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SEO is often viewed as an uphill battle where site owners and marketers struggle to keep up with Google’s constantly changing algorithms, updates, and shifting focuses. There are no shortcuts that lead to the first page of Google, but there are a few approaches and best practices that can help you keep your online presence relevant in the eyes of the largest search engine.
First, consistency in your SEO strategy is key. Second, focusing on long-tail SEO can be an excellent way to gain more traction on your path to increased online visibility. In this article, we’ll delve into the topic, sharing our tips and tricks for a winning strategy.
The phrase “long-tail” comes from Chris Anderson’s book “The Long Tail” in which he argues that businesses can boost their revenue if they sell a wider variety of goods in smaller numbers as opposed to offering only a few products but in vast numbers.
Both the concept and the phrase carried over to the expertise of SEO, suggesting that websites can generate more traffic and boost visibility and conversions by focusing on longer key phrases. These phrases might not get as many searches from users, but they have a better chance of reaching those who are more likely to search the phrase.
Long-tail keywords are usually made up of between three to five words. Typically, users start their digital search journey with short-tail keywords, and as they progress further on their path to solve their pain points, they perform more detailed searches, i.e., use long-tail keywords. This also means that they may provide you with more conversion-ready traffic, and people will be more likely to interact with your business.
Data also suggests that over 75% of search queries are long-tail keywords and that they have an average conversion rate of 36%.
By now, you probably understand the benefits a long-tail SEO strategy can bring to your table. However, there’s more. Let’s see what else you can take advantage of if you use these terms cleverly in your SEO strategies.
Even though long-tail phrases generate less traffic, they account for 75% of searches (together with middle-tail keywords), while the remainder goes for short-tail searches. Thanks to the lower competition, you can rank in a prominent position in the search results, and drive relevant traffic, especially if you offer valuable content.
Targeting more specific phrases can help you attract more qualified leads who are more likely to convert. People using long-tail keywords probably already know what they are looking for, and by targeting them, you can cater to their needs better. Or in other words, match their search intent, which is another relevant ranking factor.
Content is still king when it comes to SEO and long-tail keywords can help you create more helpful content that directly addresses user concerns and questions. Researching relevant long-tail keywords can help you identify trending in-depth topics, and you can tailor your content pieces to offer more value. The more helpful they find your content, the more likely they are to build trust with your site and brand. This means that they’ll spend more time on your site, additionally helping your SEO efforts.
Long-tail keywords allow you to personalize your content too, enabling you to target relevant descriptive words like location, gender, age group, etc. This can help you diversify your content and support different goals for various groups within your audience. Not to mention, location-based long-tail keywords are a fundamental aspect of local SEO.
Lastly, in SEO, long-tail keywords can also help improve your blog strategy. These phrases offer you more room to explore a wider range of niche topics within your industry, helping you establish yourself as a go-to source of knowledge, and boosting your industry authority. It also signals to Google that you have high EEAT standards, indicating your content is of high quality and value.
Short-tail keywords are harder to rank for, as countless other businesses are trying to rank for the same one to two words at the same time (for example, “SEO,” “digital marketing,” “hair conditioner,” etc.). In contrast, long-tail keywords are targeted less, meaning, it’s easier to rank for them. They can be an excellent way to gain traction when visibility is your main concern.
In 2023, 27% of searches were conducted via voice in the Google app and by the end of 2024, there will be an estimated 8.4 billion voice assistant devices worldwide. Furthermore, experts predict that 80% of voice searches will be conversational this year, which means that users will be more likely to use long-tail keywords. As voice search becomes more prevalent, using long-tail phrases makes even more sense.
If you are only beginning with SEO, you might not fully grasp the concept of long-tail searches if we don’t touch bases on short-tail keywords too. Short-tail keywords, seed keywords, or head terms are short search queries, typically containing one or two words. They have high search volumes and competition, and are less focused, covering broad topics.
Seed keywords can help you get more traffic if you rank well for them, but chances are, due to the broad topics they can cover, your conversion rates will be usually lower when compared to long-tail options. For instance, if you are a sportswear online store and target the keyword “running shoes” and use it wisely in your on-page optimization approach, you can generate a lot of traffic with it but might end up with fewer conversions, especially if your visitors are looking for something specific.
That said, if you also use the term “best running shoes for sprints” you may generate less traffic than you’d do with a head term, but you will be attracting more qualified visitors who are looking for sprinting shoes.
So, which terms should you use? Some say that using a mix of both can help you maximize the potential benefits of both, catering to various searchers at different stages of the buyer journey. And how should you balance them? Some experts, like Bryan Kelly, Digital Product Innovator at Apple iSports, suggest basing your on-page content strategy around long-tail phrases. They are less competitive, so you can rank better with them. Then, when traffic starts to grow, strategically place short-tail phrases to potentially boost your rankings and your traffic.
