Micro-Terms: The Little Words We Use In Everyday Conversations

You know that search engine optimization is critical for generating leads and growing your business, but it can be a challenge to get results from SEO, especially if you're not an expert.

You have to put significant time and effort into link building to increase your domain authority.

Plus, algorithms are always changing and updating, which means that you constantly have to adapt your optimization strategy to ensure that your rankings don't drop.

And even if you do stay on top of Google's updates, thorough and successful can take 6-12 months—or even longer. And there is no guarantee that you will get the results you want.

Of course, you can always hire an SEO professional to optimize your website, but then you have to invest in long-term contracts and monthly retainers, which just means more money out of your pocket.

So, how can you get the SEO results you need without breaking the bank?

Say hello to a little thing called micro-terms (see what we did there?).

What are micro-terms?

Every day, we use thousands of words and phrases in our conversations. These are called "micro-terms." This includes popular slang or abbreviations that people might not know about but still use frequently when they speak.

For example, "fam," which is a short form of the word "family," or "bestie," which is a slang term for a close friend.

Micro-terms can also be acronyms, like ASAP or ROI (return on investment), but these terms tend to be so common that we don't even realize we're using them.

Understanding micro-terms is important because many people use them in their keyword research and content creation—but without knowing about these obscure terms, your business won't rank as highly as possible when you publish content online.

So, how do micro-terms help SEO?

If you're not using micro-terms in your keyword research, and if you're not including them in your content creation, it's unlikely that you are going to rank for these hyper-specific search terms. That means that people might be searching for terms related to your business or industry, but they won't be able to find you online.

As an example, let's say that a person is looking for a New York City dentist.  She types this phrase into Google: "dentist new york city." But she's not necessarily looking for any kind of dentist.  She may be searching for someone who is qualified to perform root canals and other complex dental procedures.  

To make the search more specific, our searcher might narrow down her results using geographical terms such as "New York City" or by adding an age group like "children dentist." She could also use abbreviations in her search like "pediatric dentist nyc'" or "nyc pedodontics."

All of these keyword strings are micro-terms because they contain everyday words that people use in conversation, but have very specific meanings in the online world. Identifying and incorporating micro-terms into your content creation can help boost your ranking and ensure that your content is seen by your target audience.

Micro-terms have a tendency to change from day to day

When you begin to include micro-terms in your content creation, remember that they have a tendency to change from one day to the next.  If people are using certain words and phrases on social media or sites like Reddit and Quora, it's likely that other searchers will use those same keywords when they search online.

The best way to stay on top of these changes is by monitoring what people are saying online and what topics are trending on social media platforms, such as Instagram (which has more than 700 million users), Twitter (310 million users) and Facebook (2 billion estimated users).

Not only should you monitor the most popular topics and trending hashtags through these platforms, but you should also be aware of the use of micro-terms that are specific to your industry and geographical area.

You can find many of these specific keywords by simply searching Google for phrases associated with your industry or by using keyword tools like SpyFu and SEMRush, which allow you to do the same research without having to type a single word into Google.

You may have never used tools like these before, but they allow you to view keyword data from all around the internet—even if you're not looking for anything related to your business at all. These types of tools are also incredibly useful when you're trying to see how your competitors are ranking in search engines.

Difference between Micro-Terms and Long-Tail Keywords

The difference between long-tail keywords and micro-terms is that, while the latter are more specific, they also tend to have less search volume.

Micro-terms refer to a more specific word or phrase with a low number of instances per month on Google searches—for example "loan forgiveness programs." By contrast, long-tail keywords are broader and more open-ended, such as "money management."

Micro-terms are generally better at leading to conversions, which is why they're a great way of boosting your SEO efforts. Long-tail keywords are generally better at increasing the amount of traffic that your content receives.

By incorporating both into your optimization strategy, you'll not only get more traffic, but you'll also have a higher conversion rate and lower acquisition costs since your website will be converting people who are looking for what you offer.

Ways to find micro-terms

Here are a few ways that you can discover some of these micro-terms to use in your website content:

1. Google Analytics - Analytics data and trends can be a helpful indicator of what search terms people are using to find your website. By comparing this data with common micro-terms in your industry, you can get an idea of what terms to include when creating blog posts and other content.
2. Google Search Console - Search Console can help you understand what keywords people use to find your website, as well as the number of impressions (people seeing your pages in search) and click-through-rate (CTR) (people clicking on your page based on number of impressions).
3. Google Autocomplete - The autocomplete function in Google Search will give you the most popular words or phrases to complete your phrase or sentence. Start with a root phrase and go through the alphabet to see the different suggestions of that search. This is a time-consuming but super helpful way to discover some of the most popular search terms in your niche.
4. Social Media Posts - You can use social media to identify patterns in the way your clients talk about your services. Be cautious though—in some cases this could lead you down the wrong path when trying to generate more traffic because new trending terms might already be past their peak popularity. But if done right, finding micro-terms on social media can yield major results.
5. Quora - This website relies on individual's answers to questions that are asked in an online community. The people in these communities are answering marketplace-related questions, and posts are filled with very specific micro-terms.
6. Reddit - Discover which subreddits are best suited for your industry and niche and explore to learn what topics they cover most often. Look for at least 5 relevant words in the title.
7. Google Keyword Planner - Check out your search volume data on the Keyword Planner tool to see if there are any micro-term searches related to your business.

