A lesson I’ve learned about search engine optimization is how successful long tail search terms are.
It’s advice I’ve heard from experts such as Martin Waxman when he spoke to Social Media Breakfast: Waterloo Region.
I am now seeing firsthand the importance of paying attention to long tail search terms.
People are searching for terms like “Best practices for annual reports” and so by using that term they are more likely to find me and my post on that topic. I’m not as likely to be found if someone is searching for “annual reports” since there search is more specific and has much less competition to appear in search results.
But the long tail makes a difference. My post “10 best practices for annual reports” attracts much more attention than another post I’ve written on the same topic called “Top 10 Tips for Annual Reports.” It is well read too but less likely to show up in a search result that brings someone to this blog. People are searching for annual report best practices, not tips for annual reports. What this means is that it’s important to consider the key phrase that you use in your title and in your article that you want to attract readers and clients/participants/donors/etc.
I’ve also discovered that a newly created “long tail” inspires searches. While I like to think that people are attracted to my post “What is your LinkedIn profile strength?” because it is so brilliant. More modestly, I’m aware that it’s a relatively new phrase and people are using it to search for help because they are trying to figure out how to use LinkedIn effectively. I think my post on the importance of being social on LinkedIn deserves a larger audience but it’s not benefiting from a phrase created by LinkedIn that people are craving to learn more about. So keep an eye out for new phrases related to popular topics
You can use tools like Google Adwords or Google Trends to help you figure out which long tail search terms to use. But true to my genuine, organic approach, I think that if you are in tune with your target audience you’ll know many good long tail search terms to include in your blog and on your website already. Use them!
