How many of you are already actively working on your site’s organic rankings? If you do, you’ve probably found out about the power of long-tail keywords – and it’s true that they can help you improve your ranking, especially if your site isn’t super-popular yet (and let’s face it, very few websites are). If you don’t know what I mean by long-tail keywords, don’t worry – I’ll explain all of this in just a minute!
What is a long-tail keyword?
A long-tail keyword is a keyword or keyphrase that is more specific and often longer than more commonly used keywords. This means that you are getting an influx of traffic and more people finding your site in general. Long-tail keywords usually have 2 or 3 words. Instead of using one broad phrase, use long-tail phrases for higher returns over time. The reason these work so well is because they are very targeted toward an audience that has very specific needs.
Why focus on long-tail keywords?
Long-tail keywords are not for everyone. Long-tail keywords can be a fantastic way to get traffic and be found by new audiences, but these phrases may not rank as highly in your chosen search engines as more commonly used words or keyphrases.
Use long-tail keyword research to help find existing long-tail keyword phrases for your business so that you can implement them in content strategy or PPC campaigns. When implementing long-tail keywords into your SEO strategies, it’s important to take into account both volume of searches and competition. If there is low competition with a high volume of searches, long-tail keywords might be right for you. For example, shoes have a lot of competition with a lot of searches – however, kid's shoes have low competition with high volumes of searches. The latter is better suited for long-tail keyword implementation because it is less competitive than other similar terms.
Another benefit of long-tail keywords is that they typically have higher conversion rates, which means if you put long-tail keywords into your copywriting and PPC campaigns, you will see an increase in leads from organic search and paid ads. However, make sure that when using long-tail keywords in any marketing efforts (paid or organic), it doesn’t affect relevancy to your audience. You want to ensure that long-tail keywords fit naturally within your content or ad copy, otherwise, users will feel like they are being tricked into clicking through to your site. This could lead to lower clickthrough rates and ultimately lower conversions.
Long-tail keywords are best implemented over time rather than all at once. By gradually adding long-tail keywords into your content and advertising campaigns, you give yourself time to assess how well they perform before investing too much time or money in one particular long-tail keyword phrase.
Long-tail keywords can also be used alongside more commonly used keyphrases. Implementing long-tail keywords alongside common ones allows you to reach different types of people looking for different types of information about your product or service.
Long-tail keywords should be incorporated into your overall content strategy. They allow you to segment out specific groups of people who are interested in what you have to offer and speak directly to their needs. Using long-tail keywords lets users know that you understand what they need and gives them confidence in doing business with you.
Remember: Not every long-tail keyword will work for every business, so test out several long-tail keyword phrases before deciding which ones work best for your company.
How to Find Long Tail Keywords
If you want to get traffic to your site and make sure it converts, then figuring out how to find long-tail keywords is vital. For example, if you sell a blue widget and your competitor sells a red widget, but they rank above you in search engines because their keyword is red widget rather than a blue widget, then your site will lose valuable traffic every day. To avoid that, you’ll need to figure out how to find long-tail keywords.
Here are some great tips for doing just that:
#1 – Use Google Adwords Keyword Tool: This tool has been around for quite some time and is one of my favorite tools for finding new ideas and seeing what kind of competition I’m up against. The best part about using Google Adwords Keyword Tool is that it's free!
#2 – Look at Similar Domains: When brainstorming how to find long-tail keywords, looking at similar domains can be very helpful. Why? Because if a site is ranking well for a certain keyword, then it’s likely that people are searching for that term to get information about your industry or product. By taking a look at other sites in your niche and seeing what they rank for, you’ll get an idea of what kinds of phrases people use when they search online.
#3 – Use Google Autocomplete: One of my favorite ways to think of how to find long-tail keywords is using Google Autocomplete. This tool will show you how people are searching for terms online, and it’s a great way to get some ideas about what your customers might be looking for when they search online.
#4 – Check Out Competitors: You can also check out your competitors and see what kind of phrases they’re targeting to get an idea of how to find long-tail keywords that will help your site rank higher than theirs. This is a great way to get started, but keep in mind that you don’t want to copy their strategy, or else it might hurt your rankings instead of helping them.
#5 – Look at Your Site: The final way I like to think about how to find long-tail keywords is by looking at my site and seeing what people are searching for when they land there. If a lot of visitors type in the blue widget then that might be a good idea for a long-tail keyword, or if visitors type in how to use the blue widget then that might be another phrase worth targeting.
It all depends on your business, but these are some great places to start thinking about how to find long-tail keywords!
Final Words:
If your content is low quality or not relevant to long-tail search queries, then it won’t rank for any of them. The conclusion here is that if you want your content to be found online in a sea of billions of other web pages and thousands of products and services, then long-tail keywords are key. Use them wisely, use them effectively, and you will get traffic.
In conclusion: Don’t ignore long-tail keywords when writing your next piece of content – embrace them!