Finding the right customers for your eCommerce business can be a struggle. Especially, if you don’t know where to look. There are so many segments of your market to focus on, how do you know where to start?
Well, if you’ve started to dive into SEO or started doing keyword research for your store, you might have noticed there’s a lot of traffic (and potential buyers), for a lot of the biggest keywords in your niche.
You start to ponder about what it would mean for your business if you could only rank for those keywords. But, ranking for those keywords will take a ton of work, and they might not end up being the buyers you’re looking for.
However, there are long-tail keyword markets that can allow you to reach more target customers and sell to them in an easier manner.
Below we dive into what these more obscure keyword markets actually are, and how they can be incredibly beneficial for your eCommerce store.
What Are Long-Tail Keywords?
The concept of the long-tail was originally defined by Chris Anderson is his book The Long Tail. The central concept of this book focuses upon the smaller emerging markets that have been enabled by the massive reach of the Internet. These markets were once too small to enter, but now have a large enough pool of buyers to sustain an entire business.
Even though the markets for these keywords, and the overall search volume, will be lower in comparison there’s still a large enough demand for these search terms. Plus, there’s the added benefit of being able to rank faster, sell higher priced niche services, and being able to build up authority.
Long-tail keywords are generally those that are four or more keywords long.
For example, a short-tail keyword in the fitness niche would be “weight loss”, while a long-tail keyword would be “weight loss for post-partum women”. With long-tail keywords you’ll not only be able to craft more custom-tailored content and products, but it’ll be much easier to rank, due to having less competition.
How Are Long-Tail Keywords More Beneficial for My Business?
According to Moz, less than 30% of searches are main keyword searches. The remaining volume of these searches can be classified as long-tail searches. The long-tail markets can end up being a huge portion of your traffic if you understand their true potential.
1. Easier Search Engine Rankings
The more specific the keywords you’re targeting, the easier they’re going to be to rank for from an SEO perspective. These keywords will have much lower competition, so you can more easily dominate the market by creating higher quality content that serves your readers.
Plus, it’s much easier to create content that’s geared towards a niched-down need.
For instance, if you’re a web designer who builds websites for everyone and anyone it’ll be much harder to create content that helps every single demographic. While, if you create content that’s geared towards helping real estate agents build better websites you’d be able to more effectively help a specific market segment.
High-quality content that’s very useful will attract more natural links, and it’ll be easier to be seen as an authority. Sometimes it’s good to become a big fish in a small pond.
2. Higher Chance of Conversions
Imagine a vegan bodybuilder is looking for smoothie recipes to help him put on muscle mass. What do you think they would search for? Something like, “smoothies” or, “vegan smoothies for muscle growth”. I’m guessing it would be the latter.
When you begin to focus on a smaller demographic you can more easily predict their needs. Since you’re focusing on a smaller demographic all of your marketing and messaging will be directly addressed to this specific person.
When a person feels like their needs and desires are understood they’re more likely to work with you, thus you’ll see your conversions start to increase. A higher conversion rate means that you need less traffic in order to sustain the same number of sales.
3. Easier to Develop Authority
Are you having trouble being seen as an authority in your space? It could be because you have your sights set on too large of a market. As a business owner it’s easy to shoot for the moon and set extremely large goals.
However, narrowing your focus can be a great way to establish initial authority. Then, once you have this authority built you can more easily expand out into other niches and markets. Slowly, with time you expand your authority and the reach of your company.
But, before you begin this expansion you must start small and serve your long-tail market. Don’t forget this!
For example, there’s a store that sells large-scale inflatable flamingos for pool parties that’s a solid six-figure business. And that’s just one example that illuminates the size of these markets that exist at the long-tail.
If you’re looking to make a splash with your eCommerce store it’s a good idea to tap into the power of long-tail keywords and only expand once you’ve dominated and served a specific market.
Have long-tail keywords been crucial in your eCommerce success? Share your stories in the comments below.
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