Keyword Research

HitTail is doing very well as a site on search terms related to the long tail and search hits. For the term “long tail” we’re on the second page of results, and for the term “search hits” we’re on the first page. For any combination, such as “long tail hits” or “long tail search” we are on the first page of results.

So, one of the primary effects of HitTail is taking place: the combined variations of different targeted keywords are already coming up high, without even trying. But this blog post is really about zeroing in on your most difficult, and most competitive keywords. In the case of HitTail, one of them is shaping up to be “keyword research”.

I’ve made 2 blog posts in the past that have targeted this term. But they haven’t produced for us yet. It’s a perfect example of how HitTail doesn’t work every time—it just works on average. This keyword combination actually has enough traffic to show on Google Trends, which is an amazing thing, considering what a marketing niche specialty keyword research is. But it also tells me that I’m on the right track with attacking a term that already has a lot of pre-existing traffic.

Unless you have a massive marketing budget, or your own TV network, it’s difficult to change the pattern of searching on the Internet. There were two watershed events that really showed us how search trends can change suddenly: The World Trade Center / 911, and the Janet Jackson Super Bowl event. But 99% of the time, search trends are all over the map, and search marketers are in the business of putting yourself into the path of searchers and search traffic that is already occurring, no matter what you do.

So, how to put HitTail into the path of people researching “keyword research”?

Well, the page can’t just be another text-only, low-effort, long-tail HitTail page. It has to be built up into something a little more special. This is increasingly turning out to be a picture, or maybe some YouTube video.

So, what I'm doing is making an early morning post, just to get this post out there and percolating. But during the day, I'll be beefing it up with:

1. Some YouTube video.
2. A bell-curve illustration that we use to diagram the benchmark vs. longtail keyword issue.

And this post will start generating traffic in the meanwhile, and it's existence urgently commits me to following through with the snazzing up the the page that needs to occur to make it effective on my targeted term.

And of course, for anyone who did find this page on the concept of keyword research, you've come to the right place. HitTail is one of the best keyword research tools available, because it helps you leverage the traffic that's already occurring on your site, to get more traffic. Success breeds success. Third party keyword research tools that cull aggregate data from search engines and other people's sites are somewhat overrated, considering there are much more effective approaches available that hardly anyone even knows about yet.