Long Tail Search Guide

When targeting competitive keywords, it could take awhile before you see any progress in the SERPs.

But searchers are using long tail search terms to find what they want in search engines.

That is why you should also turn your attention to long tail search optimisation.

So in this blog post we will learn how to integrate long tail keywords into your keyword research strategy.

Let’s get started.

What Are Long Tail Keywords?

A long tail keyword is a targeted search term of 3 or more words.

It contains a main keyword term, also known as a head term.

This head term is a generic search term of 1 or 2 words.

For example, if the main keyword is SEO.

The long tail keywords could be:

Quality traffic and higher conversion rates: Long tail keywords are specific so visitors coming to your website from a long tail search term are more qualified.
Less competitive: If the search term is more niche, it’s less competitive
Minimum disruption and easy recovery: If you use long tail search terms and lose your rankings, it won’t disrupt your business and you can recover your rank quickly
Rank for difficult terms: Using head terms in long tail keyword terms helps you rank for difficult search terms and boost pages that link to them from high ranking pages
It’s the most popular type of search: The majority of search traffic is from long tail searches because searchers are now more specific with search queries

Use keyword analytics tools or Google Analytics to find terms that bring the most traffic to your website then focus on the keywords that lead to customers first
Search for long tail variations of those terms using Google’s Keyword Tool
If you can’t find decent long tail keyword terms with your keyword tool, go to Google and search for your head terms then look at the Google Suggest recommendations
Find terms to write content about. For example, creating content for how-to terms for your blog and including this term in your URL, page title, H1 tags and your content
Convert visitors using contextual content, videos, pictures or offers and move them along your sales funnel. Getting conversions from qualified traffic and monetising long tail searches effectively

Measure the traffic you get from long tail keywords so you know if you’re getting more traffic from those keyword terms month after month
Analyse your long tail traffic because being at the top of the SERPs for a long tail keyword term with no traffic is a waste. And traffic with low conversions needs calls-to-action and landing pages testing or better keywords
See the long tail keywords that bring the most revenue and future customers. Add customer acquisition costs and lifetime customer value metrics to this equation
See how successful content is optimised with long tail keywords. Also take into account bounce rate, time on page, social reach and backlinks
Piggyback on success by targeting similar terms. Find long tail keyword phrases that drive traffic, conversions and other metrics then use synonyms of those words
Find content opportunities. If people visit your website from relevant search terms you’re not using, optimise for those searchers