Long Tail Keywords For SEO

So many keywords are impossible to rank for if you're just starting out. Lucrative categories like DUI lawyers is so competitive it doesn't make any sense to go after it — too many law sites are out there looking to solve the problems faced by those charged with driving while intoxicated. Attorneys know there's money to be made from these people and so they devote considerable resources to getting high rankings for their own sites.

Direct attacks won't work in this scenario. The market is simply too competitive to break into. Instead, you have to approach it indirectly through the long tail. Long tail keywords will get you rankings and traffic for much less work.

The term "long tail keyword" refers to a very focused search phrase consisting of at least three keywords. The really good long tail keywords consist of at least 4 or 5 keywords in them. The search volume for a long tail keyword is not very high, because it's so focused, but the traffic it generates is definitely extremely targeted.

A simple example to demonstrate the concept. According to Google's own keyword tool, the term DUI lawyers is searched for about 75,000 times a month. A quick look at Google shows that there are 6 million sites that match that keyword. Super competitive!

Change the phrase by adding a place name to create the term Los Angeles DUI lawyers and you've drastically cut down competition — only about 400,000 sites match that term. The search volume is less, too — about 1500 searches per month — but it's a much more realistic market to break into. Normal SEO techniques are more likely to work with long tail keywords than high-volume, saturated keywords.

One problem with long tail keywords you need to target more keywords to make a real difference. It's a volume game — the more long tail keywords you rank for, the more traffic you'll get. This can require a lot of effort. Over time, though, you'll also find that your sites get better rankings for the main (short tail) keywords, a nice side effect of targeting long tail keywords.