Some markets are extremely competitive and it is really hard to get your company to rank highly as large companies dominate search results because of their large marketing budgets including a large specific spend on SEO. As a small to medium sized enterprise, it will be difficult to compete on a small budget and consequently many companies are increasingly gearing their keyword searches towards long-tail as opposed to the fiercely competitive field of core keywords.
First of all, let's start with the definition. A Long Tail Keyword is a sentence or phrase, which is highly specific. They are keyword phrases consisting of 3 or 4 or even more words related to what you are selling or the services that you are offering. So, a potential customer will quite often type into their search exactly what they are looking to buy.
The Point Of Sale Could Be Very Close
Let's think about that in more detail. You might Google the word “desk”, which is a very broad, generic keyword and at this point you probably don't have any intention of buying, you are simply looking for ideas and companies that sell desks. However, as you draw closer to the point of purchase, you will start to search more specifically and could type in a long-tail keyword such as, “traditional reproduction pedestal Cromwell style desk". You now know exactly what type of desk will suit your room or office and you are at the point of pressing that "purchase" button, visiting the shop or calling to find out more information.
Long Tail Keywords Are Very Valuable For Small Businesses
If you are a small company that sells classic desk furniture, there is little chance that your page will appear near the top of an organic search for “desks” because there is so much competition out there. However, if you specialise in reproduction desks and you have the “traditional reproduction pedestal Cromwell style desk", you could be found amongst all the "desk selling" giants.
Less Traffic But Higher Conversion Rates
Long-tail keywords will help your ranking and there is more chance that these will be contained in blogs and in fact I would go as far as to say that a site without a blog will have a hard time ranking for long-tail search queries. Your website may only be successfully ranking for business-specific keywords and you could be missing out on the people that are searching through phrases which will often match phrases used in your blog posts.
More Content - More Long Tail Keywords
The more content you have, the better chances you have for ranking for long-tail questions and the more chances you have to rank for less common, but ultimately higher-converting keyword phrases. It's just getting your head around the fact that although pursuing long tail keywords will result in less search volume, it is a better long-term strategy, particularly for smaller businesses.
Blogging in itself is also a long-term strategy and will create more opportunities for your prospects to find you in the course of their research.
Are you ready to get blogging but not sure where to start? Writing and Blogging is actively helping many businesses to stand out from their competitors so call Annie on 07742 321513 or email annie@writingandblogging.co.uk to learn more about how we can help support your marketing plans by writing interesting and engaging articles about your business to include long tail keywords.