Long tail there are no long tail keywords....

[BeckyKey]

Hi

I am struggling trying to optimise product pages for a product area which doesn't have a lot of specific longtail product related searches.

It's 'Lockers'

I have more specific sub-category pages which drill down such as -

• Wire Mesh Lockers
• Charging Lockers
• Laptop Lockers

Just to name a few, but to drill down more to product names doesn't offer much. Or, in some cases the products are so similar they focus on similar keywords, for example '2 tier metal lockers' applies to loads of different products.

Do I do the best I can with product titles, then focus on sub-categories?

Love to hear thoughts

[Smileworks_Liverpool]

Hi it’s just the phrase ‘key’ and it has a massive search volume but I imagine not much of it is buyer intent apart for people searching your brand who will be wanting to buy anyway. So it’s an example of how a tool can mislead because it’s saying you’re now number two for key and not number one so youve lost x% of that big volume. Because t I doubt there’s any real difference in analytics like you say. It’s also just flux, so you may well be back at number one by now. I see big flux for broad terms like that and the tools go crazy but analytics and search console don’t show any real differences. You‘ve some great positions that must be generating some nice conversios and roi. There are a lot of options and categories but that’s fine because you sell lots of different stuff. If It was me I’d look at the categories and just make double sure they are all organised in the best way thats getting the best UX. do you use hot jar? its been transformational for us and you can see where people are getting stuck or lost in the site with actual recordings. It’s not super expensive. i have no affiliation with them.

[BeckyKey]

Oh also, which keyword are you seeing which we have dropped for?

I'm seeing some minor changes but not one big drop?

[BeckyKey]

Hi

This is great advice thank you.

I have the pages set up for sub-categories, I would need to work on expanding the content on those. The only issue I find is I don't have much wiggle room on the design so I can add content, but I find it's not very easy for the customers to read - It would be much better to have video/images/content displayed nicely with the products too.

But the focus is on not pushing products down the page.

My other worry is, how much do people really want to know about lockers? The search isn't there, so do I invest a lot of time in these technical articles people may not care about?

I also find where I have highly competitive areas to work on - chairs/office furniture/cupboards as well, Im the only SEO, I don't have a dedicated content team so I only get so far with keyword research, re-optimising all the product info we currently have before getting on to the good stuff.

I am working on this, I'm also working on briefing our merchandising teams to take on some of it, but its not their priority.

I also was always wary about using internal anchor text links too much - but I'll give it a go! Are you writing this content as a blog or category page content? I'm also looking at doing user guides/buyers guides.

On another note - I want to look into getting Veneers,would you share the articles you've written with me?

Thanks!

[Smileworks_Liverpool]

Yep that's smart advice.  but also be aware that sometimes the volumes, now that there is so much overlap in the semantic keywords can sometimes throw you.  So 880 doesn't sound massive but we have an 880 'Veneers Cost' at position one and it's getting 738 clicks,  6524 impressions and 11.31% CTR according to my search console.  So it's 1000% worth going after.

Use search console to verify your numbers because sometimes tools that you use (like the amazing ones that Kristina mentioned will say one term gets 880 and a similar one gets say 900 but they are basically the same term in the eyes of google. SO "Veneers Cost UK" is also showing as getting us a load of traffic but it's the same searchers and the tools sometimes don't take that into account.

I also did some research after reading what Kristina said and found lots of different customer types so you only want to be going after the business types.  Also my friends on 10x (e-commerce platform) say that a scrolling banner on the homepage is a conversion killer and it's better to have a static image.

You have great social proof but also think about diversity of social proof so get some more google reviews and that will enhance your SEO immensely - in my experience.

You're doing amazingly well though, you're already number one for lockers.  You lost a big keyword and quite a bit if traffic two days ago but that happened to us too and it recovered after a couple of days.  Google are shaking things up a huge amount.

I'll bet you get better ROI from your 'metal lockers' position at 880 position 1 tan you're 'key' position with 22,000 searches. SO focus on the buyer intent keywords and forget the broad terms - We get 30,000 users a month and 90% of it is 0 ROI and the other 10% provides all the revenue.   Are we allowed to recommend other tools here that compete with Moz?  I've found SEM rush to be a reallyt great tool for sorting out this exact issue because it gives the PPC x traffic cost so you can see where the revenue is coming from.  I still couldn't live without Moz though. But they are good to use together.

