Start Your Online Journey With Long Tail Keywords

We ended last year with 234 million websites, according to England based Internet services company Netcraft. For anyone launching a new website, this is an overwhelming figure. How does a website get into a space like that and still get noticed? The answer is by using long tail keywords. I think I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning.

A Long Tale About Long Tail Keywords

The term “long tail” having anything to do with the length of the keyword is a misnomer. The term was coined by Chris Anderson, who believes that the future of business lies in what used to earlier be regarded as misses in the long tail of the traditional demand curve.

Today, the market is characterized by increasing complexity and stiff competition. Almost everything is available to the consumer. What a business, especially a startup, needs to do in this scenario is to find a niche. This is because the market for mass appeal products or services is already dominated by massive conglomerates. Enter this market and the bigger fish will happily gobble you up in no time. A new website typically has a limited marketing budget. This makes it extremely tough for a newbie to compete with the already established companies and brands.

However, when a startup finds a niche, there is much lower competition to reckon with. The startup can expect greater return on the money it invests in marketing to this niche audience. The two most critical things for a startup are quicker returns and value for money. This is exactly what you get when you narrow your customers and customize your product.

Why Targeting Long Tail Keywords Is Appropriate For Startups

Dive into an icy ocean with a pail of hot water and you will still freeze. But if you step into a bathtub, with a pail of hot water, you are all set to enjoy a great bath. Long tail keywords create the bathtub. These keywords target specific audiences and are much more focused than keywords that are shorter. ‘leather accessories’ – That’s a keyword. ‘leather accessories for Indian working women’ – That’s a long tail keyword. Of course keywords that are shorter or more generic in nature would have a much larger number of people searching for them. And you won’t find thousands of people searching for long tail keywords. So, what is it worth then?

1. Low Competition: It is much easier to grab the attention of your target market with long tail keywords because the competition is less. Most of competitors will not be using these keywords, which gives you a better chance of getting noticed. With lower competition, the ranking of your website on the search engine results page will be higher for these keywords.
2. High Intent: It has been observed that when people are less certain about what they are looking for search with generic or shorter keywords. As people begin to identify what exactly they want and are closing in to make a purchase, they narrow down their search and use more specific terms. Let’s say you were researching about iPhones. You would probably search with terms like Apple iPhone. But as you discover which one you want, you would probably use words like Apple iPhone 4 New Delhi. Hence, when the intent to buy is higher, a person would use long tail keywords. This means that the conversion of traffic that is generated by long tail keywords into buyers is higher.
3. Targeted Traffic: When you manage an SEM (PPC, or pay-per-click) campaign, long-tail keywords will attract highly targeted traffic. Since your keywords would be very narrow and focused, only those customers who are genuinely interested will visit your website. This also means that you will not have to pay for traffic that is less likely to be interested in what your website has to offer.

In order to use long tail keywords to your maximum advantage, you need to have a very well thought-out business model. Once you have clearly identified your target audience, you are all set to dominate that space!