A successful SEO campaigncan get you to the top of Google’s search results pages and drive more traffic to your website. But with virtually every company in existence employing similar tactics, you may find it difficult to gain a competitive edge—especially if you’re a small company competing on a national scale. But employing “long tail” keywords might be a sneaky way to get on top with specific customers.
How Head Terms Inhibit Your Success
“Head Terms” are short search terms—let’s use “landscaping company” as an example. The advantage of optimizing your site for this kind of term is that hundreds of thousands of people will search for it, since it’s so general. The drawback, of course, is that the strongest companies in the country have already spent so much money on optimizing their sites for these broad terms, you don’t stand much of a competitive chance.
How Long Tail Keywords Are Different
“Long tail” keywords stand apart as a longer, much more specific kind of search term, such as “cheap landscaping companies that plant trees” as opposed to the simplistic “landscaping company.” While there is a much lower search volume for this kind of term, there is also much less competition fighting for the top spots on the search results. Incorporating these kinds of phrases is also much less susceptible to keyword stuffing, so Google’s Penguin Update isn’t as likely to find you as an over-optimizer. Long tail keywords are also much cheaper when it comes to PPC campaigns.
Bringing a Balance
https://quezmedia.com/blog/long-tail-keywords/Of course, the best course of action is to use an even blend of both head terms and long tail keywords—that way you get the best of both worlds. You can bring up your presence for common search terms while also forming yourself as a top competitor in the more specific phrases.
If you’re interested in launching a new SEO campaign, or are just interested in learning more about the technical side, feel free to contact us and set up a free consultation to determine your SEO needs.
