Getting to grips with long tail keywords

Getting your keyword research right is a critical SEO task. It has the power to make or break your online presence and will affect everything from how visible you are in the search results pages to how much relevant traffic arrives at your site each day. With local SEO also proven to drive in store visits for those with a bricks and mortar location, the right keywords can are just as important offline as on.

A common mistake many website owners and marketers fall victim too is focusing only on broad search terms. Very general terms have much higher volumes of search traffic but your small business website will then be pitted against millions of others, including industry giants such as Amazon. Huge search volumes don’t equal large amounts of traffic to your site. Another problem with short-tail keywords is they tend to be less specific, so the quality of traffic generated on those terms isn’t as good when it comes to generating conversions.If your SEO strategy is currently built around short-tail keywords, here’s why it pays to be more specific and get to grips with long-tail keywords too… Long-tail keywords have higher levels of intent Long-tail keywords are more specific than broad match keywords, which means they have a much higher level of intent. A search user may start with a general keyword but as they get closer to purchase, the keywords they use will become more and more specific.If you were shopping for a new car for example but had no idea of the make and model you wanted or where to buy from, you may simply use ‘new car’ as your search term at the very start of your path to ownership. As you begin to make decisions about your budget, desired features, preferred manufacturer etc, you’ll begin adding those details into your Google search.At this point, you’ll swap to a long-tail keyword, for example ‘black Mercedes 250d AMG 2019’. This specific search has a much higher level of intent as you know exactly what you want and are now much further along the consumer journey. As a website owner, this is exactly the kind of traffic you want to attract – meaning you need to be visible on Google for those more specific, longer-tail keywords. Longer-tail keywords are ideal for voice search According to a report compiled by Microsoft, just 25% of households won’t have a smart speaker within the next 12 months. What’s more, two of the top three most common types of searches are shopping related. Long-tail keywords are a must for capitalising on this trend as they more closely mirror natural speech than short-tail keywords.Using long-tail keywords puts you at an advantage when it comes to voice search, which is especially key if you are a local business. By optimising your content for very specific terms, it’s easier for local consumers to find you. A short-tail keyword such as ‘dentist’ would be difficult to achieve visibility for and could attract search traffic from around the country. If you have one dental studio, it makes much more sense to put your resources into obtaining voice search visibility for the longer-tail dentist + town / city / variation.