What Is Long Tail SEO and How Can You Benefit from It?

Table of contents:

• What is Long Tail SEO?
  • Long Tail Keywords And Their Importance
• Why Should You Choose a Long Tail SEO Strategy?
  • Reach Your Target Group Easier
  • Make Your Range Less Competitive
  • Increase Your Conversion Rate
  • Improve Your Efficiency
  • Satisfy User Needs
• How to Develop a Long Tail SEO Strategy in 5 Simple Steps
  • Conduct Keyword Research
  • Tailor Keywords to Your Content
  • Optimize Existing Content
  • Publish New Content
  • Test Various Options
• Long Tail SEO Strategy - The Takeaway

What is Long Tail SEO?

To discuss long tail SEO strategies and their impact on the entire optimization process, first, you need to understand the term. Long tail SEO is an approach that makes it possible to generate valuable organic website traffic which translates into conversions. It focuses on long tail keywords that aren’t entered into the search engine as frequently as generic phrases, yet, they’re characterized by a higher conversion rate, as users searching for them are usually ready to make a purchase. [caption id="attachment_10039" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The benefits of long tail SEO. Source: neilpatel.com[/caption]

Long Tail Keywords And Their Importance

When talking aboutlong tail keywords, we mean phrases that consist of three, four, or more words. Although such phrases usually have low volumes and aren’t competitive, they allow small businesses or entrepreneurs who are just taking their first steps to quickly get tangible benefits. Just imagine that you run a family clothing shop and you decide to set up an online store. Doing SEO for phrases like “women’s skirts” or “boots” is pointless as small stores won’t outdo e-commerce tycoons like Asos or Zalando. Therefore, focusing on long tail keywords like “elegant leather boots for women” or “women’s plaid midi skirts” can give you a chance to reach your target group, meaning customers potentially interested in making the purchase. Look at the screenshot from SEMrush. The phrase “women’s plaid midi skirts” does not have a lot of volume and at a first glance doesn't look like a valuable keyword. But if you look at the search intent there's a letter T - meaning transactional intent. The person who enters this keyword into a search bar probably wants to make a purchase. So if we attract her/him with a well-thought long tail SEO strategy, there's a big chance to acquire a new customer. Another important thing to keep in mind is that tools like SEMrush estimate search volume based on ads optimized for this keyword. So, there might be not many ads with this phrase, but it doesn't mean it's not valuable.

Why Should You Choose a Long Tail SEO Strategy?

A well-thought-out long tail SEO strategy can bring numerous benefits to your business.

Reach Your Target Group Easier

If a user types in the word computer into the search box, it’s not clear whether they want to buy a computer, want to learn when the first computer was made, or look for a ranking of top gaming computers. On the other hand, someone who enters the phrase like Asus rog Zephyrus g15 is probably interested in making a purchase of this particular model. Long tail keywords focus on specific search intents and motivations. Therefore, by providing relevant content you’ll quickly satisfy users’ needs.

Make Your Range Less Competitive

Generic keywords usually have a few different intents as it’s impossible to guess what is the objective of a person who types in words like house or car into Google. Focusing on short tail phrases makes it harder for you to compete with market leaders and achieve satisfactory results. [caption id="attachment_10037" align="aligncenter" width="575"] The relationship between competition and the popularity of phrases. Source: yoast.com[/caption] Moreover, it’s worth remembering that the abovementioned words may refer to different industries - after all, someone may be selling a used car, someone else may be running a car workshop and another person may be renting cars. Optimizing your website for generic keywords that don’t specify your business activity means that in the search results you’ll compete with numerous websites that aren’t your rivals in real life. Because of that, users will find it harder to reach your site.

Increase Your Conversion Rate

Although it may seem to you that keyword stuffing is a good idea as it may attract a lot of website visitors, it’s far from the truth. Of course, people may enter your page, but they’ll quickly leave it once they realize there is nothing that meets their expectations. Focusing on long tail SEO gives you a chance to reach recipients truly interested in your offer. Even though this way you may attract 1000 users instead of 100000, it’s very likely that the vast majority of these users will convert as your website corresponds to their needs.

Improve Your Efficiency

When you invest in a long tail SEO strategy, you’ll see the first results much earlier and the entire process may turn out to be relatively cheaper. It’s all because of the abovementioned factors. Doing SEO for keywords that are highly competitive means that you’ll need to spend more money to achieve satisfactory results. If there aren’t too many rivals, you can quickly reach those interested in your offer.

Satisfy User Needs

Think about elements that drive you crazy when you try to find a specific product or service. There is nothing worse than websites with misleading, confusing content. You spend your time going through the blocks of texts only to realize that the page doesn’t offer what you need. Focusing on a given product or service range is the best way to satisfy users’ needs. This, combined with intuitive page design, quality customer service and short website loading time is a guarantee that people will perceive you positively and will come back to your store in the future.

How to Develop a Long Tail SEO Strategy in 5 Simple Steps

SEO is a process. Regardless of whether you choose a long tail or short tail strategy, the results won’t appear overnight. However, there are a few factors that can help you develop an effective long tail SEO strategy.

1. Conduct Keyword Research

Quality keyword research is one of the critical elements of every long tail SEO strategy. To tailor your offer to the target group, first, you need to discover what phrases and queries people use to search for items available in your range. For this purpose you may benefit from:

• Popular forums like Quora or Reddit,
• Specialist keyword research tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, Answer the Public, BuzzSumo, Keyword Planner or Keywordtool.io,
• Customer reviews and feedback,
• Content published by your market rivals.

Combining all these pieces of information will allow you to determine how users search for items that are of interest to them.

2. Tailor Keywords to Your Content

As mentioned above, you should avoid saturating your website with keywords that aren’t related to its content, as this may only discourage potential buyers and increase your bounce rate. Instead, it’s much better to choose a few long tail phrases that best describe your product or service range and focus on them when performing subsequent activities.

3. Optimize existing content

Creating new product or service descriptions that are in line with SEO principles isn’t enough to succeed and reach top positions for keywords important for your business. Apart from that, it’s also crucial to optimize existing content and focus on elements like:

• link building,
• title tags,
• meta descriptions,
• URLs, and alt descriptions.

This way, you’ll inform Google robots that your website contains content that brings value to users and should be ranked high in the search results.

4. Publish New Content

Keep creating new content to show Google that your website is active and that you care about users’ needs. As a result of subsequent algorithm updates, Google pays special attention to pages with user-friendly navigation, quality texts, intuitive design, and transparent layout. If you don’t have a company blog, consider setting up one. It’s a great way to attract potential customers and reach users at different stages of the sales funnel. If you explain a given subject in detail, you’ll increase your brand recognition, and people who want to learn about a product or service may come back to your website once they decide to buy it.

5. Test Various Options

There is no one happy medium when it comes to long tail SEO strategies and their effectiveness. Your results depend on a number of factors such as your website condition, backlink profile, domain authority, industry seasonality, competitiveness, page authority, and many, many more. That’s why it's crucial to test various solutions and analyze which activities bring you the best results.

Long Tail SEO Strategy -The Takeaway

We live in times when an increasing number of customers search for needed products and services online. To reach them, you need quality SEO that will allow you to maximize your profits and gain a competitive edge over your market rivals. If you want to attract users that matter most to your business, contact Delante’s experts to devise a long tail SEO strategy tailored to your needs.