Most web traffic comes from people searching long tail keywords or key phrases. When people search google they usually type in more then 2 keywords looking for specific information. You can see how people find your site by going over to Hittail and signing up, put your info in and sit back and see in real time your visitors and what term they used to find your site. Hittail will then give you suggestions on other long tail keywords to use to build more pages, edit your current ones or what else to blog about. Here is what’s on their What Is It page.
“HitTail reveals in real-time the least utilized, most promising keywords hidden in the Long Tail of your natural search results. We present these terms to you as suggestions that when acted on can boost the natural search results of your site. It’s that simple.”
So for this site it shows me this as an overview. You can see the majority of my traffic comes from the long tail.
Top Ten Keywords are 11.9% of your search traffic.
Long Tail Keywords are 88.1% of your search traffic.
Total unique keywords collected: 895
You can use this tool to fine tune your SEO project and if nothing else see how people are finding your website. It seems to work great and you need a little time with it, maybe a month or two to really see a good overview of your where your traffic is coming from. They also have a forum if you need any help or explanations.
HitTail is an amazing tool…the increase in traffic due to long-tail keywords has been staggering for me!
This tool is quite powerful, however we have found that while the long tail keywords produced by these searches are relevant, they are not the kind of keywords a client would search for. For example, we are in the business of “web design” (which is a key term) and the tool returns “css design”. While it is relevant, few of our clients are likely to search for “css design” as opposed to “web design”. Do you have any suggestions?
Hi Demonz Design, I know Mike Levin (The Creater of HitTail) and if you go to the website, you can e-mail him directly and he can answer all your questions. My tip would be try and look at some of the keywords that are given to you lower on the list, or even use your key terms, but in a simple sentence on the side. Trust me when I say that HitTail is an amazing tool, and if this doesn’t help you e-mail mike, because he is always available for help.
Take it easy
Hey Demonz,
The reason long tail keywords are important is that they are easier to optimize for and are usually where you get most of your traffic. The keyword phrase “css design” is not considered a long tail term, something like “css design lower Manhattan” is.
If I were you I’d be worried about ranking for long tail terms related to web design and specifically your location ie. “Los Angeles web design”. It’s a lot easier to rank for long tail terms like this and the more targeted your traffic the higher your chances of conversion.
Hope that helps.
If you have any other specific questions please ask.
And Thanks Alison for the tip!