SEO 102: Longtail Keywords, Business Blogging Secret Weapons

I tend to talk about longtail keywords a lot, for three main reasons:

1) I've had steady success using them, particularly in the context of business blogging

2) Longtail keywords can make up 50-90% of any given site's organic search volume (not to mention traffic brought in from longtail keywords usually has a higher conversion rate)

3) Writing with longtail keywords is WAY more fun and sounds WAY more natural than trying to use a single term to reach an unnatural keyword density.

Still, when a client grows tired of my marketing lingo and asks me to explain what a longtail keyword is, I inevitably find myself saying, "um..."

In short, longtail keywords are long, complex or unusual search queries. Unlike regular keywords, longtail keywords usually have very low - if any - search volume, since these queries tend to be very unique. Longtail keyword search queries are highly sophisticated searches made by search engine users who know exactly what they're looking for and are trying to weed out generic search results.

For example, as a savvy searcher, I might use the longtail search query "aaa ford focus front end repair grand rapids" rather than simply typing in "auto repair" when searching for an auto repair shop. Using a very specific query like this makes it more likely that I'll find exactly the result I'm looking for. From a marketer's end, this means that users who find a website by using longtail keywords are more likely to convert into a sale or lead.

Although longtail keywords have very low search volume and are very often unique, when you count up all the longtail keywords bringing traffic to any given site, they often outnumber the amount of traffic brought in by regular keywords, such as "auto repair". Optimizing for longtail keywords takes some strong creative thinking skills, but if done well, it can dramatically increase quality traffic.

Rather than discussing longtail keywords abstractly, I'd like to show how I've used them effectively in the context of business blogging. This particular case study will show how blogging using longtail keywords helped boost qualified traffic - and likely gather a few inbound links - for a local auto repair shop.

First, take a look at a blog post I made on tire rotation:

I initially landed on the topic of tire rotation by doing keyword research on a number of repair services to see which ones were searched the most. I noticed that not only did "tire rotation" related keywords have a fairly high prominence, but it seemed that many people were searching this term in an attempt to find out more information on when, how and where to have their car's tires rotated.

From there, it was downhill. I did a few quick Google searches to see what information was already available on these topics, then I brainstormed a shortlist of phrases based loosely off my initial keyword search. This is where the creative part came in. Rather than picking short, obvious (and highly competitive) terms, I thought about all the various ways users might phrase questions about tire rotation. My shortlist included phrasings like:

when to have my car's tires rotated

front end tire rotation

all wheel tire rotation

routine tire rotation

how often should my tires be rotated

rotate tires every ___ miles

Keeping these phrases at the top of my mind, I continued to write an informative post about optimal tire rotation maintenance, peppering in other related terms, such as "maintenance", "car", "rear tires" and "misalignment".

Phrases which were most important received the most prominence by being placed in the blog post's title and bolded header.

Now, let's look at the results.

Here's the traffic this post pulled in since it was posted in October. As you can see, it's continued to bring in a steady amount of traffic long after its original post date. Additionally, the bounce rate for this page is well below site average.

Here's a quick look at the keywords which brought traffic in to this post. This is only a snapshot of the top 25 keywords. As you can see, "tire rotation" may be the most common, but the rest of the longtail keywords combined brought in more traffic than the main keyword, "tire rotation" did alone.

Here's a similar example, based off a "failed thermostat" blog post.

Here's the original post, with targeted keyword phrases circled:

Now, take a look at this post's web stats and the keywords for which it was most frequently found:

I can understand why longtail keywords make many old school SEO gurus squeamish; they're amorphous, unpredictable, and using them requires a great deal of intuition. When combined with a well-optimized business blog, however, they can be an incredibly effective tool for getting more traffic and, if the business blog is well written, hopefully inbound links as well.

Why are longtail keywords most effective when paired with a business blog? If you'd like to know more about SEO for business blogs, head over to my website's business blogging resource section. Of course, if you're still confused, I'd love to answer your questions personally.

Next week we'll take a look at basic link building strategies.