SEOnotes

The long-tail of search theory has helped a lot of small websites in making it big. Long-tail keywords may not be a trophy keyword if the basis is brevity or the level of competition in order to hit the ranks for it. But if all know that a successful online campaign boils down to relevant traffic that leads to conversion, long-tail keywords are definitely your most prized bombs in the battlefield.

Long-tail key phrases are unpopular, never-been-seen-before, and easy to target keywords. Disclosed from the human mind, long-tail keywords cater to a larger demand balloon as an economic theory.

If long-tail keywords are easy to target, the only challenge is how to find them. Here’s how:

Look up queries that lead to your site
Server logs can show which key phrases and real human queries that got you found by the visitor. From this data, you can actually see the types of searches your target audience is looking for in a given period. If your business is highly dependent on seasonality, you can notice the changes in the key phrases people use in finding you.

Google Webmaster Tools: Relevant Keywords
Just like your server logs, Google Webmaster Tools show the most number of queries that brought people to your site. The list may contain both short and long-tail keywords. The main point is, you will know the variations of phrases that are more likely effective in bringing traffic to your website. Plus the main key terms that Google recognizes from your site: check out the “what Google sees” tab.

Most popular searches
Hitwise can always come up with a list, but one cannot ignore the highly-populated social media sites like technorati, delicious, and whatever site that caters to people interested in your niche. These sites where social participation is involved will help you analyze what people are looking for. Some portals also have this option of showing a list of the most recent searches done in their website.

Competition Check
After getting a harvest of long-tails from these sources, it’s now time to check the battlefield. Check the competition for each individual word in your long-tail phrase, and analyze which combinations will help you find your niche. It’s always nice to have a blend of high traffic keywords combined with not-so-popular queries. It’s like hitting two birds in one stone.

Test and Analyze
This can sound too safe and can be dubbed as a last resort, but it won’t hurt to sit down and write down the natural flow of words when one is to make a search in the search engines. Think how your audience thinks. Then compare how this set of long tail keywords fared in the previous months/years. Analyze market trends, in other words.

SEO is not a grand grand field. It involves careful study, and an honest gauge of what is achievable and what is not. So before you aim at that generic, lucrative keyword, take a step back and find out if it’s really lucrative.

The key? Know which court you’re supposed to play at. Are you ready for the big players’ court? Sometimes it’s wiser to bring your game in that little (yet thriving) court if you really want your website to sell. Go for the conquerable niche rather than aiming for that big big playing field, where you are but a small participant.

Take this scenario:

I want to rank for the keyphrase: web design specialist. Overture returns with results of about 401 searches last January 2007, and now with 65,600,000 competitors in Google’s SERPs.

But if I focus on my primary target market say, web specialist Philippines – I’d get an estimated 108 searches (Overture, Jan 2007), but with fewer and more forgiving number of competitors in the SERPs of about 1,270,000 (Google).

Keyphrase                               Search Volume        Competition

web design specialist                 401                           65,600,000

web specialist Philippines           104                           1,270,000

If you wish to go further, check out the Page Rank (PR) of the top 10 websites appearing as you search for your main keyword. That’ll say if your key phrase is worth the fight.

The key is to find your niche. In this particular case, the Philippine web industry is the focus. Next step is to study the market online, know who’s competing, and with what keywords, then strategize.

It’ll save you a considerable amount of time, effort, and frustration.

Sometimes it’s more worthwhile to make it big in the small court.

The Title tag wins your rankings, as they say it’s still the undisputed and ever consistent factor in search engine rankings. It really takes skill and ability to achieve that rare blend of an optimized title and a title that invites your lookers to bookmark your website, in other words excellent branding or site recall. Take a look at some SEOnotes regarding meta titles.

1. Keyphrase | keyphrase | Company Name

- maintained same level of ranking, increased visibility for more search terms, quite low CTR

2. Keyphrase Company Name Keyphrase

- confused the reader all through out! (joke! That’s just a guess for that very low CTR). Achieved good rankings, however. That makes me wonder if special characters really hurt you.

3. Keyword + in + Keyword | Company Name

- Uhm… medium ranks, looks quite amateur for me though (IMO only). Still works for CTR, site usability.

4. Company Name: Keyphrase

- Nice for the index page. It lets people see what your site is all about. Good CTR. Good for branding. Rankings would need more link building.

5. Keyphrase: Company Name

I use this pattern for the inner pages of the site. It says more about what the page is all about.

The recommended 65-character title tag and your 150-character description should contain the same keywords, and should be both cater to search engines and the actual target audience - if your goal is conversion, and not just mere traffic.

Look up: SEOmoz Best Practice for Title Tags.