[KristinaKledzik]

Hi Becky,

I'm surprised to hear that there aren't a lot of long tail searches. Is the problem that you can't make more sub-category pages, or that you can't find long tail keywords to figure out which pages to build?

Either way, here's what I recommend:

1. Use Google AdWords Keyword Planner or a 3rd party tool like Storybase to gather keywords for "lockers". I used Storybase and found: mudroom lockers, mudroom lockers with bench, school lockers, storage lockers, metal lockers, lockers for home, vintage lockers, wood lockers, cell phone lockers, wooden lockers, entry lockers, all with over 880 searches/month.
2. Export these and filter for keywords that describe the products you sell.
3. Group keywords into categories and subcategories both by logic and by search volume; for example "mudroom lockers" fit within "lockers for home" but "mudroom lockers" get more searches.
4. If you can, create category pages for every subcategory that, once grouped with similar keywords, gets at least 100 searches/month
5. Add these categories to product pages. How you do this will have to do with which other keywords you're targeting and how much control you have over the page. But you'll want both category pages AND product pages to have the right keywords to rank for the type of lockers they are.
6. Check out your competition with a product like Clearscope. It'll show you the keywords that your competitors are using for those target keywords you've identified, so you can get even more long tail searches.

Hopefully that's the sort of guidance you were looking for - let us know if you have any follow up questions!

Kristina

[Smileworks_Liverpool]

I had this same problem with "Veneers"  I run a dental practice.  So to give you an idea of the challenge I faced:  you've got the initial problem of establishing that we're not talking about wooden veneers floors or panels.  This is fixed by google so you don't need to worry about it.  If someone types in 'Veneer' they will still see some dodgy 'non-dentist' results - but that might be what they are looking for so google hedges the SERP with some alternatives.  Rand did a great whiteboard Friday I think on the randomness of some SERP's and how things are sometimes very disorderly.

So three months ago google couldn't tell the difference between Composite Veneers (made from resin), Porcelain Veneers (made from EMAX or Disilicate) or Composite Bonding (fixing chips and cracks) and Just plain Veneers where people might not know what they want.

How I fixed it:  I just wrote informative, detailed and comprehensive pieces about all the different types of veneers and referenced each different type as specific anchor text in each new article.  So in my composite veneers article at the top it says: 'this page is about composite veneers, these are the resin restorations sculpted onto your teeth.  If you're looking for "porcelain veneers" (hyperlink to porcelain veneers page) then follow the link.

Three months ago google and Moz and SEM Rush were going crazy saying all these pages were competing with one-another and advising I deoptimise certain words etc.  I stuck with what felt authentic and helpful and recently each page has risen to number 1-3 on the serps.  So I think google needs time to crawl and index and then users need time to use the pages you create and click or not click the links to the different types of products.

So learn everything there is to know about all the different types of lockers. Speak to the technical people because it's the technical words that will distinguish between the types of lockers in the eyes of google and rankbrain and it will see what users are doing and so long as you are accurate, comprehensive and correct - and use the internal anchor text telling google "this page is about X and if you want Y, go here: <insert link="" with="" exact="" match="" anchor="" text="">. </insert>

Someone from google in one of their mammoth Q&A's said internal exact match anchor text won't get you penalties like it does from links to your site from outside. I put n ALL my dental articles things like "this page is an academic article about integration of implants into unhealthy bones or damaged tissue if you are a patient looking for Dental Implants then follow the link here to our main article "dental Implants"

I think this strategy will work for your lockers. Also it can't be a competitive space so become an expert on all things lockers.  And write for your audience. If i'm a locker buyer I've done my research and want technical and non technical words blended in there and also I want to read about the precise types of locker not lockers in general.

Recently there's also been a google update and I'm now ranking for the main (less buyer intent but more traffic) terms like just 'braces' and Dental Implants' because of this internal linking strategy and also some linkbuilding to authorities on dentistry. In your case you should get links from all the companies that supply lockers to your client and look at forums for technical words and research. there will be locker geeks out there - I promise you