The Maine SEO Blog

In the other day’s webinar from SEOmoz, a point Rand Fishkin made really stuck out. During the section on Real Time Search, Rand mentioned: “Your blog doesn’t really target long tail searches”. The reason this point stuck out is because I’ve always talked about how blogposts are a great way to leverage the long tail.

With over 200 posts under its belt, this blog has built up a fair amount of trust over the past two years. However, 200 posts aren’t much when it comes to long tail searchers – targeting more or less 250 odd long tail keywords isn’t going to bring in much traffic.

Rand mentioned UGC (user-generated content) websites like Wikipedia…

…that boast over 40 million unique pages and targeted articles. Talk about targeting long tail searchers.

How can you target the long tail?

Just because you have less than 1 million posts doesn’t mean you should throw your hands up and give up on your blog. You can still target those long tail searchers – slowly but surely, and here are a few ways:

• Use tools like WordTracker Keyword Questions to get long tail questions the community has actually asked.
• Don’t neglect Google Analytics. Be sure to check the keyword section – especially near the bottom (with 1 or 2 searches) to see what long tail terms your visitors are already using. You can also leverage search terms in order to optimize better for what people can’t find.
• Use questions your customers ask you in real life; chances are, they’re asking them online too.
• A little experimentation. The sad truth is, long tail keyword research is nearly impossible, and sometimes it’s about taking the keywords you’ve already discovered as powerful and putting a different spin on them.

Nicki Hicks
Long-tailer

What people search for changes all the time. It changes because of everything from news and events to seasons, and even to the time of day. When you think about it, it’s intimidating to think about how you could possibly keep up with all of the change!

A blog is certainly the easiest and most efficient way to keep up with search trends – by creating keyword rich content that targets popular keywords of the moment. Creating articles, videos, and even images are also great ways to leverage hot keywords. But…where do you find these elusive keywords? Here are a few tools that can help.

Twitter Search

Twitter Search has a section at the bottom of the page for trending topics. You’ll most certainly get up-to-date (or to the minute) information about what the Twitterverse is talking about.

Google Trends

Likewise, Google provides a comprehensive list of what the nation is searching for on the homepage of Google Trends. (Search for topics in your industry to see a graph of trends over time related to that query.)

Google Insights

Google Insights provides “breakout” terms. Simply search for an industry keyword, then scroll through the trend graph, searches by region, and you’ll see a list of “top” and “rising” searches.

WordTracker Keyword Questions

By far one of my favorite tools for blogging inspiration, WordTracker Keyword Questions will give you a list of actual questions people have asked about your query – and how many times that question has been asked in the past year.

I’m sure there are a ton of other tools out there for keeping up with trending topics; but do you really need more than 4?

Nicki Hicks
What’s hot and what’s not

One of the first rules for keyword research is use more than one tool. Lucky for us, Google’s got a whole suite of tools – and better yet – they’re completely free!

1. Keyword Synonyms

I quite honestly don’t use the Google Synonym Tool as often as I probably should, but it will give you some great ideas when you start your keyword research.

2. Google Insights and 3. Google Trends

Google Insights will give you a good idea of what is popular right now (including similar “hot” keywords and phrases); while Google Trends gives a better indicator of how a keyword performs over time (Google has data as far back as 2004).

4. Google Analytics

You didn’t realize your Analytics could give you insight to what people are searching for?! Sure! Look no further than the keyword section. The bottom of the list will more than likely be rich with long tail searches. Maybe you could do a better job optimizing for those keywords, or maybe they’ll give you ideas for even more keyword research.

Another great place to look for keyword inspiration in Analytics is within your site search keywords. What were people looking for that they couldn’t find on their own? You might find some opportunity there.

5. Search-based Keyword Tool

Google’s Search-based Keyword Tool is based on AdWords bidding prices and competition, but you can get a great idea of search volume using it. It’s important to remember that this tool uses keywords in conjunction with existing websites. (So, if you don’t have a website yet, pop in one of your competitors’ sites!)

6. Google AdWords Keyword Tool

To date, Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool has been one of my favorite research tools. Again, based on AdWords competition, you’ll get the added benefit of global and local monthly search volume statistics.

7. (The New) AdWords Keyword Tool

I couldn’t be more excited for this new addition to the keyword research toolbox from Google: the new AdWords Keyword Tool. That much more robust, this tool adds a new column: local search trends. Even in a few short days of using it, I’ve found that, while you have to sort through the irrelevant keywords a bit more, you’ll get a ton of helpful synonyms and related search terms.

8. Google Sets

Ironically, I saw that Kasi Gajtkowski from Hall Web Services just put up a new blogpost about Google Sets – a new keyword research tool from Google. This tool will give you more loosely related (but still relevant) keywords related to the search terms you enter. That way, you’ll really be able to expand your keyword research and get some ideas you’d never thought of!

9. Google Suggest

While it’s not traditionally a keyword research tool, Google Suggest is an out-of-the-box way to get keyword ideas.

With so many free tools to choose from, you’re bound to be a keyword pro in no time. Which is your favorite to use?

Nicki Hicks
Google Tool Savant

When’s the last time you revamped the copy on your website?

The leaves are in the midst of falling, and now might be the perfect time to rework your website a little.

It’s about the title

It’ll be the first place any SEO suggests adding your best keywords, the title is the easiest way to increase your search engine visibility. If you don’t want to (or need to) do a lot of copyediting, this might be the perfect place to start. For some ideas, you might want to head over to Google Insights or Trends for what’s hot right now.

Content

When it comes to the copy on your pages, you know your business far better than anyone else could imagine to. However, the point is to see your company through the eyes of your customers. Optimize for the keywords they’re searching for. Do you come up in a Google search for the right queries? Move through the site like they do. Is it easy to navigate? Think like your customer.

‘Tis the season

You might need a change simply due to the nature of your business. Do you notice your customer flow changes seasonally? If you run a lodging or hotel business, the answer is obvious; but for other companies it might be more subtle. Update your copy accordingly.

Blogging makes it easy

This is where a blog comes in handy. Even if you do have a blog, you should still spice up your copy and titles every so often. But with a hot topic or news, you won’t have to as often. Just blog about it! That post has the ability to rank (just make sure you funnel people from your blog to your website).

Give it a facelift

There’s no need to update every page on your website, but maybe a facelift here and there – starting with the homepage – could really do some good! Search engines love fresh, unique content. Then again, maybe your copy is perfect the way it is. Either way, pay it a visit every once and again and just read it through. Make sure everything is still accurate and up-to-date.

Nicki Hicks
Content is the Spice of Life

Photo Credit

A few months ago, one of the folks I follow on Twitter posted a link to Wordtracker’s Keyword Questions, a great little tool that gives you insight into the world of long tail search. Or, as Wordtracker puts it: “find the questions people are asking in your market”.

It uses questions people have actually searched for and – bonus! – how many times within the past year they’ve been searched for. But don’t let the low number scare you – 1. we are talking about long tail here and 2. this is the number of people who used this exact wording.

Here are the questions about keywords:

And here are some about SEO:

The questions on social media were particularly interesting:

It just goes to show you…it might be worth taking a look at the keywords before you write your next blogpost, article, and especially webpage in order to target the long tail. Interestingly enough, as I was writing this, Jill Whalen posed a question to the Twitterverse about this very topic. Here are some of the responses.

Nicki Hicks
Long Tail Searcher