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Casting a Wide Net? Why Long-Tail Keywords Are Your Best Bet!

When we're talking about working with long-tail keywords, it's a lot like fishing, isn't it? In Jamaica, many fisherfolks use pots or nets to catch fish. It's all about getting the volume for sales. The problem is a lot of "other fish" get in there.  That means you have spent time picking them out and throwing them back. When you've got that much competition, and you're trying to make a few bucks, you give up that part of your time to earn money. Then some do their fishing with rods and reels. For them, it's like a religion. One famous ad piece calls it a type of madness or obsession.  Those fishers know the fish by type.  Trout, bass, bonefish, and many others I didn't know existed. They have special gear, types of bait they can and should use, the best time of year, and top spots to maximize success.  For them, it's the science of the art.  They know that catching the right fish takes preparation and precision, and they're willing to find the right spot at the right time with their rods, baits, and creel (a wicker basket that holds fish) to get what they want.  These guys live by taking time to attract quality because casting a wide net is more work.  Using long-tail keywords to get more traffic and better rankings is a lot like fishing. Casting a net with short-tail keywords takes much more time than you realize. Your competition is stiff, and you'll wind up with many fish you don't want (and, in this case, don't want you!).   Honing in on long-tail keywords means fewer fish, but if you aim to catch Trout, you must "speak Trout."

What Are Long-Tail Keywords?

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific keyword phrases people use to search. Chris Anderson, then-editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, put forth the idea in his book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More. He discussed seeing Long Tail economics during a Whole Foods trip.  He realized that commodities, such as flour, were split into niches. So instead of flour, you have amaranth flour, blue cornflower, and others. From there, applying this idea to marketing is not a giant leap.  Long-tail phrases aren't as popular are broad terms, but they speak to a smaller subset of your target audience.  Instead of speaking to fish, they talk to Sock-eye Salmon and Bluefin Tuna. If you're not much into fish analogies, here's an example we can all relate to: shoes When we do a search for shoes, we see

But if we were to search for women's athletic running shoes with high arch support size 11, we see:

Using a longer phrase shows 35 million SERPs, about 1% of the broad term.

3 Benefits of Using Long-Tail Keywords

Here are the advantages of using long-tail keywords. Higher conversion rates. Even with sponsored ads taking up the top spots, the top three organic SERP sites get close to 70% CTR.   Less competition. As you saw with the shoes example, dealing with long-tail keywords means less competition. That means a better chance of being higher in the SERPs and increasing visibility to your desired audience. Improved voice search optimization. Optimizing for voice search is about working with natural language. People speak in longer, more specific sentences, and it would be great to work with those terms to drive them to your content.  Better targeting. Did you know that Trout love salmon eggs? Neither did I, but that just proves the point. If you're looking to attract your ideal customer, using long-tail terms is your way to hone in on your customer's wants or needs.  

Top position gets about 40% CTR. If the search has a featured snippet, a study shows that the snippet gets around 42% CTR. If it is just organic results, it averages 39.8% CTR. Position 2 gets 18.7% while position 3 gets a little over 10% If your site is in the top 10, you can see a CTR average of about 2% Source: https://firstpagesage.com/seo-blog/google-click-through-rates-ctrs-by-ranking-position/   One significant benefit to using long-tail keywords is that it helps you to create content that answers specific questions or meets particular needs. Search engines like this because it shows that you're helpful and that you provide a good user experience.