Others, like Adam Sidorczuk, Founder of Sido Digital, recommend a more strategic approach, meaning that your content strategy should align with your page architecture. He argues that the more clicks it takes to get to a page from your homepage, the harder time it will have to rank for short-tail keywords. While they can be somewhat changed with smart external and internal linking, according to him, short-tail keywords should be the most populated on the most important pages of your site.
Creating an effective long-tail SEO strategy involves most of the basic SEO principles that you’d use in any typical strategy, but here, the focus is on more niche-oriented phrases.
Keyword research involves identifying the search phrases most relevant to your business that people are likely to use on Google or other search engines when they have a specific goal in mind. Focus on low-competition long-tail keywords that align with your brand, your audience’s search intent, and your business goals.
To make things easier, you can always use research tools like Ahrefs or Google Keyword Planner, but to avoid pitfalls and rookie mistakes, your best option would be partnering with an experienced SEO agency. These experts will also help you analyze your competition to see what keywords they are trying to rank for, providing you with valuable insight into exploitable opportunities.
After identifying the key phrases you want to target, it’s time to implement them in your existing on-site content or develop new, targeted content. Regardless of which path you choose, ensure that your pieces are informative, high-quality and that your keywords are naturally incorporated.
Focus on addressing specific niche topics and questions and ensure that your content matches user intent regardless of whether you mean to educate, offer solutions, or sell.
Long-tail keywords can also be pretty valuable in terms of on-page optimization too. For instance, they can be great for placing internal links to offer your visitors even more relevant and related content. This will also improve SEO site structure and bot crawling.
Additionally, long-tail keywords can be used for the optimization of your meta data, like titles, tags, and descriptions. Your image alt text can also benefit from keywords as alt text is the only way Google can tell what’s on the pictures on your site.
Tools like Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and other, even more comprehensive tools can help you measure just how well your strategy is performing. You can see how well you rank for your targeted keywords, how much traffic you can generate, which sites are the most visited, how much time your visitors spend on your site on average, while also tracking your conversion rates.
Based on the data you’ve gathered, you can refine your strategy, add new keywords, revamp your content, and optimize your site even further. As mentioned, once you’ve gathered enough insights, you can then try to rank for relevant short-tail keywords to potentially drive even more traffic.
To maximize the potential of your long-tail SEO strategy, you may also consider sharing your long-tail content in your email newsletters, social channels, and relevant websites to expand your reach and attract backlinks. You can also try guest posting or blogging for reputable and niche-relevant sites and include backlinks to your content on your site which features long-tail keywords. This can help you further boost your visibility and authority.
Naturally, there are other important aspects of a good overarching SEO strategy that address site speed, responsiveness, other technicalities, user experience, and off-site optimizations. Working on them can get quite overwhelming so opting for expert help is the most sensible thing you can do to improve your online visibility.
Long-tail keywords let you match user intent with more precision. It’s a win-win situation where your audience finds what they are looking for faster, while you end up with more qualified traffic that’s ready to convert.
However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that setting up a long-tail strategy can’t become challenging. A lot goes into crafting an effective optimization approach, and it’s always best to leave it to certified experts. Together, you can boost your online visibility and grow your business.
However, SEO strategies can be complex and intricate, requiring experience and a clear understanding of the latest search engine trends. That said, to get the most out of your investment, it’s best to partner up with SEO agency.
Yes, but you shouldn’t remember that they operate differently and thus, can also serve different purposes. Both phrase types have their place in the user journey, with short-tail keywords raising brand awareness and expanding reach, whereas, long-tail phrases can help you drive more qualified leads which can improve conversion rates.
Yes, however, most experts will tell you not to. You may do more harm than good if you aren’t well-versed in SEO. Optimization takes continuous work, intricate strategies, and constant improvements which often take up more time than a business owner would have to focus on their rankings. When it comes to SEO, it’s always better to partner with a reputable agency to maximize your impact.
You can also use short-tail strategies to get the most out of your keywords and paid advertising to drive instant traffic to your site. Apart from that, you can also optimize your off-page SEO assets and try link-building to get the most out of your optimization efforts.
ChatGPT Search: Is SEO Changed Forever? – CMSWire
Swiss Digital Marketing Agency Netpulse AG Leads Online Success with Innovative Strategies – GlobeNewswire
| Source: netpulse AG | Online Marketing Agentur für Google Ads, SEO & Social Media Marketing
Winterthur, Oct. 31, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Winterthur, Zurich –
Swiss Digital Marketing Agency, Netpulse AG, has been a key player in boosting businesses’ online presence since its founding in 2009. Located in Winterthur, Switzerland, this agency is propelled by a team of 20 skilled professionals who are dedicated to increasing organic traffic for clients across a wide range of industries.
