Long tail keywords are a tremendous SEO tactic. The term longtail keyword refers to a keyword or keyphrase that is more specific and usually longer than a more common keyword. Longtail keywords can increase the conversation value of your content.
Your website will gradually gain more traffic and attract new and motivated visitors. But most of us don’t know how longtail keywords work do? In this article, we will cover everything about long tail keywords.
Table of Contents
What are long tail keywords?
Long tail keywords: The term long-tail keyword refers to more specific keywords- and often longer – than more commonly used keywords. People are more likely to choose longtail keywords when they’re near to making a purchase or utilizing voice search because they tend to be longer and more specialized keyword phrases.
Most long-tail keywords have lower search traffic than short or “head” keywords. At first, they seem a little confusing, but if you know how to utilize them, they may be pretty helpful.
Even while people don’t search for longtail terms as frequently, when combined, they account for a significant portion of all searches.
The fact that specialized products on websites like Amazon tended to account for more overall sales than the top bestsellers was the origin of the term “long tail.”
It turns out that the same thing happens when individuals type keywords into the search engine.
Why are they called “longtail” keywords?
Long Tail Keywords: We refer to these keywords as longtail because they would be on the “long tail” end of the search demand curve if you plot them according to the number of searches they receive each month.
It should be noted that the precise length of these keywords is irrelevant. Although specific and targeted low-volume searches that only contain one or two words in length (such as many brand names) are also regarded as longtail keywords, longtail keywords typically have at least three words due to their precision.
Types of long tail keywords
Long Tail Keywords: When you examine a longtail keyword, you should consider whether it has a general or specific intent. Do long tail keywords often cover a single topic or have a much broader scope? How fierce is the SERP competition? You can learn more about the kind of longtail term you’re dealing with by responding to these questions.
Longtail keywords can be divided into three groups based on their function: supportive and topical.
1. Supportive Long-tail Keywords
The first type, which enables longtail keywords, supports much broader themes together with their head keywords, hence the name. It doesn’t reflect any one particular subject.
For instance, it might be challenging to outrank the top results for a longtail search like “how to cook a grilled cheese in a toaster” on Google, given that the time doesn’t represent a specific topic but instead falls within the larger category of “grilled cheese.”
For this reason, even if these pages don’t rank for the entered keyword, Google may include results that appear for the head keyword when displaying search results for supporting longtail keywords. Supporting longtail keywords consequently have more competition and are more challenging to rank for.
2. Topical Longtail Keywords
The second category, topical longtail keywords, concentrates on a particular subject.
For instance, the longtail keyword “private blog network” receives 260 monthly searches. There is no head phrase to support this because PBNs are the only issue covered by the search results that appear in SERPs.
For instance: Longtail keywords that specify a city or a region, such as “SEO services in Greater Wilshire,” seasonal searches (“2022 sports fashion trends”)
Long names with detailed descriptions of specific items (“How I Met Your Mother,” “Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History”). Even though the search terms in the latter scenario include many words, they are “too” particular and only refer to one thing, such as a company, a place, a book, a movie, etc.
What makes long tail keywords so great?
Long Tail Keywords: Log into your Google Search Console account and browse the available search phrases. Do you see anything? I can always guarantee that longtail keywords make up most of the search terms you rank for.
91.8% of all search queries are longtail keywords, according to Backlinko’s examination of 306 million keywords.
Now consider what you could accomplish if all those highly-targeted searches sent fresh leads straight to your assets with high conversion rates.
Advantages of using long tail keywords
• Less rivalry
Long tail keywords have low search traffic because they are specialized to your industry and market.
The benefit of this is that it requires far less work to rank highly for your desired longtail keywords.
If your targeted terms are specific enough, some basic on-page SEO and link-building should propel your landing pages into a position of authority.
• Increased Conversions
You can understand more about search intent by researching longtail keywords.
With search intent, you may recognize inquiries that represent the buyer’s intent and the demand for more information, such as AF1s purchase AF1 for kids under 10 years old] (e.g. [how to target longtail keywords]).
You may utilize this information to support your content marketing efforts and funnel highly qualified prospects into your sales funnel.
• Greatly Supports Conversational, Semantic, and Voice Search Optimization
The use of long tail keywords is essential for semantic search optimization.
Today, 55% of millennials regularly use voice search.
What Are the Best Barbecue Restaurants Nearby? is an example of a longtail keyword term that these users employ when they search on these platforms.
To effectively target these long tail keyword terms and provide answers about your company and services, try to anticipate the intent behind naturally spoken and voice search questions.
You should remember that long tail keywords can benefit your company if you target them with high conversion rates, even when search volume is low.
• Quite a few of them exist
Yes, a single longtail term won’t bring many visitors to your website. But when you deal with more of them, the search traffic will eventually become quite significant.
You won’t likely run out of long tail keywords, as there are many in almost every business.
How to find long tail keywords?
