When our potential clients are in competitive industries and not ranking in the top 50 to 100 for their TOP keyword before partnering up with us, a lot of SEO experts would suggest targeting the long tail keywords immediately while working on the big fish at the same time as a longer term strategy. For those of you not familiar with “long tail”, it typically refers to more specific keywords, which typically have lower search volumes. For example, the keyword “top destination weddings in the US” is considered long tail compared to the keyword “destination weddings” which is considered the big fish. The long tail keyword is much more targeted and easier to rank more quickly, but the big fish will drive more traffic when your clients rankings move inside the top 10.
Suggesting the long tail strategy to your client serves two purposes. First, it gets their eyes off the big fish so they don’t get discouraged. This helps them set more realistic short term goals. Second, it will get them ranking well for at least SOME targeted keywords that will drive some traffic and sales. This is GENRALLY a very good strategy. The reason for this post, however, is to inform you that targeting the bigger fish immediately CAN give you exponential results by getting rankings more quickly, and saving time and money for your client.
We have a client named Reel Job Fishing that is a fly fishing business in Northern Georgia. They have a fly fishing blog that was ranking ok for their blog keywords, but not getting as much traffic as they would like. Below are their previous Google rankings for three of their blog relevant keywords:
North Georgia fly fishing blog – Ranking #3
Georgia fly fishing blog – Ranking #8
Fly fishing blog – Ranking #80
Every article I have read would tell you to increase rankings through aggressive link building by starting with the easiest keyword first attempting to move it from #3 to #1. After achieving results, you would then target the 2nd keyword and move it from #8 to #1. Finally, target the big fish at #80, trying to move their ranking up as quickly as possible.
What we did as an alternative to this well known strategy is to ignore the first two, and hit the big fish first. By link building toward the top keyword, we were able to move all 3 at once in under 3 weeks. Not only did the two long tail keywords jump to #1, they ALSO got indented Google listings on both of them. (Please see screenshot at bottom of post) At the same time, the big fish moved 55 spots in 3 weeks up to #25. We will continue to work on this ranking as well, and move it in the top 10 over the next 4 to 8 weeks.
So, how do you know WHEN to go after the big fish, and when should you target the long tail? The rule of thumb is that the keywords MUST be related, and you always must keep cost/benefit in mind. In this case, all three keywords were all related to the word “fly fishing” and the word “blog”. Naturally an increase in one will also help the others. Secondly, common sense will tell you that “North Georgia fly fishing blog” probably doesn’t get that many searches, but that “fly fishing blog” would. In order to give the client the best value, we would not recommend putting 3 to 5 hours of link building work into a keyword that won’t significantly increase their traffic. On the other hand, putting 5 to 10 hours of link building toward the big fish and getting them to rank in the top 10 makes financial sense.
Bottom line is that rather than lazily following the advice of all the SEO experts out there and targeting the long tail immediately, consider focusing more effort on your master link building strategy. Sometimes it makes sense to target the big fish immediately. The results will pay off IF your on-site SEO and aggressive link building strategies are well thought out and executed properly.