Netpulse AG offers specialized services designed to meet the unique needs of each client. Their focus on search engine optimization (SEO) helps improve how their clients show up in search results. They employ technical SEO, local SEO, and content marketing strategies to help businesses succeed online. Recently, they’ve been able to increase traffic for several e-commerce clients, leading to higher sales.
Besides SEO, the agency excels in digital marketing through Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. They’re known for creating effective search campaigns, display ads, and remarketing strategies. These efforts help clients reach their target audiences effectively, which leads to noticeable results.
As Lukas Nauer, a key figure at the company, explains, “Our main objective is to ensure our clients are seen by their potential customers and engage effectively with them. We focus on creating unique strategies that are data-driven and tailored to the individual needs of each client. Our recent campaigns have clearly demonstrated the strength of personalized digital strategies in attracting and retaining customers.”
Netpulse AG takes a thorough look at each client’s market position and digital strengths. This insight helps them craft customized strategies that fit the goals and resources of the client. In web design, they prioritize both looks and function, creating user-friendly sites that also work well with search engines.
The agency boasts a successful track record, having served over a thousand satisfied customers. They proudly hold the status of a Google Premium Partner Agency. Their diverse client base ranges from small businesses to large corporations, showcasing their ability to adapt to various commercial needs.
Their digital solutions have delivered substantial returns on investment for many clients. By focusing on measurable success and constant improvement, they’ve helped businesses exceed their digital marketing goals and establish strong connections with their audiences. Among the array of services offered, their expertise is clearly reflected on their website at https://www.netpulse.ch.
Lukas Nauer also noted, “Our team is dedicated to staying at the forefront of digital marketing advancements. By combining our technical know-how with creative thinking, we are able to deliver results that truly make a difference. We also ensure that we maintain transparency and fair pricing – central to our commitment to client satisfaction.”
Netpulse AG invites businesses interested in enhancing their digital marketing efforts to reach out. They offer a free consultation as a first step to understand the unique challenges and opportunities facing potential clients. To locate them or get in touch, you can use their Google Maps listing at https://maps.app.goo.gl/9bFUfxgTGGNjfN1q8.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb7uJQ071pc
Netpulse AG remains committed to using their digital marketing expertise to serve the varied needs of their clients. Their dedication to innovation and results-focused strategies positions them as an essential partner for businesses navigating the complexities of online marketing. They continue to play an important role in shaping the digital future for businesses in Switzerland and beyond.
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For more information about netpulse AG | Online Marketing Agentur für Google Ads, SEO & Social Media Marketing, contact the company here:
netpulse AG | Online Marketing Agentur für Google Ads, SEO & Social Media Marketing
Lukas Nauer
+41 52 508 28 28
info@netpulse.ch
Neuwiesenstrasse 44
8400 Winterthur
Switzerland
Google Predicts Strength Of Backlinks Ranking Factor Will Drop – Search Engine Journal
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Google Search Advocate John Mueller predicts the strength of backlinks as a ranking factor will drop over time.
During a live session at Brighton SEO, Google Search Advocate John Mueller makes a prediction about the future of backlinks.
Mueller, joined by fellow Googler Lizzi Sassman and guest Myriam Jessier, fields several questions during a live recording of the Search Off The Record podcast.
Since it’s a podcast, the questions are addressed as a group discussion, as the hosts answer pre-selected questions rather than interacting with the live audience.
Together, the hosts answer a question about how Google penalizes backlinks, which asks:
“As an SEO, we are interested in backlinks. However, actively working on backlinks often becomes a gray area in terms of link schemes. What are Google’s main criteria for penalizing backlinks?”
After some banter between the hosts, Mueller takes a direction with his answer that’s a slight departure from the original question.
Google representatives are often careful when answering questions regarding ranking and penalty criteria.
Generally, Google discourages any form of unnatural linkbuilding. Giving away too many details about penalties could encourage “grey hat” behavior or walking a careful line between what’s acceptable and what isn’t.
Instead of speaking about penalties, Mueller discusses the backlinks ranking signal in general and why it may become less critical to SEO professionals in the future.
As Google becomes more adept at understanding how content fits in with the rest of the web, Mueller suggests Google’s algorithm won’t have to rely so much on inbound links.
Mueller says:
“Well, it’s something where I imagine, over time, the weight on the links at some point will drop off a little bit as we can figure out a little bit better how the content fits in within the context of the whole web.”
Perhaps this is Mueller’s way of saying penalties aren’t worth worrying about because backlinks won’t be as valuable to acquire in the future.
However, suggesting backlinks are only helpful for understanding content disregards all the other information they communicate.
A backlink profile can tell you so much more about a website, such as the extent to which it’s trusted by others, who it’s trusted by, and how authoritative the site is in its particular niche.
