Baidu ranking optimization

May 11, 2011 12:53 AM

Based on some of my own experiences, I believe that the mining of long-tail keywords first requires clarifying four questions before we can do a good job in mining long-tail keywords. Only by understanding these four questions can everyone better understand the work of mining long-tail keywords, place more emphasis on the significance of mining long-tail keywords, quickly identify the direction of mining long-tail keywords, and better grasp the depth of mining long-tail keywords.

a. What are long-tail keywords? How long are long-tail keywords?

Many webmaster friends have their own set of views when talking about the experience of mining long-tail keywords, but the most basic things must be clarified. I believe that long-tail keywords are actually a batch of keywords that develop from continuous stacking and modification of some words based on main keywords or some auxiliary keywords related to the content of the website. These keywords are numerous, and each one is different. If there were no restrictions from search engines, the length of long-tail keywords could theoretically be infinitely long. However, it's clear that this is impossible because each search engine has a limit on the title of web pages, with the maximum not exceeding 200 bytes. Here, I want to emphasize one point: although long-tail keywords can be very long and the longer they are, the more precise they become, the longer they are, the fewer people will search for them, which would make it counterproductive.

b. Mining long-tail keywords is a difficult task!

I have always believed that mining long-tail keywords is a challenging task. First, mining long-tail keywords requires persistence over a long period of time and cannot be achieved overnight. Often, a good layout of long-tail keywords for a website requires continuous mining for 4-6 months. Second, mining long-tail keywords involves many experienced techniques and requires substantial professional knowledge related to the website industry as support, making it not easy to achieve comprehensiveness. Finally, it is difficult to gauge how much traffic the long-tail keywords we mine can bring to the website. Some keywords may end up being unproductive or even useless. When we webmasters carry out mining work, we must recognize this point and have the determination and perseverance to persist every day in mining and discovering. In doing so, we will surely reap abundant rewards.

c. Where should long-tail keywords be mined?

Many webmasters who haven't paid attention to long-tail keywords will definitely ask this question when preparing to start mining long-tail keywords because they don't know where to start and feel lost. At first, I didn't have a clear direction either; I just buried myself in slow exploration, and through this exploration, I found several effective paths. These paths were discussed clearly in an earlier article I wrote on keyword selection titled "Xuziyu: Eight Tricks to Help You Select the Right Keywords." Here, I'll give a brief introduction: list keywords and then expand them; analyze statistical data; use keyword analysis tools; look for keywords on competitor websites; conduct field investigations; discuss with friends; choose different keywords at different times by adding time limits; and expand based on high-conversion-rate keywords. There are actually many more specific directions, such as discussing with netizens on various forums, answering others' questions on Q&A platforms, etc. All these are excellent directions, and everyone should pay attention to properly utilizing them during the mining process.

d. How deep should long-tail keywords be mined?

Many people think that the more long-tail keywords you mine, the better, but this view is not entirely accurate. In the third question above, I mentioned a point: expanding based on high-conversion-rate keywords. I believe that the best SEO practice is to attract targeted traffic, which will result in higher conversion rates and benefits for the website. Therefore, when mining long-tail keywords, it is essential to focus on those with high conversion rates. Think about it: is it necessary to spend valuable time and energy mining long-tail keywords with low conversion rates? Isn’t that just creating unnecessary trouble for yourself? However, to a large extent, the view that the more long-tail keywords you mine, the better, is also correct. The more you mine, the more traffic you acquire. If we can recognize which long-tail keywords deserve our full effort and which ones should be abandoned, our mining work will be twice as effective with half the effort, saving manpower, material resources, and financial resources.

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