When companies hire me to improve their SEO, they usually arrive with a few popular keywords they want to rank for—ideally in first or second place. I think they should look beyond those terms. The bigger opportunity lies in the “long tail” of search.
A small number of keywords attract many searches. A much larger number attract only a few searches each. Together, though, those smaller terms can generate far more traffic than the handful of popular terms you are targeting.
These more specific phrases, often containing more than two words, make up the long tail. They face less competition because so many sites focus on the broadest keywords.
If someone finds your website, does it really matter which keyword brought them there?
https://twitter.com/gijsheerkens/status/1214903898282045440
Funnily enough, focusing on long-tail keywords can also help you rank for popular ones. It is a long-term game.
SEO is a good example of compounding. Every new page you add can bring in visitors for as long as it exists. Taken together, those pages may attract far more traffic than a few broad keywords, even if you rank first for the best term in your market.
The pages reinforce one another. As you keep publishing useful content, your website grows and so does its authority on the topic. Eventually, that can help you rank for the popular keywords too.
The catch is that it takes sustained effort and resources. To me, it is worth it because the traffic can keep coming. An ad buys a click; a useful page can bring in visitors again and again.
Long-term versus short-term thinking.
Practice what you preach
I try to follow my own advice. My website Pasfoto.nu, an online passport photo service, is a good example. I’ve been working on it since 2009 and have created 900+ pages about passport photos over the years. Together, those pages bring in visitors every day, some of whom become customers. I also rank highly for top keywords now because of the authority the site has built on this topic, sometimes even outranking government pages and Wikipedia. That is the compounding effect at work.
Examples
So how do you get started? Here are a few ways to add useful content to your website:
- Blog: The obvious choice. Add a blog to your website and write regularly about your topic. It does not need a place in the main menu; a footer link may be enough. You want readers to move from the blog into the rest of your site.
- Customer service: Every customer question is a possible page. Create a help section and give each recurring question its own answer.
- Knowledge base: Wikipedia ranks for so many searches partly because it covers so many topics. Build a knowledge base around your subject and add pages that answer the questions people ask. Use Google’s suggestions for ideas.
- Filter archives: If your website has filters, as many online shops do, their results can become pages for specific long-tail searches. Nomad List does this well. Apply a filter and notice how the URL, page title, meta description, and results change. Adding the description to the page itself might help even more. The result: Nomad List has almost 40,000 pages indexed.
- Extended guides: If you are ready to put in more work, create an in-depth guide on a single topic. These long pages can be useful to readers and search engines alike. Vlogging pro is a good example.