How do I use Long Tail phrases to drive sales of my products? And how can keyword research help?

The recent Google algorithm change has made online retailers around the world look more into Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques that if implemented correctly will enhance a online store and gain the store Google ranking. However, as they walk through the maze of SEO a key term comes up often – ‘Long tail phrases’ – for the average writer who is not internet savvy, this is the Holy Grail of SEO and are as scary as alleged dragon that defends this mystical object.

Often when confronted with complicated descriptions and explanations, the reader will put his or her tail between their legs and run out of the house whimpering. I must admit that being an amateur article writer myself, and seeing my Google traffic is being reduced by up to 33% I had to take a look at these horrifying subjects. A couple of questions immediately came to mind: What is a Long Tail Phrase? and How do I use Long Tail phrases to drive sales of my products?

As I perused the huge amount of information about these subjects, I was amazed to find that there really wasn’t one site that answered these questions in a clear and concise way – most of the sites I found use flags and mirrors to move me around the web without actually providing much information – obviously their keyword research was superlative as their articles were at the top of the page when I searched for ‘What is a long tail phrase?’

This article is therefore intended to give you a brief but hopefully clear glimpse into what a Long Tail Phrase is and the more important subject of what you need to do once you’ve ‘captured’ a customer. I am not an expert, so if you are looking for an expert opinion then you should stop reading now, but I am a good writer who needs to find some way to get my articles ranked higher – I’m in the same boat as you, so hopefully can assist you with my layman’s view of the sordid world of Long Tail Phrases.

A Long Tail Phrase is simply a short phrase of more than three words composed of keywords (see information about keyword research below). The keywords within the phrase tend to have low search traffic, but are targeted directly at the audience you want to capture. The key is to find a Long Tail Phrase that is aimed at a customer who knows exactly what they are trying to find on the internet.

For example, say SimeyC has a Seotomizer (a mystical machine) that has a lot of widgets inside that make it work; the wordiker widget that is essential for the running of the Seotomizer breaks in a freak accident and therefore SimeyC must go out and buy one. The Seotomizer is a specialized machine so he cannot simply go to a local store and buy one, he must research and hopefully find a retailer on the web.

He goes to Google and enters ‘widget’ and is presented with 308,000,000 search results; none of the top searches relate to the Seotomizer. He refines his search to ‘machine widget’ and still gets 36,000,000 search results. He soon realizes that this isn’t working and so he types in ‘Seotomizer widgets’ – this further reduces his results to 120,000. After perusing the results he decides that he is interested in a couple of widgets, one made by IBM – so he types in ‘IBM Seotomizer widgets review’ – and is presented with a few results and is quickly and easily able to find the information he requires and ends up purchasing the widget.

So in this case the Long Tail key phrase  is ‘IBM Seotomizer widgets review’ – while it is not a highly searched for term, anyone who searches for this phrase is probably looking to but a widget – so while you may not get millions of views, you may get many sales, especially if the Seotomizer is a popular gadget.

To break this down, let’s look at things you should consider when thinking about Long Tail phrases and designing your website:

• The Long Tail phrase gets SimeyC to your site; it is an effective way of getting the customer to view your products but does not guarantee a sale.
• A Long Tail phrase is a highly specific phrase intended for SimeyC or other customers like him – it is not going to attract millions of visitors.
• Once you have used your Long Tail phrase to get SimeyC to your site don’t beat around the bush – tell him exactly what he needs to know about the product and how he can purchase it. Authors Note: as I researched Long Tail phrases I found that I often found one site and then was presented with links to a hundred articles – this was very off-putting as a reader and I simply left the site and went to others that had more information up front. By not providing any real information straight away you are likely to lose your audience as they look for more informative sites.
• An important factor of selling on the web is building trust. Why should SimeyC buy from you? There are probably dozens of similar sites selling the same product. Try and incorporate reasons why SimeyC should by from you. Whether you offer a money-back guarantee or simply show some notes from satisfied customers you want SimeyC to feel comfortable that you are an expert, and the ONLY place to buy the widget from. Authors Note: You might think that I have contradicted myself in this article by saying ‘I am not an expert’ up front – however, as I am not selling an product and trying to pass on information I hope to gain trust by being honest, and telling the reader ‘I am the same as you’ – the key is to gain the trust of the reader and make them stay on your site.
• Don’t be afraid of letting SimeyC know of other products; you are the expert so you may know a better widget than the one SimeyC chose, so tell him the advantages and disadvantages of the product he chose and them give him alternatives.

One very important aspect of creating a Long Tail phrase is keyword research. This is the process of finding out how your customers are searching for the products they want. One important factor that you must be aware of is that customers search methods can change over time and a Long Tail phrase that works today may not work next year. Keywords are relevant words relating to a product or service that are used in searches – the idea is that you should add these keywords to your Long Tail phrase but also incorporate them into your text so that the search engine crawlers are able to link your website to the keyword.

Keyword research does not stop after publishing your site. The keyword ‘widget’ may change to ‘gidget’ next year so you have to be aware of the changing trends that are specific to your market and change your Long Tail phrases accordingly. This is an ongoing process and should not stop until you no longer want to sell the product.

One interesting bi-product of continually researching keywords for your specific products is that you often can gain an insight into current trends – maybe the Seotimizer is becoming obsolete and the new fangled Seogun is the next big thing.

• This is one of the most important aspects of designing your website – it is an essential piece of SEO that helps a customer find your site on the search engine.
• You are the product expert – this does not mean you know exactly what keywords your customers will use to find your product – while you know the item they are looking for is widget, they may search for dongle – so you have to be aware of similar words that can be used to search for your product and incorporate them into your text – don’t stuff your text with the keywords though as you don’t want to detract from your information.
• Never use keywords that have nothing to do with your product – there are some highly searched terms such as iPad, but if it has nothing to do with your product, why is it in your information - by ‘cheating’ the reader you will lose trust and possibly get into a boat load of trouble.
• Brainstorm some keywords – think of all the words and phrases that could be used to find your product. Try and be as unique as possible – as I mentioned above, simply using widget is not going to get your ranked highly, but incorporating phrases like specialized widgets will narrow down the number of search results.
• Use Google’s keyword research tool or other keyword research tools– from these you can ascertain how much traffic a search is likely to receive on a phrase, and also find out how much competition. You want to aim to get good traffic with minimal competition. The top analytical key word tools are Wordtracker, Wordstream and Google Adwords Keyword tool (I use the Google tool mostly as it is free and provides excellent results).
• Don’t overdo use of keywords – look at the list you have and use the most targeted keywords only – narrow this down even further to find the keywords that have the most traffic and least competition. Bear in mind that any keywords you place in your article should flow well with the rest of the text and not become a hindrance. You can use broad terms like widget as you need to let the customer know what you are selling, but by adding a few other more targeted keywords with widget you should gain more traffic.
• Once you have about 15 keywords make sure they appear in your website; don’t cram them into one paragraph, but try and use them logically and where it makes sense – if a keywords simply doesn’t have the correct context when added, then remove it.
• Your heading should be a Long Tail phrase that incorporates some of the keywords. You can also create different Long Tail phrases as headings or sub-headings within your website, thus increasing the visibility to different phrases within search engines.

 Probably 90% of website designers and article writers are not SEO experts, so by doing a little bit of research into Long Tail phrases and key words you’re likely to get a jump on your competitors and rank higher in the search engines.

The concepts are easy and can be done by anyone; applying them and analyzing the results is not as easy, but over time and with much trial and error you will find that you are able to optimize your articles to get the best search engine results while not compromising on the quality of your website.