Long Tail Keyword Research

The Strategies Of SEO Are Changing.

Due to the different technologies now employed, such as RankBrain, Latent Semantic Indexing and voice search, SEO is changing to more solution-led content rather than keyword-led. Which includes long tail keywords.

Short tail (2-3 words) keywords have been the focus of SEO agencies and campaigns. This is still the primary focus of clients who have done little research into SEO techniques and strategies. However, the power of long-tail keywords is finally being acknowledged on either side of the fence.

The amount of posts and videos by industry leaders and influencers such as Rand Fishkin and Neil Patel, along with the rise of content marketing taken up by bloggers and content writers, has helped to encourage people to understand that this is the future of on-page SEO.

The complex nature of the Google algorithm means that Google has an ever-increasing understanding of the user’s intent behind the search that they are performing, and rather than match the words in the search to the webpage that has those same words. Google can match the search intent with the best-suited webpage to provide an appropriate resolution to the request.

Does this mean that keyword research is dead? Not at all. It makes it more important than ever before! But how do we adapt keyword research with this focus on identifying great long-tail keywords?

Focus on searcher intent

This should always be in your mind as the primary goal for all your activities. What is the searcher trying to find out? How is your content going to help the user reach their goal?

Ultimately, the tools listed below help you speed up this process and provide ideas. Still, you can’t fully rely on them to produce an outstanding long-tail keyword strategy.

Take some time to understand your target market, the length of the sales cycle or what factors influence their purchasing/conversion decisions.

You will be able to understand the type of search terms that can be targeted to provide the most value for your users. You can understand the intent behind relevant searches and provide solutions.

Google’s Keyword Planner

This is a great tool to use, but it comes with a few restrictions of use. First, you need an Adwords account with at least one active account.

The Keyword Planner may have less specific data than the former ‘Keyword Tool’, but it does have some useful additions to help you identify valuable long-tail keywords.

The ‘Keyword ideas’ and ‘Ad group ideas’ functions provide related search terms, helping you save time considering all the different variations. Sift through the tabs (there were 700 keyword ideas in this example) to gain data on potential long-tail keyword ideas.

Using the filters available such as only looking for low and medium competition and searches that generate over a certain amount of searches per month, will also help find potentially great new keywords that are not being utilised by your competition as well as they can be.

Even if you don’t find the perfect match for your strategy, you should be able to acquire new idea ‘streams’, which should lead to more fruitful long-tail keywords.

Use Google’s suggestions

Do not underestimate how useful Google’s suggestions are in the Search Engine Results Pages. They are not likely to be the central focus of your keyword strategy. However, they can be useful.

When searching for long-tail keywords, Google auto-fills in many suggested searches underneath. These are generated from similar searches performed on Google and can be a great tool to discover long-tail related keywords to your initial search term.

Identify the value

Uurrggghhh. Value. Please, Mr Value, join the crowd of other overused buzzwords.

Whatever terminology you use, this is the most important point that will be made in this article.

The keyword tools listed above will only get you so far in creating the highest-performing content strategy possible. Like any keyword research, the suggestions and data are great starting points. However, there are other variables to consider which dictate the search terms that you target and the content you produce. Some examples of which may be:

• The relevance to your product or service.
• Demographics.
• In-house expertise and ability to create content on a specific subject.
• Competition
• Date and time decay

It should be a common practice to check the search results page before committing to a keyword and content strategy.

Google gives you a great insight into what the user’s intent could be, as well as the competition on each keyword.

When investing time and money into content creation for long-tail keywords, you want to be sure that what you are targeting will give you the best chance at generating the highest ROI. This doesn’t necessarily mean the keyword with the highest impression rates. Instead, it means one with the ones delivering the greatest results about the required work.

Keywords with a high search volume are great, and if you can target them, then fantastic. Be aware, though, that there are quicker wins.

Using your keyword research, you should be able to look through the search results pages to understand which keywords have results that could be improved. For example, perhaps you feel like the searcher’s intent has not been completely satisfied or that new information or updates have come out, making the other results outdated. Whatever the reason, spotting these opportunities and using the SERPs to influence your content strategy is critical in a truly efficient campaign.

Please find out how we can help optimise your SEO here.