Service providers seem to all be bidding for the same placement in search engines, the coveted first place on the first page for their search terms. With a pay-per-click campaign you may be able to achieve this placement quickly, but when your budget is gone so is your placement. To achieve this placement, or placement that gains you leads and ultimately increases your revenues marketers often suggest using more specific, long-tail search phrases.

Today, we will explore the use of long-tail modifiers to increase your organic position and help your site stay on top once marketing campaigns have begun. There is no short cut to getting on tip, but with the proper research and application the average website can expect to see better placement and results without spending budgets in pay-per-click, short-term advertising campaigns.

Go Beyond the Obvious

Most business owners know what they want to be found under, and it is common that this is a simple formula such as (Service + Market). For a contractor in a major metropolitan area this is as simple as “Roofer Houston” or “Plumber Los Angeles.” While this is an easy way to identify your service and market, in reality over 75% of traffic you will likely receive will come from “long-tail” searches with 5 words or more.

Since they are longer these search terms are also typically easier to rank for and convert at exponentially higher rates than their generic term cousins.

Identify Long-Tail Terms

In order to include the best terms possible a little research must be done. The easiest way to see what terms you should include is by doing a simple Google Search. While you are typing and after you search your term there is a list of modifiers at the bottom of the search results page.

A more intensive way to find the right terms to include is by using the Google Keyword Tool to find keywords and the statistics on these keywords. Most people assume that the terms with the highest traffic are best, however, note that often the terms with longer variations are from serious searchers closer to the end of their buying cycle and ready to make a purchase, so don’t exclude them merely because they are longer and have lower search volume.

Work These Terms Into Copy

Now that you have the terms identified you will want to add them to your website in a way that will truly reap benefits. Your website is likely already optimized for the term “plumber Los Angeles” so add the other modifiers that make the most sense. Looking at the related searches from the image above these could include terms such as “24 hour,” “emergency,” “yelp,” “hot water heater,” and “leaks.” Keep in mind that not all modifiers will make sense for your site, and a number of them may already be incorporated.

The goal is to uncover additional terms that you may not have incorporated at any real volume to increase potential ranking opportunities and ultimately boost traffic.

Create Optimized Pages

For higher volume search terms, often broken up into ad groups in the Google Keyword Tool, you may consider creating pages optimized for these search terms and phrases. Having the terms worked into the copy of the page in addition to the actual page name, title, meta tags and description will further drive traffic for that term this specific page of the site. Before creating the page, make certain you have enough original copy for the page to be beneficial. It is suggested that a minimum of 400 words be considered for an optimized page.

Keep it Reasonable

This process can go as deep as you want, but keeping it reasonable is conducive to ongoing management and maximizing traffic. Don’t create pages for every search term, and not every term is necessary to add to your site copy. Keep in mind that your content and site still need to make sense to the user, and this is where your focus should remain.

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