Why Should Use Long Tail Keywords For SEO

Long tail SEO is a white-hat SEO THE HIDDEN VALUE OF LONG TAIL SEO process that involves targeting less competitive, highly specific search terms (a.k.a. long tail key- words). Since over 70% of all search queries are for long tail terms, there is incredible value in taking control of those keywords. What Is Long Tail SEO? Millions SEARCH DEMAND CURVE Top 100 keywords 100K Top 500 keywords Top 1K keywords 10K y-axis Number of monthly searches Thousands Top 10K keywords x-axis Number of keywords Hundreds Tens <5 Long Tail 70% of search traffic Fat Head Chunky Middle 18.5% of search traffic 11.5% of search traffic KEYWORD CHARACTERISTICS Search Volume Ranking Potential Generic Specific Head Keywords (1-2 words) Long Tail Keywords (>2 words) RANKING POTENTIAL & CONVERSION RATES Conversion rates for long-tail keywords are 2.5 times higher than for head keywords Long tail keywords Pages optimized for long-tail keywords move up 11 positions on average, compared to just 5 positions for head keywords Head keywords CLICK-THROUGH RATE Click-through rates increase as keywords become more specific 70% 60% 50% CTRS for positions 1-10. Long tail queries (3,4,5 words) 40% 3 words long tail 30% 4 words long tail 5 words long tail 20% 10% 0% 2 3 4 8 9. 10 Take Action 400 words ADD VARIETY Use a variety of long tail keywords Add new content Spread the word on a consistent schedule SPEAK • Publish one targeted article or blog post for each underperform- ing keyword of at least 400 words in length. • Search engines love sites that target a diverse set of keywords. Fortunately, there are plenty of long tail keywords to choose from! There are many sources for long tail keywords, but the best are those that you mine from your own • Build a social media presence Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and YouTube are all wildly popular places. The key is finding where your audience hangs out. • For best results, set a publishing schedule and stick to it. Quality always trumps quantity; it is better to produce 2 high-quality posts per month than 10 low-quality • Generate press releases Press releases are still a great way to gain exposure (and links) when you have a newsworthy announce- search traffic. posts. ment to share. • Participate in online communities Engaging with people in your audience in publicforums is a great way to establish yourself as an authority figure. CHitTail HitTail is a long tail keyword tool that analyzes your website's visitor stream and provides you with a simple, actionable list of precisely which keywords you should be targeting to dra- matically grow your organic search traffic. www.hittail.com Sources: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/illustrating-the-long-tail http://www.portent.com/blog/seo/long-tail-seo-101-defined.htm http://www.conductor.com/resource-center/research/long-tail-search http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/click-through-rates-in-google-serps-for-different-types-of-queries