What are long-tail keywords?
Long-tail keywords are keywords or phrases that are very specific but searched for less often. Though they often receive lower volumes of traffic from search engines compared to more generic terms, they generally have a much higher conversion value as they are commonly used by consumers looking to make a very precise purchase decision.
As an example, someone may type into a search engine “running shoes” (not a long-tail keyword) which will return thousands of results surrounding the topic. However, as the user learns more about it, they will begin to start to complete more specific searches such as “importance of good running shoes” . These are the long-tail keywords you want to be identifying and adding to your content to attract new visitors to your website.
How to find the best long-tail keywords
A good way to start identifying the best long-tail keywords to use is by looking at keywords your competition rank for. This can offer insights into terms you would like to rank for and how you can modify them to suit your audience and content.
A good tool to use for this is SEMrush. Simply type in your competitor’s URL and it will return information such as their top organic keywords and backlinks. This data can then be used to your advantage by identifying the keywords you want to rank for which will help you plan your strategy.
Another great tool is the long-tail keyword generator. It simply splits up your keywords into three sections: primary keywords, descriptive keywords and modifier keywords. Once you have entered in the data in the three fields, it will produce a long list of all the long-tail related keywords, which you can then copy and paste and use in a PPC campaign or for creating content. It saves a lot of time not manually creating lists and it means you won’t miss out any valuable keyword strings.
Getting traffic
Having the right content on your website is going to be key for any SEO strategy. It is important to remember to avoid ‘keyword stuffing’ as this can actually have a negative effect on your ranking in the search engines.
Furthermore, you can identify long-tail keywords by thinking about the questions your audience may have about your product or service. Question style keywords have become much more popular recently. Providing content that uses their long-tail keyword question, with a specific answer to it is going to rank well in the search engines.
The most important thing to remember when it comes to your content is that you need to be providing your audience with high quality information that fully answers their questions.
The whole process can be a lengthy one but the results will be worth it. As with all keyword research, it should form part of an ongoing long term strategy, so be sure to continuously check for related long-tail keywords in order to find new strings with low competition. Keep creating content in the form of blog posts or new pages as over time, it will help drive new traffic to your website which has a high likelihood of converting. Take a look at our top tips for making the most of content marketing.
