Low Hanging Fruit - Optimize For Phrases With Lower Competition
I often see Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies advertise that they can get your website listed on the first page of Google results, guaranteed.
Meanwhile, they omit what search terms they will get you listed so highly for.
Different keyword phrases have vastly differing competition, and there are hundreds of phrases that no SEO company will ever get you a high ranking for, no matter how good they are.
Instead, SEO companies make their money by helping their clients find good keyword phrases that have lower competition.
I am calling these keywords "low hanging fruit," but the industry term is actually "long tail keywords.
" These words and phrases get far fewer monthly searches, but by effectively ranking for many of these phrases you can draw significant traffic.
As an example, imagine an online florist hires an SEO company to help bring in traffic.
Do you think they will attempt to get his website listed on the first page for the search term "flowers?" It would be nearly impossible, and might only be achieved after several years of work.
The competition is just too strong.
Instead, a smart company will find phrases that they can compete much more easily on.
In the case of the online florist, they may try "fresh cut roses," a phrase that Google says gets 1300 searches per month.
Or, they may try to rank for "flower orders," a keyword phrase that gets around 1900 searches per month and has much less competition.
In the end, ranking for many long tail phrases can bring in as much traffic as ranking for one highly-competitive phrase, and can be done much more quickly and with less effort.
A tool to find key phrases is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.
Using this tool, you can type in the subject of your website and it will return to you hundreds of phrases related to your subject.
It also helps get you started by telling you approximately how many searches that phrase gets each month and how much competition there is for that phrase.
After compiling a list of potential phrases, you can go to Google and actually analyze your competition before beginning your optimization.
While there are many search terms that you will probably never rank highly for, by effectively optimizing for a lot of lower-competition terms you can bring in a lot of traffic.
By grasping the low-hanging fruit, you can quickly increase you optimization success.
Meanwhile, they omit what search terms they will get you listed so highly for.
Different keyword phrases have vastly differing competition, and there are hundreds of phrases that no SEO company will ever get you a high ranking for, no matter how good they are.
Instead, SEO companies make their money by helping their clients find good keyword phrases that have lower competition.
I am calling these keywords "low hanging fruit," but the industry term is actually "long tail keywords.
" These words and phrases get far fewer monthly searches, but by effectively ranking for many of these phrases you can draw significant traffic.
As an example, imagine an online florist hires an SEO company to help bring in traffic.
Do you think they will attempt to get his website listed on the first page for the search term "flowers?" It would be nearly impossible, and might only be achieved after several years of work.
The competition is just too strong.
Instead, a smart company will find phrases that they can compete much more easily on.
In the case of the online florist, they may try "fresh cut roses," a phrase that Google says gets 1300 searches per month.
Or, they may try to rank for "flower orders," a keyword phrase that gets around 1900 searches per month and has much less competition.
In the end, ranking for many long tail phrases can bring in as much traffic as ranking for one highly-competitive phrase, and can be done much more quickly and with less effort.
A tool to find key phrases is the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.
Using this tool, you can type in the subject of your website and it will return to you hundreds of phrases related to your subject.
It also helps get you started by telling you approximately how many searches that phrase gets each month and how much competition there is for that phrase.
After compiling a list of potential phrases, you can go to Google and actually analyze your competition before beginning your optimization.
While there are many search terms that you will probably never rank highly for, by effectively optimizing for a lot of lower-competition terms you can bring in a lot of traffic.
By grasping the low-hanging fruit, you can quickly increase you optimization success.
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