Choosing the right keywords is the foundation of any successful online marketing campaign.  By determining what keywords and phrases accurately reflect your business as well as what people actually type into the search engines, you can make your company’s website into a powerful tool that drives more business - and isn’t that your goal in the end?

Of course, the closer your target keywords are to what your business offers the better - for instance, if someone is searching “buy purple widgets online” and you happen to own an ecommerce site specializing in widgets of various hues, it is a slam dunk from the original search to the eventual conversion.  On the other hand, if the user is just typing in the word “widget”, they are much less likely to convert even if you manage to get your site on to page one for the more competitive phrase.   Therefore, you need to consider user intent when you choose your keywords and plan your overall online marketing strategy.

Moreover, since maintaining a page #1 position for long tailed key phrases is less competitive, you can spread your online marketing focus out and get on page #1 for a wide range of these keywords.  In the long run, it is better to be on page #1 for a whole bunch of long tail keywords rather than one or two extremely competitive phrases - you don’t want to put all your online marketing eggs in one basket.

People are getting smarter and more specific when they choose the words they are typing into the search engines, and Google Trends proves that people are searching for longer phrases -instead of using one or two words, they are using four, five, or even more words to ensure a more accurate result.  Essentially, your customers are getting smarter about how they use the internet - so your business needs to get smarter as well.