If you’re looking for a new way to generate web traffic but you haven’t yet tried to optimize your content for long-tail keywords, then now’s the time.
how to go after a Long Tail Keywords
In fact, you can do your brand (and your bottom line) a lot of good by writing articles centered around detailed search terms that your competitors don’t know about and/or don’t use.
In this article, we’ll explain how to go after long-tail keyword traffic.
What Are Long Tail Keywords?
If you’ve never heard the expression “long-tail keywords” before, then you’re probably fairly new to search engine optimization (SEO).
Long-tail keywords are keywords that are three or more words in length. In reality, though, they can be entire sentences.
Consider the way-too-popular search term “blue jeans.” You can imagine how difficult it would be to optimize your site so that it ranked in the top ten for that keyword.
However, you might stand a fighting chance if you go for something much more descriptive and specific. For example: “fade blue jeans for plus sized women.”
Now that’s a lot more detailed. Keep in mind, though, the search traffic for that long-tail keyword wouldn’t be nearly as high as the search traffic for just plain old “blue jeans.”
“So wait,” you might be asking. “If the traffic isn’t that great, then is it worth my while to even optimize for long-tail keywords?”
Yes. We’ll cover that in a moment.
About That Funny Name (Long Tail Keywords)
Why are these descriptive search terms called “long-tail keywords?” There’s a good reason for it, actually.
There’s such a thing as the search demand curve. It’s a line graph showing searches per month for the most (and least) popular keywords.
The search demand curve a downward-sloping line as you examine it from left to right. On the left-hand side are the more popular search terms and one the right-hand are the less popular terms.
Long Tail Keywords
The graph appears to have a long tail on the right that represents about 70% of the search terms. That’s where the name comes from.
Keep in mind, though: the search terms on the right of that graph aren’t necessarily 3 or more words in length. It’s just that the longer search terms tend to fall on that side of the graph.
Why Long Tail Keywords Are Traffic-Getters
So if long-tail keywords receive so little attention from searchers, how will they get you traffic?
Because of one simple word: synonyms.
When you optimize for one long-tail keyword, you’re also optimizing for a variety of other long-tail keywords that each receive only a little bit of attention as well. The net result: you’re aggregating a lot of unpopular search terms into one search term that will get you a lot of visitors.
Keep in mind, Google is extremely intelligent when it comes to comprehending the meaning of words. So it will use synonyms to find just the right match that will provide its users with the best experience.
When you optimize for one long tail keyword, you’re also optimizing for a variety of other long tail keywords
That means a search term that seems like a good fit for your article, even if it doesn’t use the exact keyword, could easily land that article in the top 10.
For example, consider the search term we looked at above: “faded blue jeans for plus sized women.” Now, suppose somebody searched for “grungy blue jeans for plus sized women.” That might register as a match with Google.
So would “faded blue jeans for heavy set women” or “faded blue jeans for plus sized ladies.”
You can see where this is going.
Hummingbird Is Your Friend
Hummingbird is also a friend to webmasters who optimize for long-tail keywords.
In case you’re unfamiliar with Hummingbird, it’s the algorithm Google launched back in 2013 to improve the search experience. It’s all about trying to derive intent.
And how does it do that? With synonyms and context.
Here’s more from Search Engine Land:
In particular, Google said that Hummingbird is paying more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole query — the whole sentence or conversation or meaning — is taken into account, rather than particular words. The goal is that pages matching the meaning do better, rather than pages matching just a few words.
Certainly, Google is able to determine more about the user’s intent as the user gets more specific. And how does the user get more specific? Often with more words in the search field.
That means if you optimize your article for a very specific intent, a user might find it from Google even if it doesn’t use the exact search term.
So again we see the wisdom of opting for long-tail keywords.
When it Comes to Long Tail Keywords – Go Big or Go Home
That Hummingbird algorithm doesn’t just give the user results based on search intent. It also strives to deliver quality results.
That’s why you should ensure that you’re writing quality content when you optimize for long-tail keywords.
If you don’t think you can handle that on your own because you’re either too busy or not a very good writer, then you should outsource the task to a professional. You’re going to waste your time if you try to optimize content that isn’t first-class.
Also: it’s a great idea to use longform content with your long-tail keywords. The SEO benefits of longform content are well established.
Where Not to Find Long-Tail Keywords
Before we get into where to find long-tail keywords, let’s look at where not to find long-tail keywords: Google Keyword Planner.
There was a time when Google Keyword Planner was a useful (free) tool to SEOs, but those days are now in the past. That’s especially true if you’re looking for long-tail keywords.
First of all, Google Keyword Planner isn’t technically a free tool anymore. You don’t have access to all of its features unless you’re an active AdWords advertiser.
Second, it’s not that good for long-tail keywords anyway. It tends to show you keywords that are fairly compact and often not very detailed. You need more than that.
Fortunately, you have plenty of options.
Searches Related To…
Although the Google Keyword Planner might not be a great place to start on your quest for long-tail keywords, you can still get some great help from the Google search engine.
