You’re probably familiar with the fact that long tail keywords are often referred to as the golden goose. These search terms may be low in competition or low volume but high-converting.
Search engine gold is basically what you want.
That’s the theory anyway.
It doesn’t always work that way. However, understanding long tail keywords and how to use them can make a big difference in your digital marketing strategy.
What is the matter with me?
Let me explain.
What are long-tail keywords?
According to the theory, a long-tail search term is any term more than three words in length. They are usually between 3 and 5 words but they can be longer.
These should be specific to niches, thereby narrowing down the search results to a targeted result.
Example: “holiday home” is an extremely broad term with 33,000 monthly searches (according Ahrefs – Keywords Everywhere, 135,000).
“Holiday home rental Tuscany”, however, has a lower search volume. It gets under 100 searches per month (or 480, if you ask Keywords Everywhere).
We are now talking to people who are searching for something very specific.
This long tail keyword is usually centered around your main search terms or head keywords. Simply add a modifier to your main search phrase.
A question or another more specific inquiry is another good example of a long-tail keyword. Take this example:
“Where can I go for walking holidays in Tuscany?” “When is the best time?” “Does Tuscany have beautiful beaches?”
These search terms will show you that long tail keywords are often questions. This can actually be a great way to find them.
These search phrases may not contain the main keyword but they indicate a specific intent of your audience. You have a greater chance of being ranked higher in search engine results because you are less competitive.
These can be used to focus on voice activated search. It is possible to bring in valuable traffic by focusing on voice activated searches in certain industries such as local services or on-demand (plumbers, food delivery).
As we will see, long tail keywords can offer many opportunities and be used at various stages of the customer journey.
Are there long tail keywords that can be found in Tuscany?
What are the best times to use long tail keywords?
We’ve seen in the example of ‘Holiday Homes’ that long tail keywords bring in people who are looking for specific things. This eliminates the large volume of searches for the same keyword and focuses instead on those who are most likely in the deep research stage or decision phase of their buying journey.
Note that long tail keywords work well with paid search results such as Google Ads.
Organic rankings are great for long tail search terms. However, ranking for your search terms can be difficult and time-consuming. However, you can easily rank for long tail keywords by paying.
Broad search terms have their pros and cons. Broad search terms work better for organic search if you are trying to control your budget. However, competition for rankings is another problem.
For those 33,000 searches on “holiday houses”, you will be competing against tourism giants such as Airbnb and Booking.com. This means that you will have to pay a lot of money to rank for high-volume keywords and high competition.
You can narrow down your search results by adding a season, location or value modifier.
“Summer vacation home Italy” “Christmas holiday villa near Florence””Holiday home offers Italy”Family vacation homes close to Siena”
You’ll still have to compete with the big guns. But…. But….
This is also long tail keywords.
How can you locate them?
How to find long tail keywords
Finding long tail keywords is not difficult – you just need to know where to look. It is clear that digital marketing fundamentals are essential, such as:
Research your competitors to understand your target audience. An awareness of the language used for finding your product or service
These marketing techniques are pretty standard.
How do you find long-tail search terms?
Search modifiers
As we have seen, standard search terms (or your head keywords) are a solid foundation for long tail keywords. You can make your broad search term a long-tail search term by adding modifiers like seasonal or value add-ons.
These search modifiers are often common and help people find the right answer to their question.
Examples include “cheap”, best, “sale”, or “summer”.
“Best womens running shoes””Cheap fireplace surround””Winter vacation deals Mexico”
nswer a question
A great way to find long-tail keywords is to answer common industry questions.
These are the same as we mentioned above. Take this example:
“Where is the best place to go on a family vacation in Costa Rica?” “How long does it take you to learn Japanese?” “Which car has a high fuel economy?”
You can start to build a list of long-tail keywords by asking yourself the most common questions in your industry.
Answer the Public is a useful tool for keyword research if you are having trouble coming up with any. This allows you to visualize questions related search terms. This tool is free and has some paid features that are worth looking into if you’re interested in keyword research.
Google is a great resource!
Google actually offers some helpful suggestions when you search for something.
You will often find the featured snippets or the “People also ask” section. These are often common questions that can be answered by highlighting sections on a well-written website.
These snippets are a treasure trove of long-tail keyword suggestions.
For example, take this section titled “People also ask”:
This presents interesting extensions to the original question’marketing research’, as you will see.
You can click on one of the search results to find more long-tail keyword suggestions.
You can go on like this until you are back in your office chair.
Wait! Oh, wait.
Google has an additional section at the bottom that lists “other searches”.
Example:
Yes, it was correct. Click on the query to see more results or long tail suggestions.
Google’s tools are available for you
Google will gladly load you with tools that can help you research and get you ready to spend big on your ad campaign.
They offer a variety of keyword research tools for free, including:
Google TrendsKeyword PlannerGoogle search Console
These provide valuable insight into user searches and allow you to dig deeper for free.
Learn more about keyword research with our comprehensive guide.
