Guest Post: Use Long-Tail Key Phrases to Get a High Page Rank

By James Beswick

Although most website owners strive to reach page one on Google’s search engine results, it’s important to realize that any web page can only rank highly for a limited number of keyword phrases.

Consequently, targeting the most effective keyword phrase has a significant impact on your page’s ability to rank well. Additionally, since Google ranks pages and not entire sites, it’s possible to use different pages to rank for separate sets of keywords.

Keyword phrases are split into two groups:

• Broad searches – these are popular one or two-word phrases that receive significant traffic, though the search is somewhat vague (e.g. laptop).

• Narrow (or long-tail) searches – these are more specific multiple word phrases which receive less traffic, but define more clearly what the visitor is looking for (e.g. replacing my laptop’s hard drive cheaply).

Broad searches are difficult to rank for, mainly because there are so many pages already on the web, some with a high PageRank (PR), that have an established credibility and reputation for the information they provide on these topics.

Additionally, even if you receive traffic from these keywords, frequently the search is so vague that your page may not serve the interests of a visitor, causing a high-bounce rate or difficulty in converting traffic to sales.

Long-tail phrases can be much easier to rank for, partly because of the larger numbers of variations, and partly because there are fewer web pages competing for the top placement with these phrases.

Although the traffic volume may be lower, your page has better chance of matching what the visitor is searching for, so they may spend longer on your site, and may be easier to convert from a passive viewer to a buyer.

Interesting, research from Hitwise shows a general trend towards more words being used in search engine requests. As users become more savvy about how to pinpoint useful information with long-tail search, it makes sense that long-tail phrases will become a significantly greater contributor to finding qualified leads for your site.

While more traffic doesn’t directly translate to higher PageRank (PR), but as higher quality visitors find your page more useful, they may promote your page as a useful resource through links and social media, which indirectly raises your authority and consequently your PR.