There are several techniques to find longtail keywords. Browse the options in the list below to see which suits you best. You can always return here and look at additional options if you need more longtail keyword suggestions.
• Use Google Suggest
Longtail keyword variations can be found in abundance in Google Suggestions. Enter your main keyword in the Google search box to see what alternatives Google suggests:
You may say a phrase is famous if it appears in a Google suggestion.
• Utilize Related Searches on Google
Similar to the Google Suggestions that pop up as you type your query. However, these suggested related searches are displayed below the first page of organic results in the SERP:
• Employ more various tools for keyword research
Fortunately, most tools for keyword research are excellent at discovering long tail keywords. Select phrases that contain more than two words and employ them if they are consistent with the purpose of your website.
The following are the tools we advise using for longtail keyword research:
- Semrush
- The SEO marketing platform from Hubspot
- Trends on Google
Depending on what you’re looking for, each tool has a few extra capabilities that are exclusive to it and could be beneficial. However, they’re all excellent at locating profitable longtail keywords regarding their primary objective.
• Use the Search Query Reports to Mine
One of many ways that PPC data may help your SEO is to use your Search Query Report the same way you would your analytics if you’re running a PPC campaign in AdWords. Instead of your organic search results, your Search Query Report displays the search terms that led users to click on your advertising. The fact that you have complete access to this data than you do to your organic referrers in Google Analytics is an added plus.
It might also be simpler to identify the terms generating conversions rather than merely traffic. Particularly worthwhile are long tail keywords with high conversion rates.
• Explore eHow
Keyword research, especially long tail keyword research, is the primary traffic source for websites like eHow. Powerful algorithms are used by Demand Media, the organization behind eHow, Cracked.com, and other websites, to identify longtail keywords that they can subsequently rank for with hyper-targeted content.
Even if you might not have access to Demand Media’s data sources or its astronomically profitable content algorithms, you can still benefit from this approach. Search these websites for keyword suggestions. You can know that a keyword phrase has a lot of search volume if eHow focuses on it and advertisers are interested in purchasing placement on those pages.
Another wise wager? It’s probably fairly lame whatever they have created to target those keywords. The content that eHow produces is often shallow and produced on the cheap by freelancers, the sort of material that Google no longer favors post-Panda. You have a fair chance of outranking content farms if you can provide compelling content with genuine value that is also hyper-targeted.
• Visit Q&A Websites
Q&A websites, like those owned by Demand Media, can be helpful for longtail keyword suggestions. I’m referring to websites like:
- Quora
- Google Answers
- Answers.com
- Query by Amazon
- LinkedIn Responses
Great long tail keywords are questions. There is no doubt in my mind that these individuals are seeking clarification and knowledge.
Naturally, you’ll need to run some keyword research to identify the variation of each query that has the appropriate search volume and degree of competition. Not every query on a Q&A website will be an effective keyword to target.
• Check out Wikipedia
Is Wikipedia the Internet’s best-optimized website? It surely ranks high. You can gain a lot of knowledge by imitating Wikipedia’s on-page SEO. Check the Wikipedia entry for the basic word before researching it. Look at the table of contents for this “William Shakespeare” page as an illustration:
Many of these headers (such as “Early life of William Later Years” “latter years and Death of William Shakespeare,” “Sonnets of William Shakespeare,” etc.) can be translated into longtail keywords. You may also use the Control-F keyboard shortcut to search the page for your main term to see if any other synonyms pop up elsewhere in the text. The “See Also” section at the bottom of many Wikipedia articles can help discover groups of related words.
• Copy from rivals
Wikipedia frequently competes with you when you search for information. When pursuing a keyword term, you should always consider the competition. See what kinds of keyword variations are used on the pages ranking in the top 5–10 positions for the head and mid-tail terms you’re aiming to rank for.
Let’s take the keyword “holiday crafts” as an illustration. Examine the page that tops Google’s results for that keyword to observe which keywords are used across the page.
How to Create Content Based on Longtail Keywords?
What do you do with the list of long tail keywords you can optimize now that you have it? The number of longtail keywords you focus on and how closely their themes overlap will determine the response.
According to traditional knowledge, you should, if possible, build a specialized page for each longtail keyword. However, this is not always possible.
You need good quality content other than specific landing pages that you can tailor for your longtails when you have hundreds of longtail keywords to target already.
Your list of prospective longtail keywords should be broken down into an understandable list arranged by searcher intent.
Finding natural placements for your keywords is made possible by organizing them according to the theme.
If you already have this content on your website, you might be able to naturally include these longtails in your copy. If not, you now have suggestions for the subjects your upcoming articles should cover.
Conclusion
Search engines need to see that you are providing your users with the best experience possible. To do this, you must be aware of your target market’s search patterns.
Long tail keywords should be prioritized in any content marketing strategy. Your writing will be more effective if you use these keywords to match user intent and provide a great user experience.
