The long tail of search is a widely reported phenomenon that refers to the fact that highly targeted and specific keywords, which individually generate very few visitors, can combine to generate a substantial level of highly targeted traffic. Specifically targeting long-tail search terms is extremely challenging in practice, but they often appear naturally within well-written content pages. They can also be used to help negate the adverse early SEO side effects associated with a new website.
What Is The Long Tail Of Search
The long tail of SEO is a beneficial phenomenon that means a good portion of your search engine traffic will be generated by particular keywords. These specific keywords that usually contain a string of numerous words, may only generate one visitor every month or even less than that but when combined, they will not only offer an excellent level of traffic but the visitors that reach your site as a result will be highly targeted and ready to take action while on your pages.
Using Long Tail Keywords
The very low level of traffic that a long-tail search term generates means that it does not generally show up in keyword research. Most software fails to pick up on these terms and few websites are going to let you know what they are in any way because of the benefit they offer. As well as writing natural SEO content, you can also look at your existing search engine traffic to identify any of these terms and then write new pages based on these keywords. This can help identify yet more long tail keywords.
Negating Some Of The Effects Of The Sandbox Penalty
New websites are subjected to something that is referred to as the Google sandbox effect. This means that for an unspecified period of time, new website pages will not be able to feature as highly in the search rankings as they would if the site were, for example, twelve months old. Unfair though this may seem, it is a well-publicised, although equally well-argued, SEO fact that needs to be considered. The lack of competition for long tail SEO keywords means that the sandbox will not apply to a lot of these keywords.
Generating Highly Targeted Traffic
Long tail SEO keywords are very specific and this, in turn, means that the visitors they generate are also highly targeted visitors. Targeted visitors are more inclined to make purchases, pay for services, sign up for newsletters and perform other desirable actions while on the pages of your site making long tail SEO keywords a highly desirable trait for any website.
Optimising For The Long Tail
It is always advisable to write high-quality, natural website content, although it is equally important to include a good selection of relevant keywords in those pages. By doing so you can attract traffic via the long tail SEO keywords that we mentioned and monitoring your search traffic can also help to identify these keywords and enable you to target more potential traffic in the process.
This blog was written over 6 months ago and Internet Marketing and SEO is a constantly changing industry which means the information within this blog may be out of date. Use caution when using any methods or suggestions within it.
