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When it comes to driving traffic to your website, it’s natural to think that you should be targeting the keywords with the highest search volume. After all, you want your site to be seen by as many people as possible. However, unless you’re willing to spend a lot of money on Google AdWords, the chances are that this approach will leave you a long way down the SERPs. That’s because there’s just too much competition over these short, broad key words. For a small local business, a much more effective and affordable SEO strategy is to target long tail key phrases. Since long tail key phrases have a considerably lower search volume, they’re a lot less competitive. Moreover, consumers using these phrases tend to be much closer to being ready to purchase. Although you might miss out on the casual browsers, you’ll still be reaching the customers most likely to convert. Of course, like any aspect of digital marketing, targeting long tail key phrases will only improve your reach if it’s done properly. It’s certainly no good targeting phrases which no one ever uses. So, here are three tips to help you make sure your SEO efforts turn out a success. Use Local Terms Customers looking for a local service will use local terms, like an address or landmark, in their searches. Indeed, almost half of all Google searches are local searches. Since, for obvious reasons, such terms tend to be ignored by big national brands, targeting these location-specific long tail phrases is an absolute necessity for local businesses in need of an affordable SEO strategy. Intention Matters When a consumer first begins their buyer’s journey, they generally use very broad and short key words in order to get a sense of what’s available out there on the market. They might, for example, simply search for “winter coat”. Gradually, their searches will become more specific as they become more certain about their needs and desires; perhaps they’ll start using the phrase “large black winter coat”. When a customer moves on to using terms such as “discount”, “cheapest”, or “best quality” it’s clear that they’re now ready to buy. These terms, which clearly signal an intent to purchase, may have a lower search volume but it’s the attention of the consumers using these terms that your business needs the most. Keep a Conversational Tone The explosion of technology enabling voice searches over recent years has created a new challenge for businesses aiming for affordable SEO. The problem is that people don’t generally speak the same way that they type, and so focussing exclusively on written phrases means that you’re likely to miss out on a large number of potential customers using software like Alexa or Siri. It’s therefore vitally important to target conversational long tail phrases in order to rank well in verbal searches. If you’re a small or local business, chasing high volume key words is often too expensive and is unlikely to drive very much traffic to your website. Targeting long tail key phrases is a much more effective and affordable SEO strategy which, when done properly, can yield excellent results. Author Plate Kit Jones is a professional consultant at LeadGeneratorsDigital, a successful online marketing agency focusing on a variety of digital strategies including content and SEO marketing. The agency provides affordable SEO for businesses looking to not only boost their Google rankings, but also their conversion rates and the overall quality of their site.
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