Why You Shouldn’t Ignore Long-Tail Keywords

You’re not going to rank for the most popular keyword in your industry.

It’s a hard reality to face as soon as you start up your own website. You’ve got dreams of appearing alongside the big dogs on the first page of Google. But the competition is fierce, and with a brand new domain and little credibility, its going to be awfully tough (albeit near impossible) to rank on page one for keywords.

So how do you even make a mark in your industry when all the good keywords are seemingly taken? Long-tail keywords.

The following post will explain what a long-tail keyword is, how to find them, and why they’re important for your SEO strategy.

What’s a long-tail keyword?

Long tail keywords are more specific and less common than other keywords. They focus more on a niche.

Yoast

Essentially we’re looking at four to five words that make up a specific search query.

Keyword: blue jeans

Long-tail keyword: Levis skinny fit blue jeans

Long-tail keywords are the best way to start ranking on Google. Instead of chasing down the more popular keywords, you can identify long-tail keywords. Approximately 70 percent of searches on Google are long-tail keywords.

How do you find long-tail keywords?

There are a number of places you can go on the internet to uncover long-tail keywords:

• Use a free tool like Ubersuggest to find keyword ideas.
• Plug a base keyword into AnswerThePublic to find out what questions people are asking in your industry.
• Search on Google and use the autocomplete function to see what’s popular.
• Also check out the “People also ask” section on a Google search results page to see what else people want to know.
• Browse industry topics on Quora to see what types of questions people are asking.
• Search industry-specific hashtags on Twitter.
• Visit your competitor’s site and see what they’re talking about.

Go after the long-tail keywords that are less competitive.

You must start by finding keywords with low competition. Once you are winning in that arena, you can slowly move up to higher competition keywords. Often those are also high search volume keywords.

Alexa

Long-tail keywords can help you achieve better rankings because they’re less competitive.

Think of it like this: you’ve got a better chance of ranking for “craft beer tasting notes” than just a keyword like “craft beer.” Older and more authoritative domains like BeerAdvocate and RateBeer are going to overshadow you in a second if you target such a generic keyword. But these sites aren’t focused on those niche long-tail keywords, which is where you can shine.

How do you judge their competitiveness? By identifying their keyword difficulty, often abbreviated KD.

You can find out KD specifics by using SEO research tools like Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, and SEMRush. You’ll want to go after the keywords with a KD between 20 and 66, with a Search Volume between 1,000 and 100,000. This will focus your efforts on key

Long-tail keywords are the secret sauce for SEO success.

[Long-tail keywords] are the foundation of an effective SEO strategy.

Neil Patel

A good keyword strategy is the foundation of your on-page SEO efforts because it shapes the content you write. Without a list of quality keywords, you’re dead in the water. You’ll be writing without a focus. That’s doing a disservice to your business and your audience.