Strategic Content And Keywords Drive The Genuine Leads!

Competition is fierce online, including for the local small to medium-sized business that hopes to rank products or services in search results. The serious consumer searches very specifically, so let’s look at a strategic approach to content and keywords that MOST of the competition will fail to execute. It is about targeting ‘long tail of search‘ keywords and it requires identifying, then optimizing, content with those keywords (or key phrases).

‘Long-tail keywords’ are less obvious | more specific phrases that should be used in website pages and off-website citations. While these keywords may have fewer actual searches, they will also attract much more serious consumers AND have less competition. For the business to optimize content and keywords correctly, being visible to the serious (=highly qualified) consumer becomes highly likely. This is about working to be visible to the person who looks harder and who is more specific when they want something that you offer!

Specific or ‘Long Tail Keywords’ Explained

 

The Long Tail theory was originally explored by a forward-thinking Chris Anderson in his Oct 2004 Wired Magazine article describing how the web might influence getting new business. Anderson, Editor of Wired Magazine at the time, later authored his best-selling book ‘The Long Tail’ to better detail his theory.

As it applies to better search engine optimization and to marketing – the idea with ‘The Long Tail’ is to be visible for the specific keyword variations related to one’s ‘business focus’ that serious consumers search.

Proven below this theory shows that, while a business may generate less search discovery per ‘long tail’ keyword (i.e. 3 Bedroom Condo Greenwich Village) than it will for the most competitive keywords (i.e. NYC Condo), the collective impact for those ‘long tail’ keywords is likely to outperform the most obviously targeted. Again, the more specific the content’s keywords are the less competitive it likely is in search results. The assumption is that most business competition has either only focused on the most obvious keyword searches or that they are not bothering to optimize content & keywords at all. The assumption is also that serious leads are searching much more specifically than the less serious masses.

An SEO strategy placing focus on ‘long tail’ keywords is one capable of not only capturing traffic but the better more highly qualified & serious traffic. This is NOT meant to suggest a business should give up targeting the obvious searches (i.e. New York City Real Estate). On the contrary, the argument is to target more specific … less competitive … terms (i.e. 3 Bedroom Condo Greenwich Village) in the search engine result pages (SERPs). It can mean being visible when extremely serious people, demonstrated by their hyper-specific search effort, search. Search visibility to serious consumers can be a cost-effective marketing strategy; whereas, solely pursuing the less specific and more competitive keyword search topics (i.e. NYC Condo) will increase the marketers’ competition as well exposure to the LEAST qualified consumers.

Analysis Shows The Specific Keyword SEO Strategy Works!

Research shows that serious people do search more specifically. To demonstrate the ‘Long Tail’ content & keywords theory below is traffic analytics data (2007) drawn from a ‘publish lots of specific content Vail CO Real Estate Agency’. This agency had broad keyword indexing for both the most sought after (and then also the not so sought after or specific) keyword targets. Their pages and blog posts focused on being indexed for everything going on in the area & community as it related to local Real Estate. We examined one month of data to demonstrate ‘long tail’ keywords search discovery success for this (remains anonymous) agency in Vail, CO.

A. Total ‘Short Tail’ search discovery equaled 190/ 1,015 searches bringing new visitors to a website = 19%

• Short Tail being the town’s name and state plus the words 1) property, 2) real estate, 3) home, or 4) homes

 

B. Total ‘Long Tail’ search discovery equaled 825/1,015= 81%

• • • Long Tail being as many variations relating to obvious local searches as is possible

a.) different areas of town were equal to 130 total searchers arriving on the website
b.) condominium complexes equal to 299 total searchers
c.) new developments equal to 89 total searchers
d.) local clubs equal to 101 total searchers
e.) local business news or info equal to 27 total searchers
f.)  listings or specific local streets equal to 32 total searchers
g.) local builder-developer news equal to 56 total searchers

h.) random/ miscellaneous news equal to 91 total searchers … hey, they blog about what’s going on locally a lot! 

 

Albeit anonymous, the data above demonstrates ‘Long Tail theory‘ success based upon discovery for less targeted keyword variations; that discovery amounting to 81% of the overall search traffic and 435% more visitors than what the short tail of search delivered. That’s a lot of traffic and a lot of potential for highly qualified leads! We’d argue the Agency is not only a cost-effective marketer but one that is capturing the most highly qualified eyeballs!

About Kinetic Knowledge NJ Digital Marketing Services 

 

Based in Monmouth County NJ, Kinetic Knowledge is a full-service digital marketing firm offering Local NJ SEO, website design & managed host service, social media, graphic design, content, and more. We advocate local SEO strategies, particularly the targeting of ‘Long Tail’ keywords in on and off-website content, so contact us here or give a call to learn more about ‘Long Tail’ strategies at 732-722-5915.