For small businesses the benefits of optimising long tail key terms can be vast. Firstly, it helps to understand that the long tail of search gets its name from a graphical express of an area of search. At the start of the curve, there are fewer terms that produce higher traffic, but lower conversions. As the terms in a keyword group continue, this is where the tail comes in – there are hundreds of terms that get less traffic per term, but contain more targeted purchase-minded prospects.
So if the general short tail term is “football”, the long tail terms would be those that contain the word “football”. In general, the longer the phrase, the farther it is into the long tail, and the more likely it is to bring you buying traffic.
You see, the term “football” might have had 30,000 visitors per day searching for it, but it is inadvisable to optimise it. This is because it is too broad as a term; it will pick up competition from a wide range of sites including the multinational corporations. A long Tail could be “football equipment”, this would begin to limit the traffic to those interested in football products rather than the sport itself. However, this would still be a very competitive term and have many large businesses optimising for it. For a small sports outlet in Keswick, a good long tail term could be “football equipment Keswick” as this will be less competitive but is highly specific.
Terms such as this are less difficult to obtain, more likely to convert leads, and harder for your competition to discover. Although they are difficult to predict and target, they can exponentially increase your ROI if you find them.
Whereas a very competitive (short tail) term might generate 10,000 visitors with low conversion, a long tail term may generate only 2,000 visitors yet offer much higher conversion rates. People searching in the long tail know what they want and are much closer in their buying process. As a result, marketers are better off targeting these types of terms for keyword phrases. Long tail terms are fast becoming the preference for experienced search marketing professionals.
In short, Long tail is potentially the most cost effective route for creating conversion driven traffic onto a small business site. As opposed to spending more money on generating large amounts of traffic, that is more likely to result in a higher bounce rate for the site.
For an example of a page optimised with a long tail term for a small business visit Restaurant in ulverston. At the time of publishing this Search Trafficker was ranked number 6 on google.co.uk for the term Restaurant in ulverston. The business advertising is Naaz, a local Indian restaurant in the small town of Ulverston, Cumbria, which demonstrates the potential of long tail terms for small businesses. While the term may not have a massive traffic volume, it is more than likely to be what someone would type to find somewhere to eat in Ulverston.