White hat Search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to any modern business success. A business that employs good SEO practices and strategies will see more traffic on its website or landing pages and is more likely to convert more of those visits into actual sales, registrations or the specific intended action.
Intelligent SEO choices will create a higher return than the investment needed to implement good SEO designs.
One form of enterprise SEO that is overlooked by many businesses is long tail SEO. Long tail SEO involves using search keywords that are highly specific. When long tail SEO is used effectively, it results in more total visits for a web page, despite the fact that these keywords are searched for much less often than more generic keywords. This occurs because the search ranks these keywords higher when those specific keywords are searched for. Consequently, websites designed with long tail SEO are more likely to convert via search results, meaning customers can find intended action more easily.
Importance of Long Tail SEO
The data shows that most people use long tail keywords when searching. This is particularly true with voice powered searches on smart devices, where nearly all searches use long tail keywords. As smart devices grow in popularity, the need for long tail SEO will increase as well..
Long Tail SEO Fulfills a Need
Long tail SEO is all about fulfilling the needs of potential customers. In order for a long tail keyword to generate traffic, it needs to be a near perfect match for the searches being performed. For example, while the keyword phrase "stained oak bureau" may perfectly define the item you are selling, it won't garner many visits if the vast majority of people searching for that type of item search for "stained oak drawers" or "stained oak dresser."
In addition to choosing terms that your potential customers are searching for, you need to create content that fulfills the need of that search. High-quality content is just as important for long tail SEO as it is for traditional SEO, possibly more so. Because a long tail SEO strategy reduces the number of searches that returns your page as a result, it is critical that your content provides the searcher with the exact benefit that they are looking for.
Paid Search Marketing
It may seem counter intuitive, but long tail SEO also pays off for paid search marketing. The main reason for this is that long tail keywords cost less per click than more generic keywords. This is true despite the fact that they return more total clicks when used intelligently.
Implementing Long Tail SEO
Implementation of long tail SEO can be difficult if you try to do it on your own. You need to carefully research how people search for the products and services that you sell in order to generate an effective list of keywords.
The most common way to research this is by typing initial search terms into a search engine and then recording all auto-completed terms that appear. Then a search is performed for all of those terms and all related search terms are recorded. This pattern is repeated a few times until it produces a very large list that is then pruned down to the best terms and phrases.
When performed manually, this task can takes hours for just a single website page. However, companies like Moz, SEM Rush have tools that can perform this process quickly and efficiently with optimized software. The result from this tool-assisted implementation is a list of long tail keywords which produce optimal results for any given webpage.
When DevHub tools are used to publish content rich landing pages, the results are staggering. Both search traffic and conversions increase dramatically, because the entire site uses optimized long tail keywords to bring desired content to the people who are searching for it.