Why it’s important to focus on the long tail

Long tail keywords are one of the best ways to ensure that your website gets traffic from Google. Long tail keywords are very specific phrases that contain multiple words. They get less traffic than broader search terms but they convert better because they are so specific. It’s also easier to rank for them, too.

Want to profit from long tail keywords? Here’s what you need to know.

What are long tail keywords?

Long tail keywords are more specific, longer and less searched for phrases than typical keywords. Rather than receiving thousands of searches, they will typically only receive a few hundred if that. They work because the internet is so big and used by so many people that you will almost always find a couple of hundred people searching for even the most obscure things. If you can give these people what they are looking for, they are much more likely to convert than other searchers.

Start with your main topic

Your website will probably have a single main topic or theme. This might be something like food or sport, or, if you’re a business, it could be related to your service. If you are a law firm, for example, your main topic might be “lawyers in Scottsdale”.

Long tail topics come off the main theme

If you try to optimize every page of your website for your main theme, you’re going to quickly run into trouble, however. It’s going to ruin your search rankings and make ranking for anything much harder. But that’s where the long tail comes into effect. Every other page on your website aside from the homepage should be dedicated to a long tail variant of your main search term.

So if you are a law firm in Scottsdale, a long tail page might be “Criminal defense lawyers in Scottsdale” or “divorce lawyers in Scottsdale”. But it could also be non-service-based topics, such as “What happens if I get a DUI” or “How can I make the divorce process go as smoothly as possible”.

Why the long tail is so important

Long tail keywords are crucial to your ultimate SEO success. Without them, it’s going to be very hard to rank for any topic. But with them, you’re going to be able to rank for dozens or even hundreds of valuable keywords. That’s simply because there are fewer websites to compete with for these terms.

And because the search terms are so specific, the people who search for them are probably in a much better place to buy from you. If they are searching for something very specific, they’ve probably done their research and they know exactly what they are looking for.

Create great content to take advantage of the long tail

Focusing on long tail keywords only works if you are going to create high-quality content to go along with your long tail keywords. The better your content, the higher your chances of ranking and the better your chances of converting visitors into customers.