Today I want to talk to you about keywords and how long tail keyword research can mean the difference in success and failure this year. Most clients will say “I want to be able to rank for this keyword and that keyword” and they’re all one-word keywords in their marketplace that they are never going to rank for in a million years because there’s been other companies in that space for five years.
What we typically tell clients is by using proper long tail keyword research upfront, we can get them much closer to a buyer than using one or two word keywords.
Here’s my example, if you’re a plumber in Philadelphia, and even if you try to get ranked for “Philadelphia plumber” or “plumber in Philadelphia,” it’s going to take a very long time, if ever, that you are going to rank anywhere near the first page of Google.
You’re probably never going to get a sniff on the first page of Google for that keyword. But, if you were to say work in one of the suburbs like Abington and you tried to compete for key words like “plumbing contractor in Abington” or “Abington drain cleaning companies” or “plumber who does drain cleaning in Abington,” you’d have a much better chance at getting found.
First off, you’re much closer to a buyer with a long tail keyword of three, four, five words. Second of all, it’s going to take you a lot less time to rank organically on your home page for that word. It’s going to cost you a lot less to buy that key word in a pay per click campaign. So, while you can go out and let the other guys beat each other over the head for Philadelphia plumber, you can get that same 100 clicks if you put together a solid list of 5, 10, 15, 20 long tail keywords of between 3 to 5 key words each and develop blog posts around those.
If you create a specific page on your website, developed content around that keyword over time, you’ll rank much better for those keywords.
You’ll be a lot closer to a buyer because someone looking for a drain cleaning contract or plumber in Abington is ready to buy versus a guy who is just looking for “plumber” because you don’t know what the user intent is.
So, come up with a list of ten new keywords that are all four to five words long and sit down and write some content for those keywords. Get them up on your blog and I guarantee that within a month to three months, you’ll start getting found on the first page for those keywords and you’ll start to develop business from it.
By the way, that’s how those SEO companies get you on the first page. They get you found for three to five word key words and they say to you, “Hey look, we’ve got you on the first page of Google.” You can do that yourself by doing your own long tail keyword research. It will take you an hour to two hours to write a page worth of content and get found on the first page of Google by yourself. So, that’s it. Hope you enjoyed the tip!