Is Google capable of determining all that from the on-page content alone?
Mueller doesn’t speak to the authority aspect of inbound links, though he does say they’ll continue to be helpful to Google for content discovery.
Mueller continues:
“And to some extent, links will always be something that we care about because we have to find pages somehow. It’s like how do you find a page on the web without some reference to it?”
But my guess is over time, it won’t be such a big factor as sometimes it is today. I think already, that’s something that’s been changing quite a bit.”
Hear the full discussion at the 13:17 mark in Google’s latest Search Off The Record podcast:
Featured Image: AlenD/Shutterstock
Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in communications, …
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Ex-Googler Answers Why Google Search is Getting Worse – Search Engine Journal
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Ex-Googler Marissa Mayer insists the problem isn’t Google search and explains it’s the web itself that’s getting worse
An ex-Googler named Marissa Mayer appeared on the Freakonomics podcast to discuss the topic of whether Google is getting worse. Mayer suggested that asking why Google Search is getting worse is the wrong question. Her explanation of what is wrong turns the spotlight back on the web itself.
Marissa Mayer was employee #20 at Google, overseeing engineers, becoming director of consumer web products and was a part of the three-person team that worked on creating AdWords.
Mayer worked on many projects, including Google Images, News, Maps, and Gmail. She was at one point in charge of Local, Maps, and Location Services.
She eventually left Google to become the president and CEO of Yahoo! for five years.
There are few people in the world with her level of expert knowledge of and history with search, which makes her views about the current state of search of great interest.
The host of the podcast started out the show by describing how in their experience Google is not as good as it used to be.
Freakonomics:
“The power of that revelation faded, as revelations do, and we all began to take Google for granted.
When you needed some information, you just typed a few words into the search box and, very quickly, you got the answer you were looking for, usually from an authoritative source.
But today? To me, at least, it doesn’t feel the same.
My search results just don’t seem as useful.
I feel like I’m seeing more ads, more links that might as well be ads, and more links to spammy web pages.”
Marissa Mayer agreed that the search experience is different today.
But in her opinion the problem isn’t Google. The way she sees it, Google is only a window onto the Internet.
Mayer shared her opinion:
“I do think the quality of the Internet has taken a hit.
…When I started at Google, there were about 30 million web pages, so crawling them all and indexing them all was relatively straightforward.
It sounds like a lot, but it’s small.
Today, I think there was one point where Google had seen more than a trillion URLs.”
The host of the show asked if the increase in the number of URLs is the reason why search results are worse.
Mayer answered:
“When you see the quality of your search results go down, it’s natural to blame Google and be like, ‘Why are they worse?’
To me, the more interesting and sophisticated thought is if you say, ‘Wait, but Google’s just a window onto the web. The real question is, why is the web getting worse?’ “
The host of the show went along with the idea that the problem is that the Internet is getting worse and, as Marissa suggested, he asked her why the web getting worse.
Mayer offered an explanation that deflects from Google and lays blame for poor search results on the web itself.
She explained the reason why the web is worse:
“I think because there’s a lot of economic incentive for misinformation, for clicks, for purchases.
There’s a lot more fraud on the web today than there was 20 years ago.
And I think that the web has been able to grow and develop as quickly as it has because of less regulation and because it’s so international.
But we also have to take the flipside of that.
In a relatively unregulated space, there’s going to be, you know, economic mis-incentives that can sometimes degrade quality.
And that does put a lot of onus on the brokers who are searching that information to try and overcome that. And it’s difficult.
It kind of has to be more, in my view, an ecosystem-style reaction, rather than just a simple correction from one actor.”
The idea that the Internet is low quality because it is relatively unregulated is debatable.
There are government agencies dedicated to protecting consumers from fraudulent online activities. One example is the the United States government Federal Trade Commission guidelines on advertising, endorsements and marketing. These rules are the reason why websites disclose they are profiting from affiliate links.
Google itself also regulates the Internet through its publishing guidelines. Failure to abide by Google’s guidelines can result in exclusion from the search results.
Google’s ability to regulate the Internet extends to the quality of content itself as evidenced by the fact that out of eight algorithm updates in 2022, six of them were focused on spam, product reviews and demoting unhelpful content.
It could be said that Google’s algorithm updates proves that Google is more focused on fixing Internet content than it is on improving the technology for returning relevant search results.
That so much of Google’s efforts is focused on encouraging an “ecosystem-style reaction” aligns with Marissa Mayer’s observation that the problem with search is the websites and not Google.
Is Google Search worse because websites today are worse or is the problem with Google itself and they just can’t see it?
Is Google Getting Worse?
Featured image by Shutterstock/Asier Romero
I have 25 years hands-on experience in SEO, evolving along with the search engines by keeping up with the latest …
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