When you want to attract more virtual footfalls and internet traffic volume that would translate into sales, you have to learn how to use relevant keywords to optimize for. The right keyword selection is the first and foremost criterion of search engine optimization – SEO.

Approaching the Long Tail Keyword Optimization Process

In order to succeed in search engine optimization you need to use informative, unique and keyword targeted content for optimum conversion.

Of relevant keywords, 60% to 70% of the net organic internet traffic experienced by a website is taken up by long tail keywords. And if you are an optimizer you must capitalize on long tail keywords because they bring in genuine customers and insure conversion.

The traffic brought in by long tail keywords is usually targeted for a niche clientele, and that results in high conversions rates.

Because it is difficult to predict the types of long tail keywords that people may search for, you have to create relevant content and aim at the most appropriate keyword theme to enable long tail keyword SEO.

It makes good sense to think of yourself as a tutor, or an instructor whose job is to educate his target audience about the service or product he is selling or offering through informative articles.

If your articles are well written, keyword rich, informative and well researched, there are high chances that mere searchers may convert into potential buyers, which is what you were looking for in the first place.

What are long tail keywords? Why are they so effective?

Long tail keyword search can stretch from 2 words to 5 phrases (only in rare cases), but comes as a 3 to 6 words search phrase. Comparatively fewer websites compete for long tail keywords. Therefore it is relatively easy to attain or qualify for a high rank in a search engine through long tail keywords because they are less popular in the keyword market, less frequently used by sites and also every month they get fewer search hits.

The bottom-line is that long tail keywords happen to be that missing magic link between a trickling or zero traffic and voluminous traffic with a high rate of conversion that will boost your sales and profit.

When you look at each keyword as a gateway to your site, then obviously using a series of relevant keywords or long tail keywords for optimizing your web pages will bring in more traffic, because there are multiple bridges to your site in those phrases.

However don’t try to optimize each and every web page because although it will ensure that your site is undergoing heavy optimization, qualifying for a top 10 ranking in the search engines will remain a distant dream.

So, the best approach is to aim at the most popular keywords for a long term goal and for a short term purpose, that is, for the immediate future, go for 3 or 4 of the less popular, less competitive long tailed keywords that will not only drive in traffic, but also result in conversions.

For more information on this topic, you could also read my previous article on “Using Keywords for Blog Optimization“.

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What is SEO-friendly content and why is it important? Where is the limit between helpful and spam? The answers to these questions are essential to producing high quality, high ranking web content.

What is SEO-friendly content?

Basically, SEO-friendly content is the type of content that is both interesting and helpful for your blog readers as well as attractive for search engine spiders, which leads to better rankings.

Think of this kind of content as the intersection of publishing high quality posts with the search user’s need to find that relevant, quality content. It’s the most basic search engine promotion you could do.

Creating SEO friendly content is by no means an easy task, nor a short term one. The “maintenance” is very important and insures that your search engine rankings are at least kept, if not improved.

Since optimized content can be of great help when it comes to blog and community growth, relevant organic traffic, bounce rate improvement, awareness and much more, you can imagine that these kinds of services don’t come cheap. But, don’t worry, with practice, you’ll find out that it’s not that hard to transform your articles in pretty decent SEO-friendly web content.

Effective optimization techniques

The first and most important thing you need to consider is your readers / future readers. Try approaching from your readers’ perspective. Is your content something of interest? If so, is it presented in an easily readable form?

Targeting simple keywords

The next step is to select the appropriate keywords to target in the optimization process. When it comes to keywords, the best thing to do is think natural. The more natural and simplistic way to express a “need”, the more chances that keyword will be one with a high level of searches.

Look at the little comic strip above and consider this. A publisher writes a review of the “Dark Knight Movie”. Users that want to see that movie will most likely do a search for a review. Which of the following keyword phrases do you think will perform best in searches?

• Review of the Dark Knight movie;
• Dark Knight movie review;
• Dark Knight review.

If we take a look at the results suggested by Google’s Keyword Tool, we’ll find the following statistics based on approximate average search volume:

1. Dark Knight review – 14.800 searches;
2. The Dark Knight review (variation) – 8100 searches;
3. Dark Knight movie review – 880 searches;
4. Review of the Dark Knight movie – irrelevant or very few searches.

So, you see how simplifying the targeted search query is more likely to put you in the spotlight for a higher amount of organic traffic. Repeat the process until you come up with a list of related keywords, to help support the main keyword throughout the post and to avoid unnecessary repetitions and stuffing.

Using the selected keywords

Now that you have a primary phrase to optimize for and a few support phrases, make sure to spread them seamlessly throughout the article. When it feels natural to do so, use bold text or italic (emphasis), but don’t simply bold out entire blocks. That will only hurt your optimization level.

Start from the beginning by using your main phrase in the first sentence or paragraph. Depending on the length of your post, you can try repeating a few times, as long as it does not sound bad for a reader. Repetitions can drive away your visitors and search engines both, as their spiders are “trained” to think and read based on a human model.

Use your main phrase in subtitles and, obviously, in the post title too. Add it to the post’s Meta tags, along with the support keywords. I’ve explained before how you can fine tune your blog to turn your post’s title into a SEO title.

