It has been well known for some time that in order to generate quality traffic to a website or blog, you need great content.
Search engines tend to prioritize web pages with oodles of engaging write-ups. Due to this fact, many members of the SEO blogging community take the opportunity to optimize their content by targeting specific keywords in order to help their web addresses climb to the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages).
Although targeting keywords in your web content is a proven method to generate more traffic, most people make the mistake of targeting keywords that are way outside of their reach, meaning too many other bloggers are focusing on the same term. This is where researching and using “long tail” keywords comes in.
Here are some tips on how you can use this type of optimization effectively.
What Does “Long Tail” Mean?
A long tail keyword can be any search term made up of three or more words. The end game of using long tail keywords is to target very specific searches and limit the amount of competition you have while doing so.
An example of this would be to focus on one specific term like “shoes”, and build descriptive phrase around that word. What type of shoes and what sizes are most suitable? If you add those answers into the mix, you’re now left with a search phrase that looks like “size seven woman’s shoes”.
By targeting specific terms like this, you lower the amount of searches you generate from each keyword phrase, but you will maximize the amount of conversions you receive since the content is relevant to what is being requested.
How to Research Long Tail Keywords
When you first start targeting longer keyword phrases, it can become a bit challenging to decide what the most practical terms are to use. Most SEO blogging professionals make use of keyword generation tools to help get them started.
There are a number to choose from, including Google Adwords, Market Samurai and Wordtracker to name a few. It will be a bit of trial and error to find the right search term that generates the most amount of traffic, but the extra time you spend finding these little gems will pay you back ten-fold.
Overall, choosing the right keywords to target in your content will be one of the most time consuming, yet important aspects of your SEO campaign. If you don’t put in enough research, you can exhaust your efforts and resources in targeting keywords that bring you little traffic.
However, by utilizing certain optimization tools and creating specific long tail keyword phrases, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you will begin to generate quality web traffic to your blog.
