When I first heard the term ‘Long Tail Keyword’, I probably imagined a keyword with a lonnng tail. Well, I was partially right. The keyword doesn’t have an animal-like tail but it does have a tail of words attached to it and I guess that’s how the Long tail keyword got its name. Interesting right? Let’s dive into what are long-tail keywords and why you should use them.
What are Long Tail Keywords?
Long tail keywords are nothing but just a very specific phrase that users use to search on Google. Long-tail keywords are used when people know what exactly they are searching for. Generally, they are extended search phrases that make at least 3 to 5 phrases in the query illustrating the specific intention of the searcher.
For example, If someone searches for ‘red dress’ on Google, the outcome is endless. The dress can be for men, women, kids. But if the same user searches for ‘red dress for three-year girl’, he is looking for red colored dress for her 3-year old and Google will be very specific when showing the search results. Surely, the shorter search term ‘red dress’ has a much higher search volume per month as compared to ‘red dress for three-year girl’ but the long-tail keyword has more buying intent.
Long-tail keywords represent:
definite intentions,
definite pain points,
and definite wishes of your target audience.
Compared to a general keyword like ‘red dress’, the long-tail keywords are much easier to target using SEO and offer a higher Return on Investment.
The more your content starts ranking for long-tail keywords, the better authority it will build on search thus giving you thousands of valuable organic traffic. Isn’t this cool?
Why use Long Tail Keywords for SEO?
I’ll answer this question sweet and simple – Use long-tail keywords to potentially increase your search traffic, rankings, and conversions.
For example, If you are a small online shoe retailer looking to promote your hiking and trekking shoes, you’ll need to find keywords that are closely related to ‘hiking shoes’ or ‘trekking shoes’. Let’s use Semrush to find long-tail keywords. Here’s a complete keyword research guide that you might be interested in. Check it out.
How to Use Semrush for Free?
Semrush offers 3 plans:
- Pro Plan ( Best for Freelancers, Startups, and Bloggers )
- Guru Plan ( Best for SMB & Marketing Agencies )
- Business Plan ( Best for eCommerce Projects & Big Agencies )
The pro plan is best suitable for freelancers, startups, and bloggers. So if you’re trying this tool then I’ll suggest you go with the Pro plan first and get the most out of Semrush. If you want to get a free trial click here and start using Semrush free for 7 days. But in this case, you’ll need a debit/credit card and they will charge you $1 which is refunded back to you immediately. This is done just for verification purposes.
I’ll suggest going for a 7-day free trial because you will get access to all the features of Semrush that too without any cost. If you don’t want to get charged for the pro plan, discontinue the service before the end of a free trial, and here you go. You have easily availed Semrush services for free.
The all-time free trial is very limited and not useful at all. Now it is in your hands whether you want to take your SEO game to the next level with Semrush or get limited access with very few features. CHOOSE WISELY!
→ Also read Best Raven tools alternative.
1. Login to Semrush.com and click on Keyword Overview
2. Enter the word ‘shoes’ in the search bar.
3. After hitting search button, the keyword analytics overview report will pull out the search data for the keyword ‘shoes’.
The monthly search volume of ‘shoes’ in India (selected country) is 550k and keyword difficulty is 89% (Keyword difficulty refers to how difficult it is to rank that keyword).
It is very evident that ‘shoes’ is a highly competitive keyword and targeting a general keyword like this may not be the best strategy. Naturally, you would be competing with major worldwide brands such as Nike and Adidas.
So to cut down our competition, we’ll use the ultra-focused keywords that will match with our searcher’s intent.
Type Trekking shoes in the search bar to narrow down your research. Semrush will easily list out Long tail keywords that contain your query “Trekking shoes”.
When looking for ideal long-tail keywords, keep few things in mind:
Length of Keyword – A keyword must be at least 4 words long. The longer the keyword, the more specific it is.
Product attribute description – Add the product attributes like waterproof or black for a more specific search.
Describe trait of the searcher – Words like ‘for women’ or ‘for flat feet’ or ‘for an athlete’ makes a search even crisper.
