Maybe you are succeeding with your long tail keyword SEO strategy or you are having a major challenge. Targeting low search volume long tail keywords can look like you are wasting your time and effort.
So, why don’t you concentrate your effort on ranking for the popular keywords with high search intent? With this, you will also realize that almost everyone is targeting these popular keywords.
Therefore, you are really missing out if you don’t have a long tail keyword SEO strategy.
It’s not a challenge to research long tail keyword ranking opportunities, targeting keywords with low competition and high conversion rates, as well as using long tail keywords to improve your content.
This post shall highlight how you can successfully target long tail keywords.
But first, what are long tail keywords?
These are highly targeted keywords, which specifically serve the searcher’s intent. Long tail keywords generally have low competition, low search volume, and high conversion rates. The reason why these keywords are known as “long tail” is because if you decided to plot all your keywords depending on their search volume, these keywords would be placed on the “long tail” end of your search demand curve. This means, only a few people search for these keywords each month.
Although long tail keywords don’t have a high search volume, they are easier to rank, and also lead to higher conversion rates compared to short-tail keywords. The reason behind this is that long tail keywords pass a clear customer-need, which is easy to understand, and you can resolve. Basically, these keywords are intent-driven.
If you are able to understand the search intent, then you can generate content that addresses the specific search queries, and has high conversion rates. For instance, if a user searches for “FIFA 2019 PS4 price,” it’s a clear indication that the user intends to purchase. A search for “FIFA 2019”, on the other hand, is a bit unclear, and the user might be searching for extra information about the game or recent updates from the developer.
You should understand that the length of long tail keywords does not matter. These keywords can be at least three words because of their specificity. Highly-specific low-volume keywords, on the other hand, with a length of one or two words can also be categorized as long tail keywords, as most of the brand names.
What makes long tail keywords important in SEO?
Now, if you logged into your Google Search Console account, and then scroll through the search terms, you will realize that long tail keywords are most of the search terms you rank for.
In fact, close to 70% of all search traffic comes from long tail keywords—and most of these terms target your business. Now, think of what you can do if these highly-targeted search queries directed new leads directly to your business?
The following are the benefits of targeting highly-specific keywords
Less competition
One thing about long tail keywords is that they are specific to your niche and business—which means they have a low search volume. The great thing about this is that you don’t need much effort to rank well for targeted long tail keywords.
Other simple SEO tactics like link building and on-page SEO should push your landing pages into higher rankings if you use specific targeted terms.
Higher conversion rates
You only need a little long tail keyword research to find out search intent. The search intent can assist you to identify the search queries that show the buyer’s intent, as well as a need for some extra information.
You can use this information to direct high quality leads into your sales funnel, and also to complement your content marketing strategies.
It assists you to optimize for semantic search
One thing you should note about long tail keywords is that they are an essential part when it comes to semantic search optimization. We live in a generation where 55% of all millennials use voice search each day, and talking to bots has become an everyday thing.
Users will always use commands with clear intent and long tail keyword phrases like questions when querying these platforms. Therefore, you should try to predict the search intent behind any naturally spoken question, as this can assist you to give definite answers about your business, as well as the services that you offer. In addition, this can assist you to target these long tail keywords better.
Please note, when target long tail keywords with a high conversion rate, even when they have a low search density, the keywords can be very valuable to your business.
Finding long tail keywords
There is nothing as valuable as ranking for the correct long tail keywords. It’s very easy to find these keywords, and you can have a long list of these keywords in minutes.
To do that:
- Get the long tail keywords that you are ranking for
- Open your Google Search Console
- Click on search traffic
- Search Analytics, and then choose Clicks, Impressions, & Position (you shouldn’t worry about CTR in this step.
- Next, scroll down to the bottom, and then click download to get the complete list
Now, you need to do the same for your Facebook page, PPC campaigns, Twitter account, Instagram, YouTube Videos, or any other platform that you think might give you new terms. Next, put the terms into a spreadsheet to put your potential long tail keyword in one place.
Also, try to search for new long tail keywords within your niche that you can rank for. The following is the process of manually creating a list of prospective long tail keywords:
- Prepare a list of shot-tail keywords – a keyword planning tool can assist you to generate a list of short-tail keywords, but try to avoid Google AdWords as much as possible. Even though AdWords is a free tool that can assist you to generate a list of commercial terms, it can intentionally steer away from low-volume long tail keywords, thus making it not useful in this process.
- Note down autocomplete suggestions by Google – here, key in each short tail keyword into Google, and then note down Google’s autocomplete suggestions.
- Note down search suggestions given by Google – next, scroll down to the bottom of each search engine results page, and then write down the given autocomplete suggestions.
- Repeat this process for Bing search suggestions, as well as any other search engine you want to optimize for.
- Put these prospective long tail keywords into a spreadsheet, group all the terms together, and then start trimming your list.
The idea of finding long tail keywords sound stressful. However, today’s software programs make this process very easy. Top-class programs can even do this for different search engines, and they can even find keywords that you neglected or overlooked.
As we said earlier, avoid using Google AdWords. There are other better tools that can assist you to do your long tail keyword research other than Google AdWords.
Now, when you create you a list of potential long tail keywords, it’s time for you to start trimming the list. Remove any search terms that don’t communicate the user intent clearly. When you finish trimming the list down to the best possible keywords, you will be ready to begin adding the keywords to your content and optimizing your pages.
Building content using long tail keywords
Now, since you have your list of long tail keywords that you can use to optimize your content or landing pages, what should you do next? The answer to this depends on the number of long tail keywords you want to target, as well as how closely their topics are related.
According to SEO experts, you should create one page for each long tail keyword. At times, this is not feasible, but if you can, the better. If you have hundreds of long tail keywords to target, you should create content other than landing pages that you can optimize for your long tail keywords.
What you need to do now is to organize your list of the possible long tail keywords into a simple and easy to understand keyword list, that’s organized according to the searcher intent. You should organize your keywords according to the topics, and this should allow you to naturally find areas to insert your content.
If you already have the content in your website, consider inserting the long tail keywords into your content, and make sure that they appear naturally. If that’s not possible, you have new content ideas that you should start working on.
And, you should never forget to insert internal links whenever you create and publish new content, as they are some of the best areas for you to insert long tail keywords.
Bottom Line
By now, you know how to find and use long tail keywords. However, you should note that long tail keyword targeting works well with good content. If you are not a popular authority in your niche, you need to start creating valuable content, blog posts, as well as rewriting your web copy. This assists you to pass your unique value proposition to your clients.
As you create your content and optimize your paged to add your new long tail keywords, don’t forget to monitor your traffic and rankings. While doing that, you might also discover additional long tail keywords that you can target, and will also assist you to continue building your reputation, as well as improving your on-page SEO campaigns.