SEO how important is it? by Carrie Glenn

How important is SEO for your business? Very important. But first, let me tell you about the Chinese dragon.

Chinese Dragon courtesy of Scott Watson from Pixabay

WordStream, a company that helps with online advertising, uses the Chinese dragon as its metaphor for:

Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases rather than one or two keywords. Who do they attract?

1. Google's Algorithms (and therefore, rankings)
2. People who are close to buying
3. People using voice search

Using long, specific keyword phrases may lead to less hits, or "popularity" per se. However, as WordStream points out, these less popular searches make up for around 70% of searches.

What does that have to do with dragons? Well, just like a Chinese dragon's tail, the amount of searches for these long-tail keywords goes on forever. And

Most people are using long-tail keywords to  find your business or service

And more importantly, these long-tail keywords are the ones that are getting the most sales. Neil Patel encourages business owners to check out their Google Analytics reports to understand this concept. He shows how it's these key phrases that are generating clicks and sales.

How to use long-tail keywords in website content

What should you do and how do you use long-tail keywords in your website content? Here's a few suggestions, the first may surprise you!

Develop long-tail keywords for your website content:

1. First, let's get the elephant in the room outside! Google's SEO Starter Guide tells us to write content for our website visitors, not for search engines. They warn us: do NOT add a bunch of unnecessary keywords just to get noticed by search engines. As Google says, these are typically "annoying or nonsensical to users." And don't add common misspellings or use hidden text that only search engines can see (I don't even know how one would do this, but the Guide can explain it better!).
2. Listen to Grandpa when he uses Siri or Google voice to search the internet. Yes, you will laugh hysterically, but after that, you will find ample examples of how to create long-tail keywords.
3. Listen to your clients' questions. These are your EXACT long-tail keywords! And using these in your content, answers those questions, thus building a stronger, more trustworthy brand.
4. Search a product or service within your business or having to do with it. Scroll down a little to find the Google heading "People also ask." Here you will find possible phrases that may work for you. 

How to find long-tail keywords using Google search

Using Google search to find long-tail keywords, I typed in "copywriters for website" a got several answers. As an in demand and well established copywriter (as opposed to an aspiring or new copywriter), the only phrase that works for me here would be the "How much do copywriters charge per page?" Why?

Because the other phrases are clearly questions that new or aspiring copywriters would ask, where "How much do copywriters charge per page?" is what someone needing to hire a copywriter might ask. 

Stay on top of Google's hummingbird update and use SEO wisely. Be sure to incorporate long-tail keywords to 

• Increase Google ranking
• Get more sales
• Build a trustworthy and stronger brand

Thanks for reading!

Carrie

carrieglenn.com