Long Tail Keywords: What They Are and How They Help You

Social Media: The Power of Long Tail Keyword Phrases

Guest post contributed by SEO freelancer Ryan Chaffin. This is Part 2 of a three-part series on The Power of Social Media. Missed Part 1? Catch it here.

Photo Credit: floridapfe (flickr)

It is incredibly important to incorporate keywords and keyword phrases into all online marketing efforts. After all, by focusing on specific keywords and keyword phrases, it helps the search engines (and people searching) to know what it is you do and therefore what searches your site is relevant to.

Remember that it is the goal of all search engines (and people searching) to pull up the most relevant results for their searches.

That is why the keywords that you choose to market for are so incredibly important in all of your social media marketing efforts.

What are Long Tail Keywords?

All savvy online marketers should be utilizing social media tools for their online marketing campaigns. When selecting the keyword phrases to focus on in your social media marketing efforts, it is also important to realize the power of long tail keyword phrases.

Long tail keyword phrases are keyword phrases that include several words. This makes them more specific and helps the search engines to direct people to your site who specifically type in multiple keywords for a search. Typically, long tail keyword phrases have less competition when it comes to other online marketers trying to rank for them which therefore make them easier to rank for.

Using Long Tail Keywords to Stand Out and Get More Biz

Think of it this way, if you have a company that does renovations for people, your keyword could be ‘renovations’. While this is relevant to your company, there are several other companies that do renovations, too. Since that is the case, these many, many companies are all working hard to rank for that one specific keyword. Therefore, competition is fierce.

Remember that some companies do commercial renovations while still others specialize in individual home renovations. That’s why it’s a good idea use the phrase, ‘home renovations’ instead of just ‘renovations’. This narrows down what you specialize in which makes you even more relevant for that phrase.

The thing about using the phrase, ‘home renovations’, though, is that many companies do home renovations but only in certain geographic areas. That’s why it’s a good idea to include the geographical area you service in order to reap the benefits of local search engine marketing. So if your business was located in Toronto for instance, your keyword phrase should now be, ‘home renovations Toronto’.

Now this phrase has three keywords in it and makes what you do very specific. This lessens the competition for that phrase considerably since there are far less home renovations Toronto services. It is therefore easier to rank as there is less competition for this local, long tail phrase.

BizChickBlogs Note: To see the power in long tail keyword phrases, just check out your Google Analytics report. See for yourself the types of searches that bring traffic to your blog. Chances are, you are snagging some traffic for phrases you never imagined. To turn this happenstance into more of a planned thing, you’ll need to do some keyword research for blogging (that links to a great post you should read).
Other examples of long tail keywords for home renovations: affordable home renovations, easy home renovations, home renovations company Tucson…

As you are participating in social media marketing such as blogging, forum posting, article marketing, social networking updates, etc, remember what a powerful effect choosing long tail keyword phrases can mean. By making your phrases long and specific, it cuts out more competition for those trying to rank for these terms which means you will be able to capitalize on the types of customers who are looking for exactly the services you offer in exactly the areas you offer them. Indeed, there is much to be said for the power of using long tail keyword phrases in social media marketing.

Your Turn – Has it paid off for you?

Have you

(1) been targeting long tail keyword phrases specifically,

(2) noticed an inflow of traffic from long tail keywords,

(3) been wondering what people meant by long tail, and now you know, or

(4) none of the above?

Stay tuned for Part 3… the Power of Consistent Activity (especially for bloggers!)

Keep Reading

Ryan Chaffin

Thanks seospidy! Glad you approve!

share flag

spam
offensive
disagree
off topic

seospidy@Internet marketing

keyword proximity, keyword prominence, keyword density are major factors while writing effective excellent article promoting long tail keywords. I use different combination of keyword phrases in long tail keywords and i got decent traffic from it. Excellent article I like your style. :)

Sourish @ Iphone 4 Jailbreak

another thing is , you need to keep posting content , or your ranking may go down

Kathy@ Kathy Blogger

One thing I really like about long tail keywords is that they bring buying traffic. It is much easier to target a buyer who is searching for "lake trout fishing charters on lake Ontario" than it is targeting "fishing charters". The guy who is searching for "fishing charters" could be looking for ideas or information on anything to do with fishing charters. The guy searching for the long tail is looking to hire a fishing charter. You are much more likely to get a conversion from the long tail as long as you are selecting your long tail keywords properly.

