Why Are Long Tail Keywords So Important?

So, what’s the big deal with “Long Tail” keywords anyway? Okay, you may have heard about long tail keywords before,but never really grasped what that meant (I know I didn’t for a long time).

Essentially Long Tail keywords are those terms that only get a small volume of search traffic, but in aggregate can add up to a
HUGE amount. If you look at this image here it might help visualize what Long Tail Keywords are:View Long Tail Graph ImageYou will see that the “tail” of the curve is where the lower search volume keywords reside. Even though these keywords get a lower amount of search traffic, they have the advantage of also being very low competition.

So, to rank for these “long tail” keywords is MUCH easier than trying to rank for a large “head” term.

But if its such low volume, why would you want to rank for it?

Well, Chris Anderson who wrote, “The Long Tail” for Wired Magazine back in 2006 essentially said that the future is not in the megahits (think 1 big keyword) but in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end (think lots of little long tail keywords).

In fact, it has been shown time and time again that the millions of small long tail keywords actually get MUCH more search traffic overall than the few big keywords at the top! So, these small little keywords actually provide a couple of distinct advantages over trying to rank for 1 big search term.

First, they are much less-competitive.

Second, they actually get more search traffic in aggregate.

So, instead of spending years trying to target and rank for 1 big search term for your website, the smarter strategy is to find several “long tail keywords” that are very easy to rank for.

Find the right combination of keywords, and you will have just as much traffic flowing to your website as you would have had with 1 large keyword.

Also Read – How To Select Keywords For Search Engine Optimization

This is why doing keyword research is so vitally important to your online business. If you choose keywords that are too difficult,you will never rank because the competition is just too fierce in Google and other search engines.

But if you do your keyword research properly up front and choose to provide content around those terms, then you can find your website ranking much quicker and easier for the long tail phrases.