All business with a good strategy will develop content and websites that are optimized for certain keywords. However, more often than not these are short-tail keywords, which are the ones that are most frequently searched by web users. It is important to remember that you also need to incorporate long-tail keywords into your content. While these keywords tend to get less search traffic they do offer a range of valuable benefits.
As an example, let’s say your site sells cat food. As a short tail keyword, you could simply use ‘cat food’ as your keyword. However, all businesses that are using keywords and selling cat food will use this. So, in order to give yourself the edge, you also need to use more targeted long-tail keywords such as ‘the best cat food for senior cats’. While this phrase won’t be searched as frequently, it will be searched by those looking for something specific, which means that they are more likely to convert.
Key benefits of long-tail keywords
Of course, you need to make sure you do also use short-tail keywords in your content, as otherwise, you will leave yourself lagging behind your competitors in terms of rankings. However, you can complement these with long-tail keywords, which boosts the chances of conversions and success, as you will be catering for those looking for specific products and services rather than just doing a general search.
Some of the main benefits of using these keywords within your content and as part of your SEO strategy include:
- Visitors searching via these keywords are more likely to convert
- They are more targeted and specific
- They are not used as often by competitors as common short-tail ones
- You can rank more easily for long-tail keywords than short-tail ones
Using these keywords to compete with major competitors
When it comes to your direct competitors – especially the big players in the industry – trying to compete in terms of rankings can be extremely difficult. All of the companies that sell the same products and services as you will be using the same short-tail keywords as you. In addition, the bigger players have massive marketing budgets that they can spend on SEO, which makes life all the more difficult for you.
One thing that can be your saving grace is using relevant and targeted long-tail keywords. In order to maximize on this benefit, you should try and identify something that is unique about your product or service compared to your competitors, as this is something that you can use to create the most effective long-tails. This means that anyone searching for the specific product that you have used to create these keywords will come across your site as opposed to those that have focused only on short-tail keywords.
Cover all bases with a combination
Using both long-tail and short-tail keywords as part of your strategy will ensure that you cover all the bases when it comes to boosting your chances of ranking. You also have the satisfaction of knowing that the people that search using your long tail keywords are far more likely to convert.