Excellent point Kathy!

Petra@Tropical Decor

You can't underestimate the power of long tail keywords. Sure, the more specific you get, the less searches the specific keyword phrase will have. But on the other hand you will be much more likely to get more visitors from those fewer searches, because they are more likely to land on your site, as the competition is much smaller. Makes sense? ;)

Tia Peterson

Agreed totally!

Makes sense! :)

hesbon kerongo

thanks for great article....very helpful

Thanks, Hesbon. Ryan did a great job.

Thanks! :)

Gera @ Sweets Foods Blog

I've been exploring long tail keywords and they're with a high competition similar than shorts. The game is complicated and you should be creative and to do lot of research. The advantage is you've more chances to succeed.

Cheers,

Gera

Gera,
You made a great point. It is vital to invest the time into keyword research. Even a simple session of keyword research can make a huge difference.

Great comment!

-Ryan

Keith Davis@Public speaking and Presentations

Ryan / Tia
I understand keywords but the concept of the long tail is something that I've struggled with.
Reading this post has finally made it clear.
Your example ‘home renovations Toronto’. is particularly good because it adds the geographic locator which is always a powerful word to use.
Thanks for a useful and informative post.

Keith,
Glad to know that this article really helped. It really makes a difference knowing these articles are useful to others. The example used was the best way I could think of to explain it. Glad it worked!

Matt Gannon

I usually target mostly only long tail these days, the websites ranking for the main keywords have big SEO companies working for them to stay up there, so its hard for the at home marketer to jump over them in the rankings.

I agree. Although competition is rising, it's still easier to rank pages and sites for high volume long-tail than it is for high-volume standard keywords.

I definitely agree. Having worked for some of the big SEO firms, I've seen the resources they have and the tactics they use. They are very good at what they do, and it makes it difficult for anyone to compete. It's a good thing their clients want the short term keywords, leaving a large part of the long tail for us.

Stacy

This is one of the most important thing that anyone who is really interested in making money should know. I learned about them not too long ago and it has really helped get me to the top. I know that I still have alot to learn and that is why I keep reading these great post.

Thanks, Stacy!

Glad you enjoy the articles!

Longtail keywords are definitely becoming more and more competitive these days, but are still less competitive than shorter keywords. The great thing about long tail keywords is that they still include the short term phrases for the most part, and so you are going to improve your rankings for both.

Firstly , thanks for this great post. Next i woule like to say that , with the unavailibility of shot term keyword , logtail are the best to target a audience interested in specific product . 3 words are best working for me .

sorry for the missing text . I am just trying to get used to the laptop keyboard :P

3 words works best for me, too.

ashok

I'll have to incorporate these ideas into my (very) primitive attempts to get attention.

Although now that I think about it, there are several keyword phrases with some specificity I've been angling for traffic from.

I'll let you know how things go. I don't think SEO is what's killing my blog, although lots of search traffic would be nice. What's been hurting my blog has been a lack of link presence on other blogs, but that's changing rapidly nowadays.

Primitive or not, your efforts are working. I find it hard to believe you have a lack of presence on other blogs, you're everywhere! ;-)

Cassy@PirateCostumes

I have been targeting long tail keywords for awhile now. I was taught to find out exactly what people are looking for and give it to them. With long tail keywords it is much easier to know exactly what people are looking for. But the competition has certainly grown for these long tail keywords.

Hi Cassy - Welcome to the blog!

Right, as Kok said above, the competition has grown. There are strategies you can use to find less competitive and still relevant keyword phrases, though, like Market Samurai.

Kok Siong @ Cancer Research

It is not easy to optimize the long tail keywords too. Nowadays, a lot people start to optimize the long tail keywords. That means there are a lot of competitors now. Therefore, keyword research is essentially important in my opinion. Anyway, thanks for sharing!