Generate Long Tail Keywords
- Bernard Bado
When I started writing blog posts for my website. I targeted only long-tail keywords.
Fast forward a couple of months. The website is on its way to crossing 100,000 visitors.
Traffic from Google Search Console
If you want to increase your chances of ranking high in search engines (especially with a new website), you need to focus on long-tail keywords.
Long tail keywords are search phrases that are more specific and usually longer than the average keyword. They have a smaller amount of monthly searches. But at the same time, it's easier to rank for them.
If you're not sure what long-tail keywords are, don't worry. This article will show you everything you need to know about finding long-tail keywords and using them.
After reading this article, you'll be an expert at generating long-tail keywords. And hopefully, it will help you increase your website's traffic.
These are the 9 ways to generate long-tail keywords:
- Use Google autosuggest
- Use Google's related searches
- Use Google's people also ask section
- Use Google's keyword planner
- Use keyword research tools
- Browse wikiHow
- Browse Q&A sites
- Browse forums
- Analyze similar sites
But first, let's talk about the benefits of long-tail keywords.
Long Tail Keywords Explained
Long-tail keywords are simply keywords that are more specific, and usually longer than more common keywords. They are in the form of a question, phrases, or even sentences. They’re typically three or more words long.
They're called “long-tail” because of the search's demand curve. The longer the keyword, the smaller the search volume.
Correlation of keyword length, search volume, and purchase intent
Long-tail keywords are less competitive than short, general keywords. This means that it’s usually easier to get your website to rank for these keywords.
In fact, properly targeting long-tail keywords can help you rank in Google without building any backlinks.
They are also more specific, and more relevant to what the users are searching for.
Long-tail keywords can be very powerful for e-commerce stores. A longer keyword means higher specificity, which usually means higher buying intent.
Lastly, long-tail keywords can be a great way to get started with SEO.
By targeting low-competition, high-conversion keywords, you can quickly see results and then use that momentum to start ranking for more competitive keywords.
Now that we why are long-tail keywords so great, let's see how we can find some.
9 Ways to Generate Long Tail Keywords
In this section, we'll go over the ways to generate long-tail keywords.
All the mentioned tools and websites in this list are completely free to use.
Use Google Auto Suggest
I am not sure if Google intended to give us-marketers such a powerful weapon, but they certainly did.
By typing a word into a Google search, you'll get a list of suggestions in return.
If you see the keywords showing up in suggestions, that means other people searched for them.
The one downside is that we can't say what the search volume for the given keyword is.
However, we know that if the keyword is showing up in the suggestions, somebody searched for it.
See Google's Related Searches
Let's stay on a Google page for a while longer. The useful information doesn't end with suggestions.
We can also make use of Google's related searches. To see this information, you have to scroll down all the way to the bottom of the first page.
The results you see are generated by Google. Google is basically trying to suggest what other things might interest you. Based on your search history and your search profile.
These suggestions are personalized to you, and your profile. They depend on your age, language, the country you living in, etc.
See Google's People Also Ask
Google just keeps on giving, right? This section contains the questions that people usually ask.
It's a great way to find more inspiration for your articles. Cover more questions, but even write dedicated articles covering the question at hand.
Suggestions here are less personalized and they usually do not depend on your location.
Use Keyword Planner
The next tool you can use is completely free, and it's a part of Google Ads. The primary objective of this tool is to plan paid CPC campaigns.
However, if you're a sleazy keyword researcher like me, we can use this tool to come up with untapped long-tail keywords.
To start using Keyword Planner, click on this link, select the language you want, enter the location, and type in the given keyword.
You'll see the results similar to the picture below.
Use Keyword Research Tools
Another option you have is to use keyword research tools. Some of them are paid, some of them are free, and some of them are somewhat free.
Not to toot my own horn, but I really enjoy using Deap Market. When using Deap Market, you only need to provide a broad keyword. And the tool will generate various long-tail keyword combinations.
You can try Deap Market for free by following this link.
Browse WikiHow
WikiHow is a website that contains a myriad of guides on how to solve common a problem. When you think about it, a guide is basically an answer to a question. Do you see where I'm going with this?
We can use wikiHow to search for various guides. These guides are targeting questions (long-tail keywords). And if they can target them, so can we.
Luckily for us, we can search wikiHow by typing any keyword.
The results we see in the search results page are all long-tail keyword ideas.
Browse Q&A Sites
A very similar approach to browsing wikiHow can be used to browse Q&A sites.
The only difference here is that on Q&A sites, users are asking questions. Here, we can find some very specific questions that are not worth targeting. But we can also find some golden gems, that no one else is targeting.
Look for engagement on each question. If the question has a lot of likes, comments, or shares, it will most likely be a good long-tail keyword to target.
We can search these websites and see what people are asking. Which will give us plenty of long-tail keywords to target.
Browse Forums
Forums are another great way to find long-tail keyword inspirations. There are many types of forums. Some of them are targeted at one topic, and some of them are broader.
I personally like to look on Reddit for inspiration. I always try to find a dedicated subreddit for the topic I'm writing about.
With forums, you have endless options, and they really depend on your topic. Reddit is a good starting point, but you can also try to find specialized forums for your niche.
Analyze Similar Sites
We've already used Keyword Planner once, but we're not done with it yet.
Before, we used the tool by typing a broad keyword we wish to target. And in return, we got long-tail keyword variations.
However, there is also another way to use Keyword Planner.
We can just copy the URL of the site of our competitor. Or any other site that talks about the topic we want to target. And simply put it into the Keyword Planner.
The tool will analyze the site. And it will give us keywords that this website is targeting. Pretty sneaky, right?
Concluding Thoughts
Keywords are the most important aspect of a good search engine optimization strategy. If you choose your keywords poorly, you'll most likely fail.
On the other hand, if you pay a lot of attention to your keyword research, and pick good types of keywords, you'll most likely succeed.
In this article, you learned the difference between general keywords and long-tail keywords. You learned the benefits of long-tail keywords, and how to use them to improve your chances of ranking high in search results. Lastly, I shared my proven ways to generate long-tail keywords.
With that being said, it's time to unleash the power of long-tail keywords and start using them in your keyword research.
Try Deap Market
With Deap Market, you can generate hundreds of long-tail keywords in a matter of seconds.
Deap Market landing page
Try Deap Market by following this link.
