What Are Long Tail Keywords?
Why Should I Use Long Tail Keywords?
If simply finding keywords wasn’t enough, now you need to find long tail keywords. But what are they and how do you find them? Other than being a part of your on page SEO, do they have any purpose? Wouldn’t regular old keywords be fine?
Well believe it or not, but 70% of all web searches use a long tail keyword in the search box. That’s a heap of searches to be missing out on if you aren’t using your long tailed keywords! It’s true that people don’t search for them as much as short tailed ones, but there’s also a heap less competition for them too. This means your chances of ranking on Page 1 of Google just became a whole lot more by using long tailed keywords.
What Are Long Tail Keywords?
Let me get more specific. A long tailed keyword is a phrase which has three or more words in it. But in saying so, some are really long and make up an entire sentence. Take a moment to think about what you have typed in when using Google. If you wanted to find information about something really specific, chances are you used a long sentence. Something like ‘How can I grow big tomatoes?’ would give you detailed information, compared with entering ‘grow tomatoes.’
Because they are very specific, when someone visits your site because they found you organically, they will spend longer there. This decreases your bounce rate and increases your website conversions. Both of these are good things! You’re also well on the way to being seen as an industry or thought leader in their eyes too.
What Makes Long Tail Keywords So Good?
Let’s identify the benefits of using long tailed keywords. They are:
- very specific
- have less competition than generic keywords
- easier to rank high with
- send your website highly qualified traffic
- targeting specific niche demographics
- more likely to convert visitors to leads and customers
When you use longer keyword phrases, you are targeting a smaller market. It’s this point which freaks many website owners out! They feel that if they don’t use generic keywords, they won’t get the traffic. In fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Unless you have a very big and popular website or you’re a giant well-known brand, it’s incredibly difficult to rank highly for generic keywords. That means when you do your keyword research, forget noting down those keywords which have a gazillion searches for. Instead, choose the ones with less searches but are more targeted.
Need More Reasons to Use Long Tail Keywords?
Ready for more mind blowing facts to convince you that long tailed keywords are the way to go?
- Google’s search algorithm update Hummingbird focuses on providing exact match results for Google users. Those exact matches are long tailed keywords!
- Long tailed keywords have a conversion rate of 36%, compared with the world’s very best landing pages which are only 11.45%.
- Longer keywords help you rank for the shorter ones.
- As voice searches grow in popularity, people will be using even longer keywords to search the internet.
Where Can I Find Long Tail Keywords?
So, where can you go to find these all magical, wonderful long tailed keywords? There are so many tools online to use, some free and some paid. Here’s a collection of the ones I have used before and found good:
Need Help Doing Your Keyword Research?
Keyword research is something you can do for yourself, if you are prepared to put in the time. Head over to my article How Do I Do Keyword Research? to find out how or if you’d rather not do it, then check out our Keyword Finders Service instead. Remember, the value long tail keywords can bring to your website is enormous. They can be a pain in the behind to include in some blogs or web pages though. Don’t worry about that, just use them where you can. If you get stuck, send me a message using the contact box below or leave me a comment and I’ll help you out!
Posted: Sunday 31 December 2017
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