What Steve doesn't know about Search isn't worth knowing. He also has a great ability to impart his knowledge on to others in a friendly but highly professional training environment.
Andrew S.
Managing Director
You are here: home 
long tail keywords
Long Tail Keyword Selection
Long tail keywords are keyword phrases which are less popular, less competitive and less searched for, but when taken collectively benefit the content depth of a page and improve targeted traffic significantly. Choosing the right long tail keyword combinations involves careful research around a particular topic.
Choosing Long Tail Keywords
When choosing the best long tail keywords, start by breaking the main page topic down into relevant sub-topics - particularly those of interest to buyers. These sub-topics are then be elaborated upon under sub-headings (<h2>, <h3> etc) using a number of semantically related keywords in order to improve the content meaning of the page.
Individual keyword research is required starting with as many relevant "seed keywords" as you can identify for each sub-topic - making use of the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Keywords are then chosen based on their relevance, competition level and local search volume in "Exact Match".
KSL Consulting offer an advanced SEO copywriting service employing these keyword research techniques. Contact us for more information.
Benefits of Long Tail Search
Selecting the right long tail keywords will significantly improve website performance by targeting buyers with keyword terms which are easier to rank for in Google. This will boost lead generation, driving up sales and revenue from organic search. Search engines like Yahoo and Google now utilise Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) to help determine the meaning and relevance of a page based on the keyword combinations present and their combined usage.
When applied correctly, SEO copywriting benefits significantly from the use of semantic long tail keywords such as 3 or 4 word phrases which tend to be much more specific in their meaning than 'head' terms which in many cases have broad meanings.
The real benefit of targeting a long tail keyword is reduced reliance on paid search and Google Adwords campaigns to generate website traffic. One reputable SEO consultant claimed he had saved £500,000 a year in Google Adwords campaign spend using long tail keyword research and deployment.
The theory behind long tail keyword selection tools for SEO is to identify niche, underexploited keyword terms based on search popularity alongside the quality of existing search engine results.
For example, where frequent searches are made for a particular term and a good cross section of people searching for the keyword are prepared to dig deeper to find more relevant search results, it implies that there is a lack of relevant content relating to that particular long tail keyword term and that it is a niche keyword for which people are seeking quality content.
Positive indicators for selecting niche long tail keywords might include a popular search term where people need to dig down onto page 2, 3 or 4 of the organic search results to find a relevant result.
Analytical SEO tools like HitTail and Wordtracker can help in selecting the best, most profitable and lucrative long tail keywords. Writing quality content targeting such phrases can prove very lucrative and the increase in web site traffic generated collectively by choosing the right long tail keywords can meet or exceed the traffic generated by more competitive keywords. This is especially true when applied to new web sites and domains which have few quality links.
For an example of long tail keywords, let's consider the SEO sector - "SEO consultant" is one example of a highly competitive search phrase, whilst "SEO consultant London" is an example of a less popular long tail keyword term. Using the HitTail SEO tool on KSL Consulting's own travel affiliate site showed that nearly 58% of all website traffic came from long tail keywords.
For more help and long tail SEO advice relating to keyword selection and deployment, contact KSL Consulting. An SEO consultant will then help you exploit long tail keywords to improve organic search traffic to your website.
