What’s Trending in SEO: Long-tail Keyword Optimization


June 9, 2015

 

In the early days of search engine optimization (SEO) people relied on using short phrases or words to find what they were looking for. As the Internet has evolved and websites offer more and more, people and search engines have changed and are relying on longer search queries to find what they’re looking for. For instance, ‘red dress’ might become ‘red strapless cocktail dress’. This change in search habits changes the way that Internet marketers implement SEO on a website.

Why Search Queries Are Longer

Beyond the consumer trying to find a particular item in a sea of information and products, many searchers are also now asking full questions into search engines instead of short, keyword-based queries. This is partially because Google uses a process called "semantic search," which analyzes the intention of a user's query, then searches for sites whose capabilities make them good fits for serving that intention, making the longer, more conversational queries more effective.

Another reason we could be seeing more long-tail keyword searches is the increased use of mobile device voice searches. More people are using voice functionality to run their searches, and because of this, more queries are becoming conversational and informal. That means users are relying on more colloquial and sentence-based structures to do their searching.

What Your Business Can Do

Now that this increasing trend is coming to the forefront, it is time to get ahead of it. As with any SEO strategy, it's going to take time for these tactics to start taking effect, so start early and stay consistent in order to see the greatest eventual results.

· Get rid of keyword stuffing

This should already be eliminated from your SEO strategy, as it is long outdated and now can even earn you a ranking penalty in Google. Stuffing your site’s titles, descriptions and content with keywords in the hopes of ranking is no longer effective.

· Long-tail keyword optimization

Instead of relying on basic keywords in your industry, which will most likely be ranked by large sites such as Wikipedia and other industry heavy-hitters, optimizing for longer searches. For example, "who is the best Digital marketing company in Orlando" is a long-tail keyword phrase. Rather than optimizing for these phrases by including them exactly on your site (like with a conventional keyword strategy), you'll be writing topics that address these phrases and improving your site’s content to make sure Google clearly understands the purpose and position of your company.

· Be specific

Because search queries are becoming more targeted, it is even more important to have a niche. An area of expertise gives your business a chance to be specific and offer answers to specific questions. If you’re too generic or broad, you’ll easily become lost.

SEO is always evolving. With each Google algorithm update, it increases the sophistication and capabilities for search, and users then adapt to the newer search functions. If you want to stay ahead of the competition you have to proactively make changes like this. If you haven't already started optimizing for longer user search queries, now is the time to start. Contact Orlando Digital marketing company, Sales & Marketing Technologies, today for help with your SEO strategy. 

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