Writing Content is one of the easiest things you have to do in your online business, and also one of the most difficult at the same time.
Anyone can write words and create content. But writing SEO Content that converts visitors into buyers does take a bit of skill & intuition.
It’s easy enough to write optimized content to get rankings & website traffic. But traffic alone doesn’t pay the bills. You want to write content that attracts buyers and makes sales…
“I’m researching keywords, writing content, getting backlinks, have some good rankings and I’m even getting traffic – but still no sales. Help!”
All Long Tail Keywords Are Not Created Equal
Long Tail Keyword Phrases are phrases with 3 or more words. In some of the broader niches, a 3-word phrase is barely considered “long tail”. The phrase will be a very specific search, compared to the usual broad searches.
So it’s less about the number (“3-5 words”) and more how specific the search is.
These more specific phrases convert at a higher rate than general search queries, because the searcher knows exactly what they want. Writing content or creating pages around these long tail keyword phrases gives you a better opportunity to create a strong message to market match.
Imagine the difference between creating a page for “shoes” and one for “jimmy choo bridal shoes”. Even though “shoes” gets a lot more searches, it’s too general to target. You have no idea what kind of shoes your website visitors want to buy.
To give you an example, I recently wrote a blog post for an 8-word long tail keyword phrase. The phrase is How Can I Promote My Website For Free? which gets approximately 235 searches a day according to WordTracker.
That blog post ranks in the top 10 on Google for that phrase.
Mission accomplished, right?
Commercial Keyword Phrases vs Informational Keyword Phrases
In the 8-word phrase I gave above as an example, there are two words that peg it as an informational search: how and free. The searcher is obviously looking for free information (credit card tucked firmly away in wallet).
Compare this to a phrase like “buy online advertising” (15 searches/day). Or “should I buy a website template” (30 searches/day). These searchers are trying to make a buying decision (credit card close by, if not in hand).
While it’s tempting to use long tail keywords with higher search volume, if your goal is to make sales then you want to target the commercial keyword phrases. And don’t let low search volume deter you – write the content once, and let it continue to work for you for years. It is worth it. If your target market is searching for it, you are doing them a disservice by not ‘responding’ to that query with content.
It’s not impossible to convert visitors who are looking for information, into buyers. But it is harder – and you’ll see a much lower conversion rate. When you are writing content specifically to promote a product or to make sales, you want to target and optimize for the commercial keyword phrases.
The main point is that you analyze the keyword phrases from the searcher’s perspective, and determine the intent of the search. What is it they are most likely looking for? Your goal as a content publisher is to offer them exactly that.
Using Informational Keyword Phrases
When writing SEO Content, you want to make use of both Informational and Commercial Keyword Phrases. You’ll focus on the latter for creating content that contains a strong call-to-action for a specific product or service. But info-searches have their place in your web content development plan as well.
It takes both types of content to fully serve your market.
Informational search queries can be used to create content or copy for:
- Opt-in Incentives (reports, guides, etc)
- Newsletter Titles
- Internal links for your “money pages”
- Articles for Article Marketing
- Forum Topics (for inbound links & networking)
- Squidoo Lenses
…etc. In addition to being a great source for content ideas that can generate quality inbound links, the info keyword phrases are good to use on a blog where you are trying to build a loyal readership or establish a reputation as a market leader.
But when it comes to making sales… target the keyword phrases that show obvious intent to buy.
This is really only a slight shift in mindset when you are doing keyword research. We’ve been taught to focus on the search volume, analyze the competition in the search results, and if it looks like an “easy rank” then create a page or blog post and get backlinks.
It’s easy enough to stay busy going through the motions and create keyword-optimized content that ranks well. But if you’re getting good search engine rankings, and you’re starting to get traffic to that content, and still not making sales – this (the intent of the search) may very well be the missing ingredient.
Continue to target your market through their queries for info, but use that content strategically to build up your “money pages”. And put a strong focus on creating commercial content for those in your market that are specifically searching for help in their buying decision.
We’ve actually discussed SEO Content & Long Tail Keywords before in great detail, but over the weekend at the NAMS Workshop I discovered it still wasn’t super clear for everyone. Understandable – it actually took me awhile to wrap my head around the concept as well. But boy did it ever make a difference!
Here are two recent posts on this topic that contain even more examples and ideas:
SEO Content | Affiliate Marketing Tips
I put together 4 downloads for those that wanted guides to work with after my presentation at NAMS. You’ll find both of those posts as PDF Files, along with 2 others, in the protected post. The password is “nams3″.
Study the tutorials & posts, look over your own keyword content strategy, and then let me know if you have any questions – you can leave a comment below. Include the link to your site in the comment field for your URL if you would like me to take a look as well.
Best,
p.s. Next we’ll discuss Keyword Qualifiers to help you identify and cater to the buyers in your niche. Subscribe below to receive email notification of this and more great tutorials that will help you take your online business to the next level:
