It’s a common question: How do I get search traffic from organic searches? The answer is long-tail keywords.
What are long-tail keywords?
Put yourself in the position of a real person who’s searching for your product or service. When they type their keywords into the search bar, they’re actually looking for an extremely specific idea or concept — like “blue jeans for women” or “mortgage loan company.”
When someone uses a long-tail keyword, they’re not necessarily looking for your product or service directly. However, through a process known as “keyword stuffing,” you can get a high proportion of people searching for your product or service to stumble upon your website.
Why would you want to do this?
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Attracting The Right Kind Of Audience
One of the major downsides to organic search results is that they are totally dependent on the keyword a person typed in. This means that if you don’t have lots of web traffic driven by “blue jeans” searches, you’re probably not going to rank well for “jeans.”
Depending on your niche, you may not even find lots of people searching for “blue jeans.” Therefore, if you want to attract the right audience to your product or service, you may want to consider using keywords like “sonic gel pens” or “mortgage loan origination.”
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Driving Targeted Traffic To Your Site
People search for keywords to find the information they want. If you want to get traffic from a specific group of people who are searching for a product or service similar to yours, you can use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to find the most popular keywords related to your niche.
You can also use search operators like “+” or “$” to find more nuanced queries.
For example, if you’re a pet store owner and want to increase your site’s visibility on the web, you may want to target “dog training” or “puppy puppies” as keywords. If you run a marketing blog for digital marketers, you may want to target “SEM” or “organic SEO” as keywords.
From there, you can create adverts for each keyword and get the most for your money. In the previous example, you want to attract people searching for “dog training” to your site.
To do this, you can use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to find the most popular search queries related to dog training. Then, you can create an ad for each of those phrases.
For “dog training,” you may want to target research on training guide dogs or puppy dogs. Or, for someone searching for “puppy puppies,” you may want to target searches related to breeds, color, or gender.
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Increased Conversions
Getting traffic from long-tail keywords is great for getting a broad appeal. However, if you want to increase your conversions, you may want to consider concentrating on shorter, more specific keywords
For example, if your site is about weight loss, you may want to target “weight loss” or “calorie counter” as keywords. Or, if you run a sports blog, you may want to target “NBA” or “football” as keywords.
The chances of someone searching for “weight loss” or “NBA” on your site are pretty high, so you can bet that you’ll be able to convert those visitors into customers. But if you want to target “calorie counter” or “sport fishing,” you may not see as many conversions because the number of people searching for these keywords is likely to be much lower.
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Higher Overall Search Volume
You need to consider the total search volume to find the right keywords. This means that you must target popular keywords with high search volumes if you want to get the most out of your efforts.
If you run a blog and want to attract potential readers to your site, you may consider using long-tail keywords to increase your site’s overall search volume.
If you want to get the most for your money, you may want to consider paying attention to keywords with the highest search volumes rather than the cheapest ones.
This will ensure that your ads reach the largest audience possible.
To find the search volumes for keywords, use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to enter your keywords. Then, click “Search Volume” to see a tally of the searches performed for each word.
Benefits of having Search Traffic From Long-tail Keywords
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More Organic Traffic
Organic search traffic is free to the website owner, and it’s generally received through organic SEO activities, such as creating content for the web that’s relevant to a person’s search query and optimizing the on-page content, links, and site architecture to increase its relevance to search engines.
You don’t have to pay for clicks with free organic search traffic. However, you do need to do something to generate interest from potential customers. That something is often a combination of SEO tactics that work together to increase the odds of a person searching for your product or service and landing on your website.
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More Engagement
Having organic search traffic means that people are actually finding your content organically, which in turn means they’re more likely to engage with it. When someone visits your website via a search engine, they expect to find whatever they’re looking for and quickly be provided with relevant content.
If they don’t find what they’re looking for right away, they’ll quickly leave the website, resulting in a loss of revenue and traffic.
However, if they do find what they’re looking for, they’ll often stay on your website for a while, reading the content and possibly even entering their contact details, purchasing a product or service, or leaving a comment.
These organic actions can increase website engagement and, eventually, sales.
Since organic search traffic is free, you’re more likely to see higher engagement from people seeking your product or service than you would from someone who found your content organically through a sponsored search.
For example, Ford Motor Company’s SEO strategist Meghan Kelly-Griffin states that 56% of their customers have found them due to organic search, while only 24% have found them through a paid search or banner ad.
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More Customized Audience
When you have a large audience of individuals searching for your product or service, you can better target your marketing and ensure that you’re providing the right information to the right audience.
For example, if you’re selling shoes, you might want to optimize your content for someone searching for Adidas shoes or Puma shoes instead of just searching for “shoes.”
If someone is searching for “shoes,” you don’t know if they want to buy a pair of men’s dress shoes or if they’re looking for something more unique like “geometric” or “metallic” shoes.
On the other hand, when someone uses long-tail keywords, you know exactly what they’re searching for, and you can provide the right content and website to increase the chances of making a sale.
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Higher Conversion Rates
Organic SEO is one of the foundational aspects of a successful search engine marketing campaign. By creating relevant content for the target audience and increasing the website’s engagement, you’re more likely to see higher conversion rates and a better return on investment (ROI).
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Increased Brand Recognition
If you have an already established brand in your industry, having organic search traffic is the perfect way to increase awareness of your brand on the right platforms.
For example, if you’re a real estate agency and you want to increase brand recognition of “Seller’s Choice,” you could try creating content that’s valuable to potential home buyers, such as how to navigate the home buying process or what to look out for when viewing a house.
You could also try hosting virtual open houses where home seekers can visit your website and see the amenities, location, and pricing of the properties you represent.
The more you can do to earn the search engine’s trust, the higher your brand recognition will be in the eyes of potential customers. This, in turn, will result in more sales and a greater opportunity to earn new customers.
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Higher Position On Google
When your website shows up on the first page of a search engine, you’re given a certain amount of “organic traffic” that the search engine considers to be credible. Getting to the first page can be difficult, especially when dozens or hundreds of websites are vying for the same position. To get to the first page of search results, you must perform exceptionally well in the search engine’s algorithm.
Organic SEO is based on a few simple but effective principles that make up “the Google algorithm.” Backlinks, content uniqueness, and the ability to rank content in multiple categories are all essential to getting to the first page of results.
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Higher Position On Other Search Engines
Since Google is the most popular search engine, it’s the best place to start if you want to increase your brand’s exposure. But, if your target audience is primarily located in the suburbs of Chicago, you may want to consider optimizing your content for someone searching for real estate in Baltimore or Boston.
If you want to maximize the exposure of your brand, create content that’s relevant to multiple platforms and be sure to optimize each type of content for the best possible results.
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More Traffic To Websites
When someone performs a search on a search engine, they’re often presented with dozens or hundreds of websites as search results. With so much competition, driving traffic to your website can be difficult. To have a chance at drawing in potential customers, your website needs to be relevant to the visitor’s search query and have good content that will keep them coming back for more.
Relevance is one of the most important components of a successful SEO campaign. If you don’t have a relevant website, you don’t matter in the eyes of the search engine.
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More Engagement From Visitors
In addition to driving more traffic to your site, having a relevant and informative website will also increase your site’s engagement with visitors. From when a person enters their keyword into the search bar and hits “enter” to when they leave the website, you have the opportunity to engage them and show them the value of what you offer.
Understand the Basics
To have a successful SEO campaign, you must fully understand the fundamentals of search engine optimization, create unique and useful content, and use the right keywords. When these three components work together, you can be sure that you’ll be on the right track to achieving your SEO goals.
