Long tail SEO - A simplified how-to

<< Getting the most out of tags Webstock vs ROCK2WGTN >>

Jan 26, 2008

Long tail SEO is something that I have trouble getting people to understand - the long tail is an oft-forgotten part of the search engine optimisation process because it's hard to get excited about ranking for a phrase which brings in 3 people per month.

However, long tail SEO can bring in 90% of your traffic, and it's easier than beating the established players at the big phrases.

LeftClick's take on the matter

I have been enjoying my shiny new subscription to LeftClick's RSS feed recently. LeftClick Labs are New Zealand usability consultants, and a lot of what they say makes sense. And to add sugar to the top, LeftClick use these kooky littly hand-drawn pictures all over the site which just make the whole experience really pleasant.

John Hyde of LeftClick recently posted about long tail SEO, and it's a must-read post for website owners because it's not too technical and explains the concept so well. And the picture of a "wheelchair backpacker accommodation queenstown dog allowed" at the bottom of the page was pretty cool too.

To finish off...

However, the article didn't explain at all how to go about winning these long tail searches, and I thought I could chip in my 2c worth here.
After explaining long tail search regarding the phrase "wheelchair backpacker accommodation queenstown dog allowed", the article first states...

So if you have a "wheelchair backpacker accommodation queenstown dog allowed", then you can buy those keywords in Google Adwords for a few cents per click.

Hmm, yes, but Adwords shouldn't be the first thing that pops into your mind.

You can also help your organic rankings for these specialised, long-tail searches. Create lots of focused pages targeted at specialised search terms.

That's more like it. Why waste money on Adwords when you can own the organic results for free?

Owning the organic long-tail

Because nobody else is specifically targetting long tail phrases, they are usually pretty easy to win. Both LeftClick and I will be ranking in the top 10 for "wheelchair backpacker accommodation queenstown dog allowed" within the next week (Edit 29 Jan 08: hehe, I beat them to it), and probably some of the shorter variations of the phrase too.

To get any measureable amount of traffic from long tail however, you need to target lots of phrases / variations.

One sure-fire way to get top rankings for a long-tail phrase is to apply the regular rules on on-page SEO - use the phrase in the title, URL, heading, meta description and first paragraph of body content. However, creating a whole page for every long-tail term is not usually practical - you end up with hundreds of pages effectively saying the same thing, which is a bit cheesy.

And on top of that, it's not necessesary either.

Strengthening pages that already rank

A better approach to long tail search is to add your long tail phrases onto pages that are already ranking for related terms. Add the exact phrase + a variation of the phrase in a paragraph on one of your existing pages - often this is all that is required to win the long tail searches.

Example:

Accommodation features

Stunning views of Queenstown from all backpacker rooms
Broadband internet available
Wheelchair backpacker accommodation Queenstown
Dogs allowed (but don't let the dog on the bed)
Breakfast provided

The above should be pretty easy to slip onto the bottom of a page, and should be enough to win the long tail for this phrase.

The phrase we are targeting has been used in full (almost)
Note "dog" has been changed to "dogs" for readability
The fact that the phrase is split across 2 separate bullet points does not matter. You can get away with inserting dashes, line breaks, commas, periods etc within your phrase and Google won't mind.
I have repeated the words Queenstown, backpacker and accommodation within close proximity of the phrase.
I have used "dog" within close proximity of the main phrase, which is a variation of "dogs".
Adding more variants to this block of text will help you rank for other long-tail phrases - add "wheel chair", "accomodation" (note misspelling), "hostel", "Whakatipu" and other related words.
Proximity is important - you do need to concentrate these words into a small block of text.
If any of those words are used in the title, URL, heading etc, then this makes the job of ranking much easier.

Go to it

Look through your existing content and spare some thought for what long-tail phrases people might use to find this page. Then, create a keyword rich paragraph of content which encompasses the phrases you have chosen, with a few variations thrown in.

I'm sure you will be pleased with the results.

<< SEO Articles index < Getting the most out of tags | Webstock vs ROCK2WGTN >

Tags: leftclick labs long tail seo on page seo content seo

Comments

Berend de Boer - Jan 26, 2008

Long tail, indeed, almost forgot that Wired article. And good tips, thanks Harvey.

As you say "bottom" I suppose Google doesn't find the top content on the page more important than than the bottom?

Lynn Bishop (SEO) - Jan 26, 2008

Hi Harvey, Another great post, I really enjoy your way of thinking, soo similar to my way of thinking.... and you are correct, what you say works well, especially if like you say, you change the way the words are phrased while still sying the same thing.
I did a similar thing with the word "NZ's Best" as a joke I started signing my blog "NZ's Best SEO" and the word NZ's Best SEO got into the meta tags of our main site(I don't know how that possibley could have happened).... anyway like I said it was a joke, but just looking at my stats for this month, and keyphrases that people used to find my website, you would be amazed how many people search for either "NZ's best ..." or just "Best ..." something or other, many things nothing at all to do with SEO, but by adding the word best to my sites main meta tags etc, I recieved and extra 104 visitors for 56 different phrases using "best" or NZs Best" somewhere in the phrases. 104 visitors i probably wouldn't have gotten with the word best. Again, a Very good post.

Cheers Lynny NZ's Best SEO lol

Harvey Kane - Jan 26, 2008

As you say "bottom" I suppose Google doesn't find the top content on the page more important than than the bottom?

Actually, I'm of the opinion that the top content is considerably more important than the bottom content. Other SEOs may disagree, but I'm yet to see any compelling evidence in either direction.

The reason I mentioned putting your keyword-laden text into the bottom of your page is that it's less invasive, and often that's all you need to do to start getting long tail traffic.

For shorter, more competitive phrases, different story.

suchmaschinenoptimierung - Jan 28, 2008

what can i do better? can you tell me this? thank you.

Toni - Feb 10, 2008

dear harvey, great article about the long tail seo thing! have bookmarked it and will print it out for studying again. best regards toni

Ricci - Feb 10, 2008

dear all, just landed on this page after looking for new seo techniques...you guys are good! have learnt a lot while browsing. will come back again to this site, cheers ricci

rodel - May 8, 2008

good read.. tnx for this one.. now, i understand long-tail at its best..