Keyword research tools are available
Each day, the list of keyword research tools gets longer. They are well worth the cost of a subscription.
Packages like Majestic, Majestic, SEM Rush and Moz are the best tools. These tools allow you to do deep research on your search traffic and competitors and are essential for serious marketers.
You might consider Long Tail Pro or KW Finder if you are unable to spend $99 per month.
UberSuggest offers both a limited-free package and a well-priced ‘lifetime’ package. This can be extremely useful for those who only have one website.
Social media can be an invaluable tool in keyword research. You can be focused and not get distracted.
Here’s how to use social media for keywords searches if you are able to ignore the baby spam, memes, and temptation to trolling people.
You can search for products and terms that are related to your industry. Take note of the questions people ask, what is shared and what is being complained about. You can also check out your competitors’ social media pages to see what their customers are doing. You can search for your most popular hashtags and note any related terms or hashtags that you may not have used.
PPC vs SEO
Long tail keywords have the advantage of being able to target a segment of search traffic, people at a certain point in their journey.
This doesn’t mean you can’t have organic or paid traffic.
Both should be targeted. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s actually recommended.
Create a list of content (blogs and videos) to target the long tail keywords you have compiled from your spreadsheet.
While you wait for traffic via organic search to arrive (which can take some time), you can also hit the SERPs using your paid ads.
You should ensure that you have properly structured landing pages for your search keywords. The landing page can be linked to your organic content, which will help it rank higher in the organic SERPs.
Are long tail keywords more expensive?
It might seem that a more specific search term is more cost-effective. You would be wrong.
Broad search terms with high volumes and low conversions (‘Holiday home’/’marketing tools) tend to be more expensive than long tail keywords.
Keywords Everywhere to access my data, the search terms I used for holiday homes looked like this:
Holiday home : vol, 110,000 cost $0.98Holiday home Tuscany: vol, 480 cost $3.10Villas for rent in Italy: vol, 5,400 cost $2.95
Get specific, pay more per click.
This is because these keywords are more likely to result in a conversion. These are searches that are near the money end.
It is important to target your ads in order to reduce costs and minimize click fraud. Many professional PPC managers will not run campaigns that target broad search terms due to the low conversion rate.
Yes, clicks are cheaper. However, you end up paying more per conversion if you have to click multiple times to win one customer.
You should also consider the possibility of click fraud for broad search terms. It is a good strategy to opt for lower volume clicks.
Wait… What? ?
Click fraud! Click fraud has become a major problem for digital marketers. It’s a multibillion-dollar problem that seems to not be going away.
Click fraud can be described as any click that is not genuine on your paid ads. Clicks can be made from:
Bots and web-scrapersInitial clicksVindictive clicks originating from haters or rivalsBad ad placements, or fake impressions
According to data, around one in four clicks on PPC ads come from non-genuine traffic sources.
This means that around 25% of your advertising budget will be wasted if you run paid search, display, or any other digital campaign.
PPC ads can be a significant source of traffic for many businesses. How can you increase brand visibility and get more clicks faster?
Blocking click fraud is now a key part of any digital fraud prevention strategy.
Click fraud can be explored in detail in our guide.
How to use long tail keywords
Now that you have a lot of niche and long-tail search terms, what do you do?
It will all depend on your business goals. However, I would guess you are looking for more web traffic and customers.
We’ll then break it down into PPC and SEO campaigns.
Keywords with long tails in PPC
You can target specific stages in your customer journey with campaigns. Your ad campaigns should be targeted at people who are researching your product or those looking to purchase it.
Research terms will be most likely to include:
What can I do to find the best…
Most likely, purchase-focused search terms will look like this:
Best value …(search terms) with free shipping (search term) and a free trial
*This is not an exhaustive list. It’s just a suggestion.
These focused campaigns require well-written ad copy that addresses these questions and speaks directly to your customer.
Also, it will be more advantageous to create landing pages that address long tail queries.
People looking for the “best place to go on a family holiday in Italy” answer.
Your landing page should feature your Tuscany family-friendly villas.
SEO long tail keywords
It’s also a good idea to use long tail keywords on a blog. Although SEO is a complex topic, it is not a bad idea to create blog posts that target the same audience as your paid campaigns.
This is especially true when you are searching for phrases or terms that are competitive.
Search results organically can be expensive and time-consuming. It’s worth it in the long-term.
Hire a content strategist or writer to help you rank for long-tail search queries.
This blog post’s tail-end
That’s how long tail keywords are done.
TL;DR?
Here’s a quick summary:
Ask questions or make queries about your industry. Find questions or queries related to your industry.
Blocking invalid traffic is a great way to increase your search reach with long tail keywords.
ClickCease is the industry’s leading click fraud prevention tool, stopping bots, bad clickings, and other forms IVT on Google Ads.
Register for a free trial and see how much you can save each month.
Do you have any suggestions for long-tail search queries? Do you have any suggestions on maximising your paid-search budget?
Drop us a line and tell us what you think.
The post Are Long Tail Keywords Your Search Secret Weapon
