What Are Long Tail Keywords?

The Importance of Long Tail Keywords for SEO

There are three main reasons that a good SEO strategy should focus on long tail terms:

1.They Increase Organic Search Hits

Inquiries today generally extend beyond just a single-word search. Modern consumers are technologically advanced and time poor, and string together several words to get closer to the information they want, faster – especially with the rise of voice search. Voice search accounts for around 50% of all search queries, and they don’t involve one or two words, they include phrases. That makes long-tail keywords so important right now and for the future. Implementing long-tail keywords is an easy and effective way to increase organic search hits to your website.

2.They Have Less Competition

It’s much easier to rank for long tails than for short, common keywords. That’s because there are fewer websites competing for high rankings in the result pages of Google. For example, a short tail keyword may have over 5 billion results in Google, meaning you would need to outrank 5 billion other sites to get the number 1 ranking. However, a long tail version of that keyword, will have a lot less competition and give you a greater chance of ranking highly.

For example, if you run a small clothing business and you want to target ‘women’s dresses’, if you enter that search query, you will notice literally millions of search results and the websites that rank highly are large ecommerce sites and large-scale retailers.

For smaller businesses, it can be almost impossible to compete for a high rank for such keywords. Even if you invest the time and resources to rank, it’s likely you won’t stock all the types of dresses that come under this category. Highly generic short tail keywords make it extremely difficult for small business to rank, and it can also result in higher bounce rates.

The wise thing to do is target something more specific. What category of dresses contributes most to your sales? Let’s say it’s plus size casual maxi dresses – there’s your first long tail keyword.

3.They Have Higher Conversion Rates

Long tail searches may be longer, but that makes them more specific. This means the visitor that finds your website using the long tail phrase is more likely to buy your service or product as they are likely much further along in the buying cycle.

Take for example, a person looking for new running shoes. A search with the short tail term “running shoes” isn’t clear regarding their needs so the chances of getting conversion from such keywords is less likely. However, searching with a query such as “women’s running shoes under $100” is much more specific to their needs, so the chances of conversion for such keywords is much higher.

Using long tail keywords is an important, yet often overlooked, tactic to attract the right visitors to your site. For smaller and medium sized businesses, it absolutely essential to focus on long tail keywords – they are easier to rank, cost less, and generally have a higher conversion rate. Start exploring this vital part of keyword implementation, and put your business in an ideal position to leverage an advantage that your competitors are missing.

As a leading digital marketing agency in Melbourne, our in-house SEO team focuses on achieving exceptional results via research, data and an understanding of the SERP competitive landscape associated with any keyword. If you are looking a digital marketing agency with the SEO experience and expertise to maximise your rankings and increase conversions & sales, connect with us today. For a free consultation and SEO audit report, get in touch with us online now or call us on 1300 635 905 today.