How micro-terms lower client acquisition costs (CAC)

How much money have you invested in Facebook or Google advertising campaigns only to gain a few new clients?

You can reduce and even eliminate the expense of advertising and devote that money to other business needs by taking advantage of micro-terms.

These more specific keywords have a high conversion rate, so they're key to helping your audience finding your content and generating high-quality leads who are ready to purchase.

Let's say that each conversion from your Google ad campaign costs you $50 per click. Your Google ads are driving a wider audience to your website, which means that many of those clicks may be people who aren't ready to buy or aren't even interested in your services.

By using a micro-term, you can attract a more specific audience, ensuring that you only send people to your site who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer, reducing your client acquisition cost.

Why waste money getting clicks on ads with broad terms that miss your target audience?

Benefits of using micro-terms

High click-through rate (CTR) - Micro-terms usually contain multiple words, and they are far more likely to appear in search results than single word searches. For example, if I were looking for blog themes, I would be more likely to search for something like "best modern blog themes" or "best 2021 blog themes for SEO agency," rather than just "blog themes."

If your web pages contain a specific micro-term that a searcher is using, they are more likely to click through and view your page, leading to increased traffic and leads.

Low cost-per-click (CPC) - Because fewer people are bidding on micro-terms, you can get cheaper clicks than if you were going after larger keywords with much higher competition rates.

High conversion rate - With stronger trending content, you are able to reach audiences who are actively searching for information about your services or products. Using micro-terms to create educational blog posts that provide value to your reader will attract people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

Ultra-specific keywords have a higher conversion rate than broad terms because they target niche interests and have less competition. This is the biggest benefit of all: you're paying less to get clicks on your ads, which means that you can spend more on converting those clicks into potential clients. And those clients won't just be potential customers—they'll be an ideal fit for your services or products.

What is a long-term keyword strategy?

Long-term strategies focus on using low volume, yet highly converting long-tail keywords for your website content and marketing campaigns.

By targeting these more targeted long-tail phrases, you will be able to increase the quality of website traffic that comes into your site while decreasing the costs associated with acquiring this traffic.

This type of optimization can lead to increased revenue through higher conversion rates, as well as decreased advertising expenses or reduced need for expensive pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.

How long does a long-term keyword strategy take?

Creating a long-term keyword strategy requires a significant amount of time devoted to research in order to find the right search terms for your business. While you likely won't see immediate results, a long-term strategy is worth the investment and can bring you increased traffic and generate more leads over time.

The best part is that long-term strategies will continue to work steadily without you having to invest additional time or money once they've been implemented successfully.

Finding the right keywords to target

To find the best micro-terms to target, you will need to do some research. Your business is unique, and your keyword strategy should accurately reflect the services you offer.

One of the best ways to determine which keywords you should focus on is to pay attention to what kinds of questions people ask about your industry or niche.

The easiest way to do this is to speak to previous clients and find out what questions they had prior to working with you. You can also visit online forums, like Facebook Groups and Reddit, to see what questions people have about your services and products.

The more research you do, the more comprehensive your long-term keyword strategy will be.

Building natural copy

While your blog posts should be optimized for search engines, they also need to appeal to human users who are genuinely interested in what your business has to offer.

This means that you can't put artificial keywords into your blog content just because you think Google will like it.

Instead, write blog posts that target your micro-terms and phrases, but keep the text natural and easy to read. Your goal is not only to get people's attention with a catchy headline, but also to hold onto that attention long enough to convince them that you're a serious player in your field.

The more value that you can offer your readers, the better your conversion rates will be and the higher quality traffic you'll attract from search engines.

Creating Long Form Articles

Instead of writing fluff content with clickbait headlines, you should focus on creating longer-form articles that provide valuable information and educate your readers.

By creating longer content with useful information, you can attract higher quality traffic and build trust with potential customers over time by providing more value than other businesses in your industry.

The more that your visitors come to trust you and your brand, the more likely they are to become customers in the future when they're ready to make a purchase.

You can spend hours researching and creating this content on your own, brainstorming ideas and potentially struggling with writer's block.

Or you can let us optimize your content for you using a combination of Generative Pre-Trained Transformer 3 (GPT-3) and real-time discovery of these hidden search terms, where we can hyper-optimize up to 45,000 pieces of content in a single day.

Interested in learning more? Check out our program here and contact us today to get started.