It is sad to see how people are still so obsessed with large volumes of Google traffic that they ignore the value of the visitor’s intention. It is the clarity of mind of the visitors that result in purchases. It will be ideal to increase the volume of Google traffic with the intention to buy immediately. Getting fewer people who are clear in their mind about what they want, convert much quicker than people in the research phase. We should target people at the various stages of the customer journey with an appropriate content marketing strategy.
People who have made up their mind about what they want are closer to the buying decision. Businesses fail to understand that they can easily target such people with long tail keywords (4 to 5 words) and don’t have to wait for months to reach page 1 for headwords (1 to 2 words). Therefore, keyword selection is the first step in search engine optimization. Some business owners don’t understand the user intent behind each type of the search term e.g people searching for “smart phones” (1 to 2 words) are just in the research phase and are not ready to buy. While people searching for terms like “iPhone 7 reviews” are more likely to buy. Some of my clients still insist on focusing more on head keywords that attract large volumes of traffic. 6 months later, they are on page 1, their phone ringing off the hook all day long, but those are merely inquiries not necessarily conversions. The more specific search terms people use, the closer they are to the buying decision. Although, targeting such people results in low volume traffic but certainly more conversions and more sales in less time.
Businesses must let go of their obsession with traffic from a few broad terms. They should shift their focus to a larger set of long tail keywords, targeting people who know what they want and are ready to buy. Getting a few people with the clear intention to buy is better than a bunch of confused people who don’t know what they want. We must use a combination of loon tail keywords along with broad keywords to get the best results without long waits. As due to low competition, some long tail keywords take as low as a few weeks to reach the 1st page of Google.