How to Rank high in Google (Cheesy remark goes here)
Yes, i already know what you’re thinking. I apologise for the cheesy title on this post. This title, “How to rank high on Google” is probably one of the most overused article titles spamming the WWW nonsensically. Why i chose this title you’ll figure in a while.
Okay, so we all heard of long tail keywords and think we know how to use them. But only a handful of us actually exploit it. It is bloody effective. Let’s have a scenario.
So John from “Mary Dental Clinic” has read a ‘great’ mom-n-pop article that says targetting keywords 2-4 words in length is a more effective way of getting your material optimise, ranked and searched for. True. So John goes ahead to create….
“Cheap dental clinic”
“Professional cheap dentist”
“blahblahblah”
2 months down the road he checks his rankings and is dismayed to find out he has no rankings or poor rankings because of stiff competition. (in this scenario we assume lucky John is SEO Gurudized.) So he spends another 1 month doing his best and ‘hey presto’!!! He is 1st place! Then he turns to anti-depressants because he still isnt getting sales. People start calling him and hanging up after after shouting “You Sham! You said you were cheap!”
Well…. So to cut the sh*t short my point is that long tail keywords need not have direct relations with your service or product. Don’t think literally. Think like a layman. Research your search like a layman. For goodness sakes if i am looking for a dentist online in all honesty i’ll probably type in “Cheap dentist in Tampines“! This is targeted search. Now did John think about that?
Forget all the the fancy spanshy keyword research tools for a while. Throw them aside. Yes, my friend. This is seo at its best. Anyhow keyword research tools give varying results and statistics for count, popularity and competition because each tool is programmed to search a unique database, search in a different way, and conjure results in a different way. So each tool is unique. The most dependable and unique keyword research tool is yourself. With a decent grasp of Engrish and a sensible understanding of putting words together, you have a good chance of producing long tail keywords for your site.
Remember, think like a searcher would.
Here’s what John could have used instead:
“wisdom tooth extraction dental clinic”
“dental clinic for whitening teeth”
“blahblahblah”
Why long tail keywords?
1. Targetting long tail keywords naturally delivers higher conversions. The more specific your keyword phrase, the more targeted the prospect.
2. It’s easier to rank. DUH. Why? well, hushhush okay? Too many people are still optimising for lollypop keywords.
3. Higher traffic Flow. Supposing you create multiple landing pages with each page optimised by long tail keywords. Over time, you end up with many results in the search engines to many of your targeted matches. Equals more traffic.
4. Your site creates a higher monetization potential. Relevant visitors are more likely to purchase, become a lead or even click on contextual advertising. Doesn’t take a MIT grad to realise this.
Now do you see why i gave my post such a lame title?
More on long tail keywords soon. Till then, please don’t be a John.
