Most objectives can be classified into one of three categories:
- Increase traffic
- Build brand loyalty
- Improve conversions
Signing up with a content performance platform is a simple and secure way to accomplish this. Its professionals will examine your strategy, content, and website. Then, they’ll devise a strategy to help you achieve your objectives through SEO optimization and in-depth, relevant content that ranks high in search engine results.
Once you understand your objectives, you can determine which long-tail keywords from your keyword research will help you achieve them. You can create SEO pages (which are typically not visible on your main website) and/or blogs that directly target these long-tail keywords.
To help achieve all three of these goals, if your long-tail keywords frequently include questions, you could create a FAQ page or individual blog posts that go over the topics in detail. It would be beneficial if you also considered how you could connect your long-tail keyword to your main keyword.
It is advantageous to direct traffic to smaller pages on your website. Most importantly, you want to direct traffic back to your primary pages. These pages are designed to capture, nurture, and convert leads into customers.
Let us return to the cake shop example. In this case, the headwords would be “cake shop.” “Cakeshop on Fifth Avenue Cleveland” would be the long-tail keyword. When you create a page for “cake shop on Fifth Avenue Cleveland,” an anchor text of “cake shop” will be added to the page. It would redirect to the main keyword page. It provides a consistent user experience and directs visitors to other pages on your website.