4 Ways to Find Long-Tail Keywords

There are several ways to find long-tail keywords for your website, including tapping into Google Autocomplete with a tool like AnswerThePublic.  However, there are creative ways that can also work. 1. Use Online Communities, including Social Media I've heard some experts disregard, even discourage, using online communities (unless it's theirs). That's a huge mistake because they are ripe with data.  Remember that only 4% of customers complain to a company about a negative experience with the brand.  So, what are the other 96% doing? Well, they're ghosting the companies. They're moving to a competitor brand without a word. While doing that, some take to online platforms to complain to the world. Whether it's a Facebook group or a Twitter rant, online communities are invaluable sources of long-tail keywords.  You get direct access to their pain points. 2. Your Own Analytics  You have analytics if you have ever posted on social media or your home site. It's as simple as looking at Search Console to see which organic terms trigger what page. Those are the long-tail keywords relevant to your audience, and you need to create more content around it or optimize your content to attract more, which we'll chat about later.  3. Lean Into Your USP Your unique selling proposition (USP) is the product or service you offer that sets you apart from your competition. These unique characteristics are a great starting point for brainstorming what terms people would use to get to what you offer.  For example, if your business is about selling organic skincare products. Your USP would be that your products are all-natural, environmentally friendly, and paraben-free. That means your audience would resonate with terms such as: Organic skin care for sensitive skin Plant-based body lotion for oily skin Eco-friendly facial oils for acne-prone skin Vegan and cruelty-free anti-aging skincare Leaning into your USP is the most natural path to creating a more effective keyword strategy because you already know who you're talking to.  4. Customer Feedback  The beauty of using customer feedback is that user-generated content (UGC) is everywhere. So while you may have internal customer data, you can always look at other reputable sites to see what they say about your product or service. Then, go one step further and see what they're saying about your direct competitor. (I never said it had to be your customers' feedback). This is a fun part of doing regular competitor analysis. Because it helps you to create content that resonates, which increases engagement.

How to Use Long-Tail Keywords

Strategically using long-tail terms in your content is a great way to reap the SEO benefits of your content strategy. Here are fundamental tips for using your long-tail keywords:: Put them in your H1/H2/H3 headlines. The caveat is where it fits and doesn't look like you're putting keywords in the headline. This practice is more about context, as John Mueller explained in his SEO office hours video.  Add them to your content (of course). Incorporate long-tail keywords naturally into your content, and by content, I include your meta descriptions and alt text. The keyword there is, naturally. That means you'll have natural variations of the terms and related topics that make sense. But, again, it's all about context and intent when it comes to creating content around those phrases. Include them in your URL. Including long-tail keywords in your URLs helps search engines understand the topic of your content. The beauty is that it doesn't have to be verbatim. For example, if you're talking about organic skincare for dry skin, your title/URL can have organic oils for all skin types, and the search engine will know it's related. If there's anything I've learned about search algorithms, they're more sophisticated than we think.  Use long-tail keywords in your anchor text. Your anchor text is the group of the work you use to link to internal or external pages. Using them this way improves the relevancy and quality signals of the page. The bots crawling understand the linked page's context (there's that word again). 

How Schema Markup Helps Your Site Optimize for Long-Tail Keywords

In addition to using long-tail keywords in your content and metadata,  you can optimize your website to rank higher for long-tail keywords with schema markup. What is schema markup? Schema markup is code that helps search engines understand the content and context of your posts and pages.  This means using schema markup makes it easier for search engines to identify and display relevant information about your content, including long-tail keywords. 3 ways schema markup helps with long-tail keyword optimization It implements rich snippets. Schema markup can create rich snippets that display additional information about your content in search results. This makes your pages stand out because it provides more context for long-tail keywords. It specifies schema types. There are various schema types, such as articles, recipes, and reviews. By providing the appropriate schema type for your content, you provide more detailed information that could include long-tail keywords. It provides a clear structure. Schema markup is a type of structured data. This means it gives search engines a transparent system for understanding your content. For example, now they know the relationships between different elements on your page, including long-tail keywords. To use schema markup for keyword optimization, you first identify the most relevant long-tail keywords for your content. Then, determine the appropriate schema types and properties and add those markup details to your pages. If you're on WordPress, you can use Yoast SEO to do this:

You can also use the Schema & Structured Data for WP & AMP plugin to enter more data. 

 After setting up the plugin,  check whether the schema markup is correctly implemented on the website using Google's Structured Data Testing Tool or the Rich Results Test tool. 

These tools will show any errors or warnings related to the schema markup on the website. If you see any mistakes, you can edit them and try again. This is one of the more underrated techniques to boost your chances of better rankings with long-tail terms. It's crucial if you're focusing on local SEO. This move can help your business increase its visibility and get more traffic.

Using Long-tail Keywords Is a Great Hook

Strategic use of long-tail keywords becomes a compelling hook when improving your website's visibility. Enhancing your SEO while building authority and credibility with your audience is necessary.  The key to fortifying your content is in the context. With the help of structured data and more robust linking, you will build a specialized net that will get the attention of your targeted audience. Oh, and it helps you to get in the good graces of the search engine overlords.  Read the full article