Mastering Long-tail Keywords: A Comprehensive Guide for Small Businesses | Seodity
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Mastering Long-tail Keywords: A Comprehensive Guide for Small Businesses | Seodity

Marcin Pastuszek

Long-tail Keywords for Small Business SEO Success

It's quite normal that you are trying to attract as much traffic as you can. However, you also know how challenging it is to rank for highly competitive keywords. You conduct research and try to identify those with substantial search volume, but these keywords often have a high keyword difficulty parameter.

And the agencies you've worked with have tried to sell you promises of high rankings for keywords with low search volume. So, how can you handle this on your own?

This article is written especially for small businesses with their own marketing teams or founders who want to take on SEO themselves.

The topics we will cover here include:

What are long-tail keywords?

Why should you know how to use them?

Why is it crucial to write articles that address the problems your audience is facing?

How do you identify these problems and find relevant long-tail keywords?

Are there keywords that are easier to rank than others?

Yes, in most cases, these are long-tail keywords. They are longer and more specific than the most popular searches (those with the highest search volume). So, what are examples of such keywords that are easier to rank compared to short-tail ones?

 Medical Transport - this is a short-tail keyword - it's quite popular.

Medical transportation non emergency - this is a mid-tail keyword.

How much does non-emergency medical transportation cost - this is a long-tail keyword.

As you can see, long-tail keywords have lower search volumes than broader ones, but the conversion rate is typically higher.

Why do long-tail keywords have a higher conversion rate, and what does it mean?

A higher conversion rate = more sales. But why is that?

Customer intent is crucial in your sales funnel. If your potential clients are reading your article with the intent to learn more about a topic, they probably won't buy anything from you without significant additional marketing and sales efforts on your part.

However, if their intent is "commercial" or "transactional," they are usually gathering more information just before making a purchase or they are considering buying from you.

If you want to learn more about search intent, you can do so here -> https://docs.seodity.com/basics/search-intent

How do you address the problems your audience is trying to solve?

You should be an expert, that's obvious.

There are two ways to improve your content creation and solve your audience's issues more effectively.

Find ideas for your article by searching for long-tail keywords.

You can start with a broad keyword like "physiotherapy" and find many ideas based on the questions or dilemmas your potential clients pose to Google.

From these keywords, you can create a content map for dozens of articles, like:

  • physiotherapy for low back pain
  • knee physiotherapy exercises
  • physiotherapy for herniated disc
  • physiotherapy neck exercises
  • how to perform chest physiotherapy
  • physiotherapy exercises after rotator cuff surgery

And you can be sure that these patients will use your services if you take good care of them at the first contact on the website.

The second approach involves answering questions within your existing content or while brainstorming ideas for new content.

Again, you are an expert. Sometimes, experts might use jargon or struggle to provide straightforward answers to client queries. Often, this is because you don't know in advance which questions you should address.

Of course, you can base your responses on long-tail keywords to accommodate those answers. The best part is that these keywords tend to be less competitive and lead to higher conversions.

How do you find long-tail keywords?

Most keyword research tools include an option to discover these keywords.

You can also use Seodity for this purpose. Seodity caters to users just beginning their SEO journey and those with more advanced knowledge. What truly sets us apart is our customer success team's commitment to helping you achieve your goals, much like a marketing agency. We even offer a service where we create a task list for you, complete with guidelines on increasing organic traffic.

With Seodity, you can accomplish this in seconds.

Go to the Keyword Research tab to find long-tail keywords.

Type the keywords you want to research, select your target country and language, then click search.

Now, select the preset "long-tail keywords". And that's it!

Add those keywords to your tasks, and watch your sales increase

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is an example of a long-tail keyword?

A: A long-tail keyword is a highly specific search phrase that contains three or more words. It often contains a head term, which is a more generic search term, plus one or two additional words that refine the search term. For example, "Italian leather shoes for men" is a long-tail keyword.

Q: What is long-tail and short tail keywords in SEO?

A: In SEO, short-tail keywords are highly competitive, broad search terms usually composed of 1-2 words such as 'shoes'. On the other hand, long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases which are easier to rank due to their specificity like 'comfortable running shoes for women'.

Q: Are long-tail keywords easier to rank?

A: Yes, in most cases, long-tail keywords are easier to rank for. This is because they're often more specific and less competitive. Many SEO experts recommend focusing on long-tail keywords to attract relevant traffic and improve ranking.

Q: Are long-tail keywords less competitive?

A: Yes, generally, long-tail keywords are less competitive. They often have lower search volumes compared to short-tail keywords, reducing the number of sites vying to rank for them. This lower competition makes it easier to rank well for long-tail terms.

Q: What is long-tail keyword example?

A: A long-tail keyword example could be 'best vegan restaurants in downtown Los Angeles,' for instance. Here, 'vegan restaurants' is the head term which has been further refined by 'best', 'downtown', and 'Los Angeles' to create a long tail keyword.

Q: What is the 80 20 rule in long-tail keywords?

A: The 80 20 rule in long-tail keywords suggests that approximately 80% of your organic traffic will come from just 20% of your keywords. This means that more traffic often comes from specific, niche, long-tail keywords rather than broader, short-tail keywords.

Q: What is an example of a short tail keyword?

A: A short tail keyword is a broad, generic term often composed of one or two words. For example, 'pizza' or 'smartphone' are short tail keywords. They usually have high search volumes and high competition.

Q: What is the best practice for long-tail keywords?

A: The best practices for long-tail keywords are:

  1. Do a comprehensive keyword research to discover the best potential long-tail keywords for your content.
  2. Use the selected keywords naturally within your content, title, headers, and meta description.
  3. Understand your audience's intent and match your content accordingly.
  4. Use tools such as Seodity Rank Tracker to constantly monitor the performance of your chosen keywords and adjust accordingly.
  5. Create high-quality valuable content that answers the specific queries contained within the long-tail keywords.
Marcin Pastuszek

Marcin is co-founder of Seodity

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