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Long tail keywords are the keywords phrases that usually utilize more than a few words and are therefore, more specific.  For instance, someone might search for “laptop” this is a very generic search term.  “Dell laptops” is a little more specific.  However, a keyword phrase like “Dell Latitude D520” is quite specific.  When people search for very specific keywords it’s clear that they know what they want.  They’re not looking for generic information.  Oftentimes, they are ready to buy.

To be clear, phrases at the top of the graph like “shoes” are being searched for millions of times a month.  Phrases like “men’s shoes” that appear in the middle of the graph are generally searched for tens of thousands of times each month.  Phrases that appear in the long tail represent phrases that are searched for between 0 – 10 times per month.  However, the long tail makes up the bulk of what people are searching for.  If you need a pair of running shoes, which of the three above keywords would you search for?

The problem that many businesses run into is that they put so much time and effort into common, simple keyword phrases.  While ranking for those phrases is very possible, it can often take 6-9 months of diligently building a strong SEO portfolio of blogs, links, viral marketing, and much, much more.  You could spend hundreds of man hours trying to rank for 4 or 5 common keywords.  On the other hand, if you spend those same man hours trying to rank for dozens or so long tail keywords, you’d see a drastic increase in your ROI.

If long tail keywords have not been a part of your marketing strategy they need to be.  You’ll convert more prospects while doing less work.  What makes more sense than that?  For a look at how SurchSquad used long tail keywords to get a #1 listing on Bing, check out this post.

One of the most frustrating things for many small business owners, who are new to SEO, is all of the industry jargon.  In an effort to make things a little easier for anyone who is just getting into the arena, here are definitions to some of the most common phrases in our industry.

Algorithm – This is an intimidating sounding mathematical term that basically means using calculated steps to solve a problem.  What does this have to with SEO?  Everything.  Algorithms are how the search engines determine where your website will be listed when someone types in one of your keywords.

Adwords – This is Google’s “cost-per-click” form of advertising.  When you enter a keyword into Google’s search bar, you usually see results on the right, in addition to the ones you see on the left.  The results on the right have paid to be placed there.  They’ve gone through a sort of auction, and the price of their bid, the quality of their website, and a few other factors will determine their placement in that column.

Back links – Also known as “incoming links”.  These are links on third party websites that point to yours.

Conversion – A conversion occurs when a prospect either buys something from you, signs up for your newsletter, or takes some other action that gets them close to becoming a customer.

Spiders – These are automated programs used by the search engines to “crawl” over the World Wide Web.  They find and catalog the information found on websites worldwide.

Splash Page – A splash page is a homepage that doesn’t contain any actual content.  It’s usually a page created using flash or multimedia imagery that has a place where users can click to enter the actual site.

SERPS – Search engine results pages.  These are the pages that appear when someone searches for something on the Internet.  For example, enter the phrase “New York” into Google and you get over 7 million pages or SERPS.

This list is by no means exhaustive, but it should give those new to SEO a starting point for some of the common industry jargon.

When websites first came out, many companies put up static websites.  Their goal was to simply have a spot on the World Wide Web, but the site didn’t really add anything to their business model.  Fast forward to today and everyone’s got a website with a home page, an about us page, a contact page, and maybe even links to their products.  The problem is that this recipe is the new “static” website.  It’s a simple, safe formula that really doesn’t do much for your business or your brand because everybody else is already doing it.

Today’s consumer wants to visit websites that have interesting and original content.  The real winners in today’s market are websites that are interactive with diverse and ever changing content.  Your website is about more than simply letting customers know you exist, it’s your chance to shine, it’s your opportunity to sell yourself, your brand, and to convince potential customers that you are far better than the competition.  An added bonus of diverse and detailed content is that the more content you have, the more likely it is that your website will receive a higher ranking on Google. 

An often untapped space for quality content is the products page.  Many companies have web pages with pictures of their products, the price of the product, and a button that says, “add to cart”.  However, some consumers are still researching and may need a little bit of convincing.  Below the photo and the “add to cart” button, you can include a few short bullets or sentences about the product or even a short vide that explains just how to use it. 

Another great way to get quality content on your website is to blog.  Each post, especially if they include your keywords, will help to improve your placement on the search engine results pages.  Lastly, user generated content is free and doesn’t even take any of your time.  Discussion forums, user reviews, and a comment section on your blog are all great ways to get users to increase your website’s content.

Whatever path you take, make sure that your website is not stale and dated.  It should include interesting images, video, and writing.  One more thing, be sure to update your website with something new at least once a week, this will increase your placement on the search engine results pages.