Just type in a generic search term and look for “Searches related to…” You’ll find several keywords that will, at the very least, get you pointed in the right direction.
In some cases, you’ll find long-tail keywords that you can use.
For example, head over to Google and search for “home theater systems.” Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.
Check out the “Searches related to home theater systems” section. You’ll probably see search terms like “home theater systems with wireless speakers,” “wireless surround sound home theater systems,” “best wireless surround system.”
Google Search for Long Tail Keywords
Those are some great long-tail options. By the way, each one of those options is clickable. When you see the results for it, you can once again scroll to the bottom of the page and get even more ideas for long-tail keywords.
You can gather long-tail keywords all day long without even leaving Google.
Also: check out the first two search terms in the list above: “home theater systems with wireless speakers” and “wireless surround sound home theater systems.”
Remember what we mentioned above about how Google uses synonyms? Those two search terms are very similar, even though they don’t use the exact same long-tail keywords.
Now click on each one of them. As of this writing, they produce the same top two pages in the organic results.
That’s another illustration of the power of long-tail keyword optimization.
Forums and Long Tail Keywords
Another great place to find ideas for long-tail keywords is in online forums.
Find a forum where people in your target market hang out. Then, browse the forum for subjects that you can use as long-tail keywords.
Here’s a pro-tip: look for questions that people are asking in the subject line.
Why? Because some of the best long-tail keywords are questions.
It’s especially a great idea to optimize your content for questions if you’re trying to portray yourself as an expert in your domain. You can show people that you know your stuff by answering the question intelligently.
If you don’t know about any forums that are frequented by people in your market, just head over to Google and type in the name of your niche plus the word “forum” or “discussion.” If any such forums exist, you should find a couple of results.
Soovle.com
Soovle.com is a website that will give you access to long-tail keywords for free. Just head over there, plug in your short-tail keyword, and you’ll results instantaneously.
Everything happens in real time. You don’t even have to wait for a new page to load.
You still have the opportunity to download your results in CSV format, though. That way, you can leave the site and reference them later on.
Long Tail Keywords – soovle
Where does Soovle get its results? They’re aggregated from popular information repositories and search engines all across cyberspace.
You’ll see results from Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, Yahoo!, Bing, YouTube, and Answers.com.
Not all the results that you see will be long-tail keywords. However, you’ll likely find many great candidates within the bunch.
You don’t have to stop at Soovle, though. When you find a good long-tail keyword on that site, plug it into Google and then check out the “Searches related to…” section. You’ll likely find even more options.
UberSuggest
UberSuggest is yet another great resource for long-tail keywords. It’s a lot like Soovle, except it gives you way more results.
Even better: if alphabetizes the results by the first word that follows your keyword.
For example: if your keyword is “home entertainment systems,” UberSuggest will rank “home entertainment systems at amazon” towards the top because the first word after your keyword (“at”) begins with an “a.”
You’ll find that, once again, not every single result will qualify as a long-tail keyword. However, the lion’s share will almost certainly be long-tail keywords.
Keep in mind, though: some of the suggestions won’t make a whole lot of sense. That’s because the system just plugs in each of letter of the alphabet after your keyword and looks for results.
If you’re looking for a tool that adds words before and after your short-tail keyword, check out KeywordTool.io.
Answer the Public and Long Tail Keywords
Another great resource for long-tail keywords is Answer the Public.
How does it work? You just go there and type in the short-tail keyword related to your niche. Then, click the “Get Questions” button right below the input field.
Be sure to also select the right country in the drop-down list on the side of the input field. Currently, the country defaults to “UK,” which isn’t what you want if you’re in the United States.
You’ll see all your results in the form of questions. That’s fine because, as we’ve seen, questions make great long-tail keywords.
longtail keyword tools – answer the public
However, if you don’t want to optimize with a “question and answer” article, you can still get some great ideas for long-tail keywords without using the question.
For example, one of the questions for “home theater system” is: “which blu-ray home theater system is the best?”
Instead of optimizing for that whole question, you could just optimize for “best blu-ray home theater system.”
Scrapebox
Scrapebox has long been a favorite tool of blackhat SEO, but even if you haven’t joined the dark side you can still get some use from it.
It will cost you some money, though. That’s how it’s different from some of the other options we’ve looked at.
As the name implies, Scrapebox is a keyword scraper. You plug in your short-tail keyword and it will give you long-tail keywords that match.
Lots of long-tail keywords.
That’s where you get your money’s worth. It will give you way more results than UberSuggest. You can export your results into a CSV and spend as much time as you want looking for the best long-tail keywords for your brand.
Go After Long Tail Keywords Now
Now that you know about the importance of optimizing your content for long-tail keywords and how to find those keywords, it’s time to get busy. Gather up a few short-tail keywords related to your niche and follow the advice above about how to find their longer counterparts. Then, generate some high quality content that’s sure to rank well in the search results.
Soon, you’ll be on your way to much stronger web presence.
