What are Long Tail phrases – how can they improve my article ranking?

Google recently implemented 'Panda' - this algorithm change shocked the content farm world and redefined the way article writers worked. No longer can they rely on simply using the content farm to ensure a high ranking on Google, but they must now ensure top quality articles while investing time in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) methods that were always done behind the scenes for them. For those that don't know, a content farm is considered a website that allows authors to produce articles on any subject regardless of quality and quantity - its sole intention is to gain search engine rankings and ultimately revenue.

One of the buzz words of SEO is 'Long Tail' - this concept has been around for a while, but only now do writers understand the importance of the Long Tail phrase. Often writers ignore such concepts because they seem vague or difficult and therefore beyond the realms of a normal writer, however now it is important to know what a Long Tail phrase is and how a long tail phrase can drive traffic to an article.

I don't promise to give you all the answers about this complex little beast, but hopefully I can expand your understanding and help you improve your articles.

A Long Tail phrase is a short sentence of three or more words that contain keywords. (I'll explore keyword research later in the article). While the keywords in themselves may not have great search result, the whole Long Tail phrase becomes a highly targeted device, aimed at an exact audience. Essentially, your aim is to find the Long Tail phrase that users are typing into Google so that they find your article.

Usually a long tail phrase will be a very specific phrase and most likely a sentence; say for example you want to know a phone number of a pop star, you could search for 'number Bieber' but you're likely to get millions of search engine results based on these popular keywords, and the majority may not be relevant. So taking these keywords and forming a Long Tail phrase such as 'What is Justin Bieber's real phone number' is far more targeted and far more likely to produce decent search engine results. As this is a very specific query there are likely to be a lot less websites listed than with the original keyword search; the ultimate aim of the Long Tail is to get highly traffic phrases with low competition.

To boil it down, what a Long Tail should be is a real search engine query that is targeted and looking for specific information - thus you know that the reader wants the information presented in your article when they find it.

Generally your title should be a long tail phrase; however you can create variation of this phrase throughout the article, so that when someone searches for a slightly different variation, your article should still be ranked highly.

When using Long Tail Phrases there are some important things to consider when creating your article:

• The Long Tail phrase simply gets the searcher to your site - if your site is poor, or has nothing to do with the title, then the reader will leave your site. You must keep his or her attention and therefore you must tell the reader exactly what they want to know quickly and efficiently - most searchers don't want to read 10,000 words on a subject - they know exactly what they are interested in and want quick information.
  
• Build trust - so you have your searcher reading your article, but why should he trust your view over the other dozen or so articles on the same subject? You have to gain the readers trust - give them options of similar products that may be better suited; give them the advantages and disadvantages of using the product they've chosen; give them all the information they need to make an informed decision - don't simply ram the one product down their throats.
  
• Don't be afraid to turn a reader away - if the product is poor, tell them it is poor - while you may lose a sale today, you've impressed the reader and he may just bookmark your article for future reference and read other articles.

So you know the basics of Long Tail phrases, but if you don't do keyword research then your phrase will ultimately fail. Keyword research is essentially the process that seeks to find out what people are searching for on the web and how much competition you have. Keywords can change of time - what is a relevant Keyword today may not necessarily be relevant next year - so you should also revisit Long Tail phrases periodically.

A basic principle of SEO is that you should repeat keywords and phrases throughout your content - not overdoing so it interrupts the flow of your article - but just enough so the web-bots find these keywords and phrases within your work and thus assist in higher ranking.

When doing your keyword research you should think about the following:

• Keywords are intended to help your customer find your article - so make them relevant to the article.
  
• While you may be the expert, that doesn't necessarily mean you know what keywords the reader will use to search for your product - thus finding alternate words that could be used and inserting these into long tail phrases and your content will help.
  
• Try and think of all the words that could be used to find your product and use them in your article where possible. Use these words to vary the long tail phrases that you have within your article.
  
• Don't overdo it - once you have a list of key words - use tools like Google Adwords Keyword tool to find out which keywords have the highest potential traffic and low competition - try and aim to have ten to fifteen Keywords that you use in an article.
  
• Make sure you don't kill the flow of your article - if all you have are variations on your Long Tail phrase and a whole bunch of keywords throughout your article then it's unlikely to be a quality article - make sure you still provide quality information and writing.

Even if you are not an SEO expert, you should still use Long Tail phrases. Just adding a Long Tail phrase or two within your article, and including a few keywords will increase the visibility of your article to the search engine bots; if you manage to find a Long Tail phrase that gets highl traffic and doesn't have much competition, then you will see a lot of additional traffic.

There is no requirement of being an SEO expert; this is a simple device that any writer can do, and when used correctly it will not destroy the flow of your article. Even if it doesn't increase traffic, there's no harm including Long Tail phrases within your article.
Just try it and you may be surprised about the increase in views on your article!