The Quest for the Best (Long-tail Keyword)

Here are some facts on why long-tail keywords work and how to best go about finding them.

Phoenix, AZ

In the world of Search Engine Optimization(SEO), long-tail Keywords are all the rage and for good reason. If you manage to land that one ever elusive long-tail keyword that is unique to the product or service you are selling, you essentially struck gold. However, chances are that you will have to go through quite a few mid- and long-tail keywords in order to figure out which generate traffic you are hoping for.

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This does by no means mean that head terms or short keywords are not valuable, in fact, you need a combination of both to generate good leads. The problem with long-tail keywords lies for instance in their need for specificity. While you may search for shoe laces by just generically entering the term “shoelaces”, typing in your search engine the long-tail keyword “pink shoelaces for Adidas sneakers” is quite specific and will lead you to your desired product much faster and on a very direct path that does not involve having to click dozens of suggested links.

It is often a hard sell to clients that targeting specific and less popular keywords will actually benefit them more than using keywords that are already have a high search volume. It seems illogical and yet is a very successful SEO strategy-and it works to boot.

Seattle SEO Jayson DeMers brings up a couple of very interesting facts about long-tail keywords. He cites the trend of using natural speech pattern in search engines along with the fact that those searches are rarely grammatically or orthographically correct for the increased importance of unique and market specific long-tail keyword searches.

When perusing the web on tips of how to find the best keywords suggestions reach from simply google, use E-How, yahoo and Quora and other forums for the very specific search terms of potential clients. And oftentimes that is a really good strategy, if you have the time to spend hours and days collecting this data organically and making your own keyword “cheat”sheet and list ranking.

Over the last few years many valuable websites and web services, such as HitTail, have been created by SEO savvy geniuses. These sites are geared towards SEO managers and intend to make our job just a bit easier -and faster.

What exactly is HitTail?

HitTail offers a tracking software service that can help to identify overlooked and less popular long-tail keywords that lead traffic to your client’s website. Through calculations is spits out a number (quite a big number actually) of keywords. You can sign up for a modest $9.95 a month for the basic plan which gets you a website tracking code to embed into your WordPress site. Then the fun begins, you get weekly keyword collections that are broken up in the top 10 search terms which are featured in yellow and long-tail keywords which are in green along with data that tells you how many searches comprised those terms in numbers and percent.

Additional features include the suggestions tab where you can keywords the HitTail wizards deemed worthy, a to do list tab where you can mark words you want to work with and of course, you can also export your list into an excel spreadsheet.

I find it extremely user-friendly and easy to navigate. The Help button even gives you a video explaining how the keyword rankings work and how they are broken up.

With the HitTail keyword analytics you can create a great combination of head terms and long -tail SEO words to maximize website traffic for your business. In fact most businesses have seen an increase of about 20% within the first month of using HitTail.

Ergo: HitTail is definitely worth it. When you ran dry on ideas of what keywords to use or don’t have time to peruse fora and searches, HitTail is the solution for you.

And an added plus, their customer services is prompt and efficient. SEO is a fast paced world and I can’t wait to see what novelties 2016 holds.

Josh Jacoby - Mesa Web Designer Written By:
Joshua Jacoby – My Favorite Web Designs