Keyword Strategy and Long-Tail Keyword Phrases

by Trish Lindemood on July 20, 2009

Although longer search queries (five or more words) represent a relatively small percentage of all online searches, they are gaining in popularity (Hitwise.com, 2009) and are worth incorporating into your overall keyword research and implementation strategy.

Some interesting findings from the Hitwise.com April 2009 report:

Queries of five or more words accounted for 19.8% of all online searches in April 2009; with queries involving 8 or more words increasing by an impressive 18% from April 2008 . Therefore, nearly 1 in 5 (19.8%) of all online searches were for longer and more highly targeted keyword search phrases. To illustrate: rather than searching for “credit card processing” (which returns 17.9 million Google results as of this writing), online users taking this approach might try “merchant credit card processing service” (691,000 results) instead.

What this means to you and your business:

Of course, search results mean nothing if no one looking for the keyword phrase(s) you are trying to dominate. Just because there were 691,000 results returned for “merchant credit card processing service” doesn’t mean that there is anybody actually looking for that information. What really matters is how many online users are actively searching for that phrase and how the number of searchers compares to the amount of results returned. (Think of this in terms of supply vs. demand: if demand is high and supply is low – a significant opportunity exists if you are on the supply side of the equation).

This is where keyword research become crucial. There are a number of tools out there that can help you do this type of research and find out which keywords and phrases are worth targeting. One of the most well-known and popular is Wordtracker. This is a great resource and many SEO professionals incorporate it into their daily business. It can be purchased on an annual basis ($325) or as part of a monthly subscription ($59). They also offer a free seven day trial so you can get a feel for the program prior to making a purchase.

Another less costly but powerful option is Micro Niche Finder. This product can be purchased outright for one low fee ($97), without any ongoing monthly or annual subscription costs. One reason I like this product is because of its useful Strength of Competition (SOC) feature. This shows how competitive a particular word or phrase is in clear and concise terms. Simply clicking on the SOC tab will generate one of three results: a red “X” (too competitive), an orange “!” (borderline, but might be worth a shot), or a green check mark (go for it!). A quick comparison of “credit card processing” tells me that while it had 110,000 recent searches, it is far too competitive (big red “X”) to try to rank well for that term. However, while “merchant services credit card processing” only yielded 1,000 search results, the SOC was only “8″ (compared to 86,300 for “credit card processing”). Green light!

It makes sense to build a page or write an article around this more targeted phrase given that the odds of dominating the search are much higher. You have a better shot of those 1,000 searchers actually seeing your content than if you try to beat out 86,300 other competitors for the much more popular (and shorter) term.

Picking your battles wisely greatly improves your chances of winning.

Til Next Time,