Good content marketing doesn’t have to cost the earth and even if your marketing budget is non-existent it doesn’t mean you have to miss out. Every business owner is capable of achieving improved website traffic with strategically-worded online content but the extent to which you can convert interest into sales depends on a number of factors including the quality of the written content.

SEO is all about finding keywords – phrases that customers use when searching for a product or service. Initially, businesses purely focused their SEO efforts on short tailed phrases which contain one or two words that literally defines the product/service being searched for such as ‘tree surgery’ or ‘arboriculturalist’. However, ranking with short tailed words has become increasingly competitive and smaller businesses just couldn’t compete with the larger enterprises in their capacity to churn out keyword rich content.

In the last five years, however, businesses have switched their attention to long tailed keywords which are less common but offer a much better chance of ranking on search engines. A long tailed keyword is a combination of between three and six words that is highly specific to the product/service being searched for and could feature the model, price and product features in one short statement or question.

The beauty of long tailed keywords is the fact that the consumer is usually at a later stage of the purchase process, having already carried out some preliminary research, and is now comparing prices. This consumer is much closer to purchasing the product and is therefore easier to convert.

To provide the best chance of ranking with long tailed keywords, businesses need to identify the phrases that their customers are searching for and this requires a little research. A good place to start is to temporarily step into the position of the consumer and imagine what words you would use to search for a particular product.

There are a number of free tools, however, that offer some insight into popular long tailed key word searches including Google’s ‘Suggest’ and ‘Related Keywords’. Google Suggest automatically drops down when you begin typing into the search field and offers keywords that have actually been searched for. Additionally, when you’ve carried out a search, Google provides a set of related keywords at the bottom of the search page which contain long tailed key words.

Another effective tool is to check out the websites of your competitors as chances are they have already carried out keyword research and are using them through their website content to generate traffic. This makes your job a little easier however it’s important to remember that to rank your content must be at least 70% unique otherwise you will undo all your hard efforts.

Forums and messageboards are another source of long tailed keywords as members often lead with a query that they would also enter into a search engine. Such comment threads provide an insight into what your customers would like to know about your industry and can offer a plentiful supply of keywords. Long tailed keywords reflect natural language and conversation so there is no better place to identify what this dialogue consists of.

There are also a number of websites which specialise in providing long tailed keyword phrases including Ubersuggest , Google’s Adwords and Google Analytics.

Consumers now expect to be given the answer to their FAQ on a product or service online – even if it’s not a particularly positive enquiry. For this reason, businesses need to approach content marketing as an extension of their customer service responsibilities.