HOW TO IDENTIFY LONG-TAIL KEYWORDS THAT DRIVE TRAFFIC
Over the past few years with the introduction of Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird and Google’s other algorithms, both SEO professionals and companies in the know have started to shift their SEO strategies away from the one- or two-word keywords that used to rule the SERPs. This is because people are less and less likely to search for a single word over a phrase or series of three or more words—something Google Autosuggest has certainly played a role in shaping.
However, with Google making searches private and SEO’s unable to see which keywords are driving traffic to their site, how do SEO’s pick the long-tail keywords they think will result in traffic to their site?
At the core of developing a long-tail keyword strategy is understanding user intent and finding and using keywords that satisfy the underlying intention behind searches.
One step to identifying quality long-tail keywords is to target highly specific ones as those that have the best bet of satisfying user intent. A quick way to generate a long list of long-tail keywords that you can then choose from to target is the tool HitTail that suggests long-tail keywords based on the information you put in.
Another solid method lies in using the aforementioned Autosuggest function. Simply start with your one- or two-worded keywords and see what Google suggests. Their suggestions indicate the most highly searched long-tail keywords and make for great long-tail keywords to target down the road.
A slight inversion of the above method is to search for a long-tail keyword, preferably one that is broad and will generate “related searches” at the bottom: a list of similar, but different long-tail keywords related to the one you just searched. Perhaps first use HitTail to generate a list of long-tail keywords and then input them into Google.
If you use the software SEMRush, it has a very powerful keyword function that identifies high-value keywords in your particular industry. Simply enter one of your competitor’s URLs into SEMRush and look at the CPC of the paid keywords they are going after. By picking the ones that you think you can create content around, you can start ranking for these very long-tail keywords organically that your competitors are spending loads on to obtain their search traffic.
In conclusion, while the monetary value of a long-tail keyword is a good way to indicate which ones are worth targeting, it’s arguably more important to select those that are relevant to your industry and audience. By using the above methods, you can efficiently identify those long-tail keywords you should be targeting and start augmenting your content accordingly.
