July 5, 2023
Competition in search engines has become very tough. Due to many (online) businesses, it’s become increasingly difficult to rank well on Google. To improve your position in this dominant search engine, you should choose long-tail keywords to be found. How do long-tail keywords ensure that you perform better in Google and achieve a higher conversion?
What are long-tail keywords?
A longtail keyword refers to a specific and detailed search query or phrase that users enter into search engines when looking for information, products, or services online. Unlike broad or generic keywords, longtail keywords are typically longer, more specific, and less frequently searched for. They often contain multiple words and are characterized by their lower search volume and higher intent specificity.
For example, if you run a business that provides financial advice, then the obvious thing to do is to try to rank on “financial advice”. You can imagine that many other similar businesses already do this, making it more difficult to be ranked.
So you might want to make the term more specific. Let’s say your company is based in Amsterdam. In that case, you could use the long-tail keyword “financial advice Amsterdam”. By doing so, you’re excluding competitors outside of Amsterdam. When you target long-tail keywords with your SEO strategy, in many cases you reach a more relevant audience and therefore higher conversion rates on products/services.
Long-tail keywords or short-tail keywords?
Alongside long-tail keywords, short-tail keywords are also common and consist of 1 or 2 words. As mentioned earlier, search volumes are higher, when using short-tail keywords. In addition, these keywords tend to be more general. When someone types the word “soccer” into the search bar, you don’t the search intent. Is he or she looking to buy a ball? Is this person looking for the latest soccer news or information about the date of a game? Anything could be possible… The chance that this searcher will land on your website and buy something is not quite as high. The opportunities are much greater when you have a page that targets the long-tail keyword “buy soccer size 5” and people land on your website through that term.
At Seeders, we often notice that local SMEs or new websites like to be visible on short-tail keywords. We do not recommend small business owners and new websites to focus on such keywords in the early stages. This is because:
- The competition in authority is too high. You are competing in many situations against large companies and brands that have been working on link building and SEO for years.
- The relevance of the searches is lacking and is not specific.
- Small business owners want to see results quickly. On short-tail keywords, you will achieve the desired outcome (e.g. increase in positions) not as fast as with long-tail keywords.
How do long-tail keywords increase conversions?
A person who is searching for “buy soccer size 5” as the example earlier explained, is much more targeted. This person knows what he wants and is therefore further ahead in the buying process. If your website is ranking highly for this search term in the search engines, then there is a higher chance that the person searching this term will click on your page and even buy from you. Especially if you also provide the best customer experience. The good thing is that people are generally more likely to search for long-tail keywords. Therefore, it’s important for you to understand what your visitors are searching for so that you can optimize your website accordingly.
How do you find long-tail keywords?
Before you start optimizing your website, keyword research is necessary. This includes a few steps:
- Figuring out which keyword is relevant for each page.
- Determining search volumes.
- Find out what your target audience is searching for.
- Check out what the competition is doing and, of course, how your current keywords are doing.
Finding long-tail keywords that are relevant to you can be done in several ways. First, you can dive into your own statistics. From your own statistics, you can usually get a lot of information. A great tool for this is Google Search Console.
A few questions you can ask yourself are:
- Which keywords are driving visitors to your website? Are these keywords successful? You can check this by looking at the conversion goals set.
- For example, is the bounce rate on that page low or very high?
- Does the visit generate a sale?
If you need the inspiration to find some brand-new long tail keywords, Google itself is an easy way to get inspired. Type in a word that’s relevant to your business in the search bar, and you will immediately see a number of suggestions.
Other useful tools for investigating long and short-tail keywords and search volume include Google Ads’ Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, SemRush and Ahrefs are useful tools.
SEO Specialist
Tiemen de Jonge is an experienced SEO Specialist at Seeders Zwolle. With a sharp attention to detail and a love for enhancing online visibility, Tiemen assists clients in elevating their search engine rankings and increasing organic traffic to their websites. With extensive experience in the digital marketing field, Tiemen is committed to keeping abreast of the latest SEO trends and strategies in order to provide excellent results for Seeders' clients.
