If there are many competitions in the market, what are you going to do to stand out? If your business has a physical store, you have to attract customers with your store’s or office’s visuals. You need to make them, in this day and age, Instagram-worthy. It would help if you also employed customer representatives who are experts in dealing with all kinds of customers. Businesses have to keep up with their campaigns and adjust them accordingly.
But when the battle goes online, the doors of opportunities are thrown wide open. Search engines are a different beast. Here, visuals are not the only thing that matters. Being Instagram-worthy is just a speck of dust. You have to find a way to get through the barriers of the digital world and make your company the best source of information about the industry it belongs to.
This is where long-tail keywords come in. A lot of businesses already know the power of search engine optimization (SEO). They even invest in SEO agencies to help boost their search engine ranks. But what many companies don’t understand is that there’s such a thing as the best keyword or phrase. Sure, there are hundreds of keywords related to your company, but do you use them all? More importantly, do they all lead traffic to your website?
What Long-tail Keywords Do for Your Web Presence
Think about the way you search on Google. For example, if you are looking for a red love seat, do you enter the phrase “red love seat,” or do you type “furniture?” You will get better results when you are more specific. That, in a nutshell, is what long-tail keywords are about. It is specific in your search term. Instead of searching for the generic category, you go straight for the jugular—you search for what you are really looking for.
Categorization in keywords works only to make your website easier to navigate. Categories are for people who don’t know what they are searching for and how to find what they are searching for. If you know specifically what you want, why not search for that term directly?
When you use long-tail keywords for your website, you are giving it a chance to be on the first page of search engine results. With many websites already competing for the same set of generic keywords, you can be different by utilizing specific search terms. Sure, there’s the argument that websites will draw less traffic because of long-tail keywords; but do you know that this traffic is also more committed and focused? This means one thing: these customers are more likely to buy from your store than simply browse through the catalog.
How Effective Long-tail Keywords Are to Your Online Presence
Several studies have already shown the effectiveness of long-tail keywords. In fact, many are not aware that short-term generic keywords make up only 10% to 15% of all searches, while mid-length keywords comprise 15% to 20% of a page’s total number of views. And what about long-tail keywords? These more specific key phrases are almost 70% of the total views of a particular web page. Imagine that.
Competition is fierce in shorter keywords. It would be best if you fought for every search term and opportunity. But with longer keywords, you’re on your own. You will pull in less traffic, yes, but you will also have better chances of attracting the right market. When users search for long-tail keywords, it means they know what they want, and they are ready to consume or buy the products that will come up in their search results.
How Much Long-tail Keywords Can Cost a Business
The finances involved will affect your business decision to use long-tail keywords rather than shorter terms. Long terms are beneficial for websites that want their pages to rank higher organically in places like Google. Websites will also benefit from the lower cost of long-tailed keywords. If you are looking into bidding for a search term, you should know that long-tailed keywords are cheaper compared to shorter keywords in a paid search marketing campaign.
When you look at the list of the most popular keyword searches, you’ll usually find short phrases. These are not the kind of keywords you should want for your website. Your purpose should be to make your web page a cut above the rest. Only long-tail keywords and phrases can do that. They are a win-win for anyone’s marketing campaign as they result in better search engine rankings; plus, they are cheaper and produce more qualified search results.