In keeping with the theme of Michael’s earlier post called Links vs Content and Long Tail vs Short Tail Keywords, Michael discusses the differences between long tail and short tail keywords, as well as links versus content. I have had a few people ask me how to best attempt to capture long tail searchers, and it is an excellent question, here is what we know. Obviously creating content to match the possible long tail searches is probably the best way to go to accomplish long-term organic results. This is done by creating new web pages, using the long tail search term as the topic of the page, the page title, but then considerable content needs to be placed on that page to support the phrase or concept to rank well. It can be challenging, especially when you are a small business person and have so many other responsibilities to juggle. Creating content isn’t as easy as some of the other strategies we implement in a SEO campaign, using many great tools which simplify the other steps. But content takes times, some research and brain power to create, so we see some avoid it, even though it can have potentially drastic positive results if done well. In fact, due to our own challenges of creating new content, Michael and I actually created a pretty good business called Applied Content which has trained writers research and create unique content for site owners, because we figured others would struggle as we did. We were right.
So here we are, we need content to rank well for these search terms, but if we don’t want to spend money to create content, and we don’t have the time to research each long tail search topic and then write good content on our own, do we have any other options? I am happy to say yes, and we have seen some pretty good results with it.
We have noticed that some of the long tail terms we focus on and include in an occasional blog post, actually have begun to perform quite well. Much of it is based on the competition for these terms, but if we find good long tail terms, which aren’t too popular, yet relevant to us, we can do quite well fairly quickly. And we have seen this work for both long tail and short tail search terms. We are actually doing very well for some terms just by accident, which has taught us to be more focused in our blogging strategy.
Just a quick example, back in March I was in Japan meeting with various partners in hopes of eventually launching SoloSEO in Japan. SEO in Japan would obviously be a good move for us, and we felt finding the right Japanese SEO partner would be imperative if we were going to be successful. I blogged about my experience in Japan, and the current situation of SEO in Japan. Well it didn’t take long until we were ranking 4th for the search phrase “SEO in Japan.” In fact it took less than a week. And now, if you will look above in the previous sentences, you will see I have already slipped in the term “SEO in Japan” in there again on purpose, but in the flow of the post. I have also used “SEO in Japan” as the Anchor Text for the link back to my previous post, which is good for internal linking structure. Just these little tactics alone should keep us doing well with this search term, as we already sit 4th, and this is now fresh content, some 3 months later. Also notice I have also used the term “Japanese SEO” in this post, because I want to start doing better with that search term in the future, as we don’t rank well for it now. But I was able to fit these terms into the post somewhat naturally.
So once you have used SoloSEO’s keyword tool to figure out which long tail, or even short tail phrases you are interested in ranking for, write them down, keep them handy as you blog, and where appropriate use those exact terms in your blog posts. As your pages get indexed and the search engines begin recognizing your site as an authority for your industry, you will start ranking better for those terms, and your site will gain long term search credibility. Best thing is you won’t have to pay Applied Content (although you are welcome to) to create content for you, or sit down and create a couple of paragraphs about each search phrase. These important search phrases will just naturally become part of your blogging practice/strategy, and if wisely included in posts, will improve the performance of your site for those terms.