If possible, try adding pictures (relevant for your readers) and use your keywords as ALT text for those images. Sure a search engine spider will not see the actual image, but image oriented spiders like Google’s Image Search will definitely be on the lookout for that alternate text.

You can read one of my previous articles for more tips on keyword optimization.

Conclusions

SEO friendly content is the best investment you can when it comes to your blog’s search engine promotion. It generates natural results with real people reading your posts, based on their needs. And when that happens, the path to conversion is at least half way taken.

Regardless to what some people think, there’s nothing wrong with helping out good content find its way to interested search engine users, as long as you don’t go overboard and turn into search engine spam. The line is thin.

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I’ve always said that your blog’s statistics are a very good source of information for optimization, be it search engine optimization or simply design and usability improvements.

One of the most important indices your stats will measure is the bounce rate. Of course, some would say that the number of unique visitors or the number of page views are very – if not most – important, but I dare disagree for a simple reason: unique visitors and page views are fairly easy to get (buy) or manipulate (exchange).

That’s why I put my money on the bounce rate, but, before I continue, let’s see what is the bounce rate.

Bounce Rate Definition

This is what the all-knowing Wikipedia tells us about bounce rates:

A bounce occurs when a web site visitor leaves a page or a site without visiting any other pages before a specified session-timeout occurs.

In other words, the bounce rate is the percentage of a page’s visitors that did not take any further action, transforming the entry page into an exit page. For that to occur, visitors would need to either close the browser window/tab, hit the “Back” button, type a new URL or simply wait until the current session expires.

So, basically, the way you optimize your landing page (entry page) will most likely influence your bounce rate.

The Average Bounce Rate

If we were to take as granted what Google’s Analytics Specialist Avinash Kaushik says, an acceptable bounce rate could vary anywhere between 20% and 50%, while anything above 50% should be worrying. While this sounds OK in theory, it’s not applicable in every case.

Let’s take those famous landing pages built especially to sell a product. How many people out of all page visitors are likely to buy the product? Most times only a small percentage. How many of these pages sell the product through their own website so that once the visitor clicks the “Buy” button, he won’t navigate away to an online shop or affiliate account?

Also, as you can easily see for yourself, blogs tend to have high bounce rates and that is explainable.

First of all, blogs are mostly informational websites with tons of content. We know that because of their nature, search engines have developed an affinity towards blogs, that being the reason we find a lot of blogs in search results pages.

Sometimes, the information returned in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) is not exactly what the user expects to find, meaning that a user will click on a link, visit the web page, not find the desired information and simply close the tab or hit the “Back” button to continue looking through the search results. This leads to a bounce rate increment.

This situation could be prevented through better on page SEO and especially keyword optimization.

Also, visitors coming from search engines are very targeted, meaning they know what they are looking for, and once they’ve found it, they are not as likely to continue browsing for other things, unless your blog is really good (from design to topics and writing style).

RSS subscribers and loyal readers also contribute to a blog’s high bounce rate. That sounds crazy, right? We all want more subscribers and readers. Well, it’s not crazy. By being a loyal reader or a RSS subscriber means that you are up to date with every new blog post so each visit will be generated by these new posts. These posts will be entry pages as well as exit pages, since visitors are most likely familiar with the rest of the content.

If subscribers are the reason behind your high bounce rate what can you do? You could shut down your feeds. I’m just joking, no need for drastic measures. Instead you could consider revising your writing style to a more conversational one. Start writing more “for the people”. Engage your readers. Make them want to post comments and by doing so, automatically take an action on your blog and lowering the bounce rate.

If High Bounce Rates Are Natural…

Then why are they so important? Again, we’re talking strictly about blogs. An online shop or a portal with a bounce rate of 70-80% is extremely bad.

By studying our blogs’ statistics we can find out which pages and keywords are most efficient, and by doing so, find a pattern for a better optimization.

Consider this. Blogsessive is mostly about “blogging tips”. Sure, each article debates a more specific topic, but those topics can be included in the big “blogging tips” area. So, if Blogsessive would have a high bounce rate for the “blogging tips” keyword that would be reason for concerns, because people interested in tips should basically browse more pages in search for more general information, unlike those searching for a specific situation or advice.

So, to answer the question in this post’s title: No, a higher bounce rate on your blog is not necessarily bad, but it’s definitely an indicator for further improvements.

How to Improve the Bounce Rate

If you’re not satisfied with what your stats are showing, here are some tips to help you improve your blog’s pages’ and overall bounce rate:

1. Encourage communication;
2. Use “Call for action” phrases;
3. Link between your own articles as reference;
4. Do on page SEO (URL, title and keyword optimization);
5. Suggest readers similar or other interesting posts;
6. Provide a popular posts list;
7. Use interactive elements that would require users to take a small action, such as polls;
8. Find your blog’s “pause points” (places where users will spend more time) and insert actions in those points;
9. If you’re out-linking excessively, try to reduce the number of outgoing links;
10. Reconsider your blog’s navigation and overall theme design that could generate usability issues.

Over to you

Do you have a high or a low bounce rate? How has the bounce rate affected your blog? What method(s) did you find most efficient to reduce the bounce rate?

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