Driving traffic with long-tail keywords
When website traffic increases, owners may experience greater sales or increased ad revenue. Knowing this and actually making it happen requires a bit of strategizing. This is where using long tail keywords can be extremely helpful.
The idea that gave birth to the use of long-tail keywords came from an article by Chris Anderson published in Wired Magazine. Anderson posited that collective sales of niche products could outpace sales of popular products—especially since there is so much competition on the popular front. Since then, this idea has been applied to the Internet and methods of driving traffic to sites.
Before diving into the concept, it helps to understand what long tail keywords are. They are nothing more than longer key phrases that people use during their internet searches to help them find interesting sites. Instead of the single keywords that most website owners and managers are used to optimizing for, the long tail includes the less frequently searched keyword phrases. These keywords tend to be more focused and targeted than a single global search. They also tend to reflect exactly what the searcher needs to find. So essentially they are the ‘niche’.
If a searcher is looking for information on dog training, for example, it’s possible to go beyond typing “dog training.” Their actual search might include terms like “golden retriever training,” “housebreaking labrador puppies,” “dog agility training.” These particular terms may not have the ranking or traffic potential of the main keywords, but they have proven to be very useful in driving traffic in a different way. The trick here is that these phrases don’t have the competition that main words can have.
Long tail keywords provide the benefits. They can, when used correctly, drive more targeted traffic in the long run. The benefits of using long-tail keywords include the potential for a higher conversion rate (because the exact focus of the searcher’s query is met), easier search engine site rankings, increased traffic and, therefore, increased revenue. Basically, the benefits come from using many different custom searches, rather than trying to compete with thousands of other sites that focus solely on the main one-word keywords.
Making the long tail keyword strategy work on a website requires finding the right keywords to use. There are a few easy ways to do this.
One way that site managers often use is to purchase or use a tracking program like HitTail. This program analyzes a site and makes suggestions for long phrases that might work. HitTail is easy to use and very useful. Another method involves actually looking at the phrases visitors to a website enter for internal search. This can be a great way to find out exactly what visitors are searching for, which can lead to better optimization. The Google AdWords Keyword Tool and similar programs such as the Ad Word Analyzer software can also be quite helpful.
There are other options for optimizing traffic with the right phrases. These include looking at the competition to see what long-tail keywords they are using and even just allowing natural development. The latter involves simply adding more content to a website on a regular basis, using basic keywords and phrases as a backbone.
Getting started with optimizing a website for long-tail keywords isn’t very difficult. Most people suggest that you look at competitor sites to see what they are doing and then come up with the best phrases to use in your optimization process. Then comes the need to increase content that can help drive traffic. And of course, consider using keyword tools to speed up your research process.
Driving traffic to a website is not always easy. Backdooring through niche targeting can be one way to make this happen. Long tail keywords are the key that can unlock everything. It is extremely important that you use them.
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