Long Tail Keywords are simply a type of keyword phrase with as much as three to five words in the phrase and are collectively more specific than a single keyword. Long tail keywords are more likely to convert to sales than shorter keywords, more generic because it has less competition. Most long tail keyword searchers are specifically looking for products/services to purchase. Webmasters/bloggers can also use long tail keyword to refine search terms to their web pages.
Let’s take for instance these two keywords “Sony TV” and “Sony Bravia TV BX31 22inches”, which of the two do you think a searcher who is really interested in buying an LCD TV will be searching for? The later of course, long tail keywords produce specific results and targeted traffic. The traffic may not be as much as the former but it is also less competitive.
Features of a Perfect Long Tail Keyword:
A perfect long tail keyword should be able to have the following features;
Competition: Long tail keywords normally have less competition compared to general keywords in broad searches but should be able to have a little competition to ensure a good PPC amount so you won’t be wasting your time ranking for it.
Conversion: A good long tail keyword should be able to sell your products; you won’t want to rank for a long tail keyword that doesn’t convert to sales. So any log tail keyword you are settling for should have a good conversion rate.
Traffic: What is the essence of ranking for a long tail keyword that won’t drive a good amount of targeted traffic to your website? While some long tail keywords can produce a monthly traffic of 300 visits some may not boast of 10 visits in a whole month. My advice is don’t waste your time on long tail keywords that can generate a good amount of traffic.
Ranking: A good long tail keyword should be easy to rank for, having in mind that people who search by using long tail keywords are mostly likely to become buyers we should strive to be at the fore-front of such keyword easily else don’t waste your time because such searcher may not wait to check inner pages of the search since the first result will give him exactly what he is looking for.
Relevance: A perfect long tail keyword must have relevance to the content you are applying it on. That relevance must be maintained, so choose a keyword that best matches your products or services so as to stand a greater chance of converting. Let the keyword naturally suit your content.
Must Read: How to choose the right keywords for your blog post
How to find long tail keywords:
Most small businesses or start-ups face the challenges of competing to rank for competitive keywords and often times get lost on the inner pages of search engine results. My advice is target long tail keywords, that’s because it is less competitive and more specific and can make a huge difference. Aggregately ranking for several long tail keywords can add up to the majority of your site’s search-driven traffic.
But often times we don’t know how to find long tail keywords to rank for so I intend to share with you some great methods to find the perfect long tail keywords.
Search Engine Suggest: Have you ever tried to search for something on Google or any other search engine and as you are typing more terms are suggested in your search for you? Even search engines understand the importance of long tail keywords in producing refined and better results?
These suggested terms are actually what people are searching for, Google and other search engines store the data of every search ever made on them and use such data to suggest search terms whenever we are searching for same or related query.
Keyword Research Tools: Keyword research tools are great for keyword researches and so should be used every time we are researching keywords to rank for but no particular keyword research tool could boast of having it all so I advise you to use several keyword research tools like WordStream Keyword tool, Google keyword Tool, Google Trends, Youtube Keyword Tool and Twitter searches etc.
Analytics: Most times the long tail keywords that attract visitors to our site may not have been targeted in any web page in our site, so thoroughly going through your site’s analytics can reveal such keywords to target. Simply write around such long tail keywords to drive even more targeted traffic to your site.
Google Related Searches: Another effective method to gain a good insight into long tail keywords to rank for when it comes to how to find long tail keywords is the Google related searches. Often times Google show related searches at the bottom of the search result page.
Note both Google suggestions and related searches are no guarantee for volume, you still need to carry out more research using keyword research tools. You can simply use such data as a source of inspiration to finding the perfect long tail keywords.
Solve real life problems: Solving real life problems searched by people is also another effective way of coming up with a good long tail keyword. People are looking for solutions to problems directly on Google, so if you can solve such problems using the exact query as your long tail keywords there is a good chance people looking for solutions to such problems will arrive at your site.
Target several keywords with a post: Targeting several keywords with a post and fitting them into the title and content of a post can help you rank for several phrases with just one post. A practical example is this post with three keywords;
- Long tail keywords
- Features of long tail keywords
- How to find long tail keywords.
Look at how I fitted those three into my title and content. This article can as well rank for any of the three. Try to make your title sound natural and fit in perfectly so your audience can understand the message you are trying to pass. Do not stuff your title and content with key-phrases and sound like robots, remember you are writing for humans.
How to use Long tail Keywords:
Once you have found the perfect long tail keywords, create new content or better still optimize already existing contents on your sites for such keywords. Though I will always favor creating new contents because the more contents you have the more chances you have of ranking for different keywords and another thing to consider while optimizing an existing post is that it may lose its ranking for the keyword it was already ranking for.
So simply create useful and valuable content around the long tail keyword you have found, optimize your post very well and you will easily rank for such keywords. Avoid targeting long tail keywords that are not related to the content you have so as not to get banned by Google or seem irrelevant to your customers.
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