Keywords are the basis of an SEO strategy. Your keywords determine the strength, longevity, and relevancy of your SEO game. While ranking for a particular focus keyword is essential, a major chunk of your overall SEO performance depends on the traffic that long tail keywords bring in.

What are long tail keywords? 

According to Brick Marketing, long tail keywords are a type of keyword phrase that has at least three, and sometimes as many as five words in the phrase. Simply put, long tail keywords are those three or four keyword phrases which are specific to your core competency. They are highly targeted search phrases that specifically serve searcher intent.

Why are long tail keywords important?

Typically, long tail keyword phrases have low search volume, low competition, high conversion rates. Long tail keywords communicate a clear intent to your customers about your core competency. ‘Buy sneakers online’ is a clear indication to purchase sneakers rather than just searching for ‘sneakers’.

Despite a low search volume, long tail keywords are easier to rank for and result in higher conversions since the competition for these phrases is less. After all, long tail keywords account for 70% of all web searches.

Why you should use long tail keywords

Now that you know why long tail keywords are important, here are 5 reasons why you should use long tail keywords to boost startup’s SEO game:

1. To outrank your competition

Long tail keywords cater to specific search intents for your business or niche and therefore the search volume for these keyword phrases is less. This simply implies that long tail keywords are your path to overtaking the competition and winning at SEO. If your website content or blog includes specific long tail keywords that you wish to rank for, there’s a high probability that your website will rank for it.

For instance, ‘VR’ may have a million search queries, and ‘virtual reality’ may have around 800,000 search queries, and ‘virtual reality apps’ may have fewer search queries. As the search request gets more specific, the search volume reduces, and this is how you can better target keywords to optimize your content.

If you’re actually making a VR product, it’s probably a game, app, or headset and your intention is to sell it or get your users to download the app. Tighten your SEO with the right long tail keywords and compete in your niche by looking for more refined keyword queries.

2. To improve conversion rates

For starters, the average conversion rate for long-tail keywords is 36%! To put things in perspective, most websites experience a 2-5% conversion rate. Perhaps lesser, in case you are just starting out. However, there’s no ‘party button’ to magically boost your conversion rates to cross 30% by simply inserting a few relevant long tail keywords in your content.

Long tail keywords solidify your Conversion Rate Optimization index through organic search traffic. Also, it’s much more economical to search for the most fitting long tail keywords and write blog posts related to them or include them on the content for specific pages than it is to pay for a PPC campaign on each of them.

3. To optimize for contextual content and semantic search

Long tail keywords are an integral SEO component to optimize for contextual content building and semantic search. Google has always pushed for and supported contextual search. Google’s Hummingbird has adjusted search algorithms to match for exact phrasing.

Essentially, Google is focused on long-tail keywords to strengthen their search results. Which is why you should focus on using long tail keywords too. Another interesting statistic suggests that 55 percent of millennials use voice search daily. When users query platforms such as these, they use long tail keyword phrases in the form of questions (e.g. “what are the best sushi restaurants nearby?”).

With the right long tail keywords, you can provide answers about your business and services, and better target long-tail keyword phrases. Remember, even if you target high-converting long-tail keywords with a low search density, they can still do wonders for your business.

4. To boost your blog strategy

There’s no denying the fact that a blog is the best way to rank higher on search engines. Content marketing and blogs are the cornerstones of any organic marketing strategy. However, to be effective, long-tail keywords must be used in the correct context within the URL, title tag, and body text.

For added benefits and even more visibility, using the focus long tail keyword in alt images and headers goes a long way to optimizing your site or blog for SEO. For instance, if you were to write just one single blog about marketing strategies, it wouldn’t help.

You need to use long tail keywords such as startup marketing tools or startup marketing tips to create content that will give your blog an SEO boost and drive more traffic.

5. To build value

Apart from driving traffic to your website, the sole purpose of your website content is to provide value to your readers and potential customers. Long tail keywords offer a lot in terms of strengthening SEO efforts, but they also provide unparalleled value to your readers.

And this is exactly what search engines like Google, Bing, and others are looking for. A thorough keyword research will help you mine for data to fuel your marketing efforts. After all, the key to a successful content marketing is to provide value.