What Long-Tail Keywords are, and How to Use them to Your Advantage
What are Long-Tail Keywords?
“Hotel” is an example of a short-tail keyword. Nearly everyone visiting a city will look for a hotel, but what they’re really looking for may look very different. One is looking for a “five star hotel near beach with swim-up bar” while another is looking for a “cheap hotel near airport with continental breakfast.” This is where long-tail keywords come in. A long-tail keyword is a common search phrase, maybe not as common as its short-tail counterparts, but one that draws in a precise target audience.
There is no specific length that makes a keyword long-tail vs short-tail. Generally, the shortest possible search a user can perform to find what they’re looking for is considered short-tail, for example “cheese.” Longer searches are considered long-tail, with the average number of searches often (but not always) shrinking with each added level of specificity, for example “cheese” vs “mozzarella” vs “shredded mozzarella” vs “bulk shredded mozzarella for pizza.”
The Advantage of Long-Tail Keywords on Any Platform
long-tail keywords drive your target audience directly to you, raising your conversion rate significantly. When aligned with the interests of your target audience, the ways you distinguish your brand work together seamlessly with how visitors find you online. long-tail keywords will help your business get noticed (and remembered) by the right people, help visitors navigate to the right pages on your website for exactly what they’re looking for, and provide valuable data to your business on what your customers are interested in. Regardless of the platform, long-tail keywords almost always improve user interactions once they arrive on your website.
Long-Tail Keywords in SEO
When talking about long-tail keywords, people are generally referring to SEO: More specific phrases to target in order to cut down on competition. There might be over 100 clothing stores in a city but only 20 downtown, only 5 specializing in shoes and only 1 that is both downtown and specializing in shoes. long-tail keywords are not just a way of standing out but of ensuring a spot at or near the top of the search engine results.
In SEO, long-tail keywords are used for much more than just describing the business. Here are a few SEO strategies built around long-tail keywords:
- Pages featuring specific services a company offers which others may not have the specific expertise for, or haven’t thought to feature on their website
- Online resources and blogs on specific topics such as comparisons between two products, how-tos with unique use cases, and blogs on visiting locations that are off the beaten path
- FAQs that answer questions using the terms visitors are using in their web searches
- Product pages that emphasize the features highlighted in online searches
Long-Tail Keywords in Online Ads
Companies that use long-tail keywords can save up to 90% of their daily budget while making the same or even greater profits.
When first building an online marketing campaign, we meet with you to discuss the unique offerings and goals of your business, creating multi-channel online campaigns using keywords that accurately draw your target audience. With each optimization, our campaigns become more honed with improved targeting and ad copy built from conversion and direct sales data. We convene with you to ensure the value of conversions, strategize for the short and long term, and discuss new opportunities for online advertising.
When Short-Tail Keywords Pose an Advantage
Though long-tail keywords have a distinct advantage in most situations, there are times when the shorter, more popularly searched terms will bring greater revenue to your business.
Examples of when to use short-tail keywords:
- When your business caters to a wide audience and you want to corner the market
- When your website has the budget or domain authority to appear for popular searches
- When you have fully trackable and proven sales from short-tail keywords
How to Find Long-Tail Keywords
Digital marketers use advanced tracking and compilation software to find the search volumes and trends surrounding different search terms and phrases. This software allows us to identify which keywords are the highest priority to target as well as track successes with each keyword going forward. If you own or manage the marketing of an independent business, we highly recommend partnering with an online advertising team to fully optimize your online outreach. We will provide ongoing reports on your search engine rankings for each phrase, cost per click in each digital campaign, and the precise details of your online conversion funnel to ensure digital marketing success. We are even glad to provide insights on portions of your marketing that we do not manage, as your partners in the online space. Please call, email, or reach out in the way that works best for you to get started.
