Long-tail keywords hit the SEO landscape back in 2004. In those days, search engine optimization was still in its infancy, and only the biggest brand titans could dominate their search niches. Hundreds of Google algorithms have been released since then, and today, brands have a legitimate chance of dominating low-competition keywords. Google has diversified, and long-tail keywords now represent 70% of all online searches. They’re not second prize anymore, so you can safely market to a small niche without losing your market share. 

 

First Things First: What Are Long-Tail Keywords?

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Competing for high search volume keywords is like vying for a Nobel Prize. The pool of talent ahead of you is vast and unremitting. Your odds of success are low. Long-tail keywords represent the lowest, gentlest arc of the search demand curve. While the highest part of the curve represents 60% of search demand share, dominating it requires you to be a big fish in an even bigger pond. Long-tail searches represent almost 40% of search demand, but you can get your share if you’re a medium-sized fish because the pond is smaller. Needless to say, the integration of keywords is important.

The highest peak of the curve covers the top 100 keywords in a broader topic. The lowest arc represents less than 10,000, or 70%, of the top keywords. There’s an incredible power to be found in these shallow waters.

Put simply, keyword phrases with more words are easier to rank for, so you can attract targeted traffic more easily. Long-tail keywords also build search intent into your strategy. They can geolocate, cover consumer preferences, and diversify your business in several ways. That means you can fish for the precise demographics you serve, improving your click-through rates. 

 

Establishing Search Intent 

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Long-tail keywords diversify your searches via any detail you can dream up. You can market to cities, genders, age groups, commercial clients, and more. By allowing you to customize your content, they attract the most relevant traffic within each niche. This is one of many reasons that long-tail keywords offer better conversion rates. They don’t just attract a large audience. They attract the right audience, and that means more sales. They often represent the lower portion of the buying funnel, so they usually appeal to users already ready to buy. 

 

Marketing to Several Niches at Once

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If you’re running blog posts according to a range of different long-tail keywords, you can build even more short-tail keywords into your content, all while marketing to the smallest demographics within your target market. This way, you can attract all portions of the search demand curve at once. That, alone, optimizes your blog across several niches. If you’ve run out of blog topics, long-tail keywords will solve the problem. 

 

Analytics Benefits

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Every time you target a demographic, you open yourself up to the analytics that follows. In pre-internet days, marketers had to pay a premium price for that kind of research. These days, it comes free of charge through your blogging platform, social media pages, and Google Analytics. You’ll receive important insights into your audience’s priorities and online habits, and you won’t have to pay a cent for it.

Of course, analytics shouldn’t be limited to the end of your campaign. Google’s Search Console offers a host of different tools to help you to monitor your online presence. It gives you the search queries your audience has been using to find your website and identifies your top-performing pages. With that data on hand, you’re in a better position to optimize the long-tail keywords that still need work. The console also offers a results report for new content ideas and keyword opportunities. 

 

Marketing to Location

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72% of consumers perform local searches within five miles of their current locations, so long-tail keywords open you up to a whole new world of marketing power. Geotagging alone can improve your SEO results, but location mentions are equally important. Dominating your local search results opens up the field for customers who are ready to buy.

Location-based SEO has become increasingly powerful in recent years. Google has made several new improvements to location-based search results, with added opportunities for smaller niches. Your Google My Business and Google Maps inclusions will boost your reputation without costing a cent. If you lack a targeted top-level domain, long-tail keywords will allow you to mimic the results while optimizing for multiple locations. 

 

The Importance of Target Marketing 

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SEO blogs rarely talk about target marketing these days, but it remains as crucial as it’s always been. The more precise your demographic, the more powerful your marketing campaign will become. Think of long-tail keywords as your route to exceptional targeting. There’s no reason to market to only one demographic, and longer keywords give you the option of building several tangential niches into your campaign.

When Hitwise studied 14 million search terms, it found that monopolizing the top 1, 000 search terms would lose you almost 90% of all search traffic. Dynamite doesn’t always come in small packages. Long-tail keywords are potent tools that can capture more potential buyers than ever before.

 

Author Bio:

Ian Carroll is the owner of Digital Funnel, a Digital Marketing agency that specializes in SEO in Cork and SEO in Dublin alongside Web Design. Ian and his team have helped numerous local businesses increase their online presence. Click here to learn more – https://digitalfunnel.ie/seo-dublin/