Where Can I Find Longtail Keywords for Better SEO Results
When starting with search engine optimization, the temptation for any small business can be to focus on the broad keywords. These keywords have a bigger volume and can be so lucrative. That’s when many business owners start asking, “Where can I find longtail keywords?”
The business could be doing everything right for SEO, but still not seeing results. No uptick in sales. Not even an uptick in traffic.
This is where longtail keywords can provide a great source of traction for your SEO.
Knowing how to use longtail keywords can add a great boost to your SEO efforts. But knowing where to find them can be a bit confusing. We’ll provide a few great options in this article.
What Is a Longtail Keyword
A keyword is whatever text a user might be searching for in Google. Keywords are commonly shorter in length. Main keywords for a business are usually just a couple of words in length. They also commonly have a higher search volume and keyword difficulty.
A longtail keyword is a longer keyword. Whereas a main keyword is usually 3-5 words, a longtail keyword can be any length. The other key difference is that longtail keywords almost always have a much lower search volume than a main keyword. The trade off is that the keyword difficulty for a longtail keyword is also usually much lower.
“Green Bay Web Design” or “Green Bay Hair Salon” are examples of main keywords.
Longtail keywords might be “How Many Different Logos Should a Company Have?” or “Best hair salon for curly hair.”
Just because there is lower search volume on the longtail keyword, does not mean it is lower value. It is still great users doing those searches and looking for your business.
Where Can I Find Longtail Keywords
Just like when looking for main keywords, finding the right longtail keywords can take some work. There are a number of great options available to do this. Some are free and some have an expense.
These tools and techniques will show great ways to find longtail keywords that will work for both new landing pages and blog articles.
‘People Also Ask” on Google
This is such a great section in Google results because they are literally telling you the longtail keyword! These questions are all real questions that people are asking in Google on a regular basis. It might start with 3 or 4 questions, but if you expand any of them, 2 more will show up.
Each is a great question to answer in a blog article. The question, exactly as it is in Google, should be the title of the blog article. Then using your knowledge and expertise in the industry, answer the question.
Another great place to use these questions in the Frequently Asked Questions section on your website. If you have a main keyword for your home page, you can add those questions there. If your services or products pages go into more specific questions, those can be added there.
At Full Scope Creative, we recommend doing both. Write a great blog article and answer the question, and add it to your website FAQs
Even though some of the questions might seem a bit silly or odd, they’re all great longtail keywords. Each question (longtail keyword) comes directly from Google users and their searches.
Look at Related Searches on Google
Towards the bottom of a Search Results Page in Google is another great spot to find more keywords. Scroll down and you’ll find the Related Searches.
These search terms are usually tied closely with the main search term you typed in. The benefit is that it shows more terms related to that search – longtail keywords, often.
The additional search terms are also keywords that Google is directly telling you that people are also searching for. These can work great for finding modifier keywords as well.
Many of these can spark ideas for blog topics and landing pages. If you’re thinking it could be both, do both. You’ll need a different slug (https://domain.com/this-is-the-slug) for each. So look to turn the keyword into a questions or the blog, and add a modifier for the landing page or leave it exactly as it.
Use Google Autocomplete
When you’re on Google.com, start slowly typing in your main keyword one letter at a time. As you do, you’ll see the dropdown start autopopulating possible searches. Each one of those, is a great longtail keyword.
For example, if your keyword is “Hamberger restaurant Green Bay,” type in letter by letter H – A – M – B…. As you do, take not, or even screenshots, of what autopopulates.
Each autopopulated or autocompleted term is a search term. If it wasn’t searched by people at all or one that Google recognizes, it wouldn’t show up there.
This can again show more landing pages or blog topics for you to cover. Since these are real searches, match the title and H1 to the keyword exactly.
Use SEO Tools Like SEMRush
Our favorite tool for finding great longtail keywords is SEMRush. It is a paid program we subscribe to monthly, but the investment is well worth the yield. We can find not only our main keywords, but great longtail keywords and even keyword questions.
With SEMRUSH, we can also see the search volume and keyword difficulty for each keyword. This can help determine how much effort might be required for a given keyword. If the keyword difficulty is higher, a longer blog, with more ideas, more creativity, and more images is likely needed.
We can also take any listed keyword, and drill deeper into it. We can find more longtail keywords this way and more related questions.
For some of the keywords, even these great longtail keywords, a landing page can be a great place to use them. They won’t be linked to in the main site navigation at all, but can be linked to through other content. Your blog articles and other pages can link to these new landing pages. This will help Google find these landing pages and know the structure of your site.
The questions that are found in SEMRush are great blog articles. When we use SEMRush to find longtail keyword questions, that question will be the exact title of the blog article we write. You can also go deeper into the questions to find more keywords and questions