Low Difficulty – Watch out for low difficulty keywords. They have low competition and are easy to rank for.
Let’s use the filter functionality of Semrush to get more specific long-tail keywords.
After applying these awesome filters, you’ll get a set of keywords to choose from.
From this report, you can pick out keywords that have the most potential to convert on your site.
Keeping in mind the properties of an ideal long-tailed keyword listed earlier, two keywords that really intrigued me are “Best trekking shoes under 3000” and “hiking and trekking shoes”. Each keyword uses a modifier to add a description to the query.
- The first keyword includes “under 3000″ which means a user is looking for trekking shoes of an amount less than 3000.
- The second keyword includes “hiking” which means a user is looking for a shoe that can be used for trekking as well as for hiking at the same time.
With these keywords, we have a better idea of what the searcher is looking for. Since these keywords are highly specific, we can infer that they have strong buying intentions and the searcher will convert as a customer.
To see more keywords related to your current keyword, click the hyperlink keyword from the report. This will take you directly to the long-tail keywords overview report.
This report will present a huge list of phrases that are strongly related to our broad long-tail keywords.
What we get in the related keywords report are even more long-tail keywords which are all centered around the idea of “hiking and trekking shoes”.
You can use these related keywords to write content on your landing page which will attract more search traffic. You can also take a note of keyword difficulty scores to get a clear picture of the easiest phrases to target first. If you start with a low difficulty keyword phrase and look for its related keywords, chances are that all those related keywords will have less difficulty.
Recap:
- To find long tail keywords, First, enter the main target term in the Semrush keyword overview tool. Then,
- Look for longer phrase words with low keyword difficulty scores.
- Once found, look deeper into that keyword using related keywords report to get a huge list of long-tail keywords.
- Export this related keywords report and repeat the process for any products or services on your site.
Conclusion:
Not only the technology but users are getting smart too. They want clear results in less time. They are typing fast, speaking even fast, and want results at the earliest. So that’s where your chance is to grab your audience by presenting them exactly what they are looking for. And thank god, Long tail keywords are at your rescue. Go sprinkle some long-tail keywords in your content and attract high-quality traffic.
Keep in mind that building your SEO rank is definitely a long race and not just a sprint. It’s not something that can be fixed overnight. This is a dedicated effort and correct implementation is necessary to reap the benefits.
Try Semrush Worth $119.95 For Free
FAQ Related to Long Tail Keywords:
What is a long-tail keyword example?
In SEO, Long Tail Keywords are far more specific than the primary key phrase. For example, your primary keyword is a workout. Then, your long-tail keyword might be a 30-minute workout or maybe how to workout with kettlebells.
What is a long-tail keyword in SEO?
Long tail keywords are extended search phrases that make at least 3 to 5 phrases in the query that illustrate a searcher with a specific intention. The volume tends to be lower and the competition for that keyword is proportionately lighter too which means you can target ad campaigns and marketing for a much lower cost.
Where can I find long tail keywords for free?
I will suggest you find long tail keywords on SEMrush because it gives you a detailed report on a particular keyword which makes it easy for us to detect profitable keyword for our site.
What is a short tail keyword?
Short tail keywords are search phrases containing 1 to 3 words. If you want to attract lots of visitors to your website then optimizing for short-tail keywords is the most effective way to do this. For example, a short tail keyword for a shoe website is Buy shoes, Adidas shoes, Nike shoes.
Disclosure: This content contains few affiliate links, which means if you purchase any tool via our links you will help us fund this blog. No additional cost will be charged to you. Win-win for both of us, right?
Thank you for such a great blog post Shubham! Loved your explanation. Should I go for the annual plan or monthly plan of SEMrush?
Waiting for your reply.
I’m honored you liked this blog post related to Long Tail keywords. As you asked, I would suggest you go for the annual plan if you are satisfied with a free trial of 7 days. If not, then go for a monthly plan and check whether it suits your need or not.
Thank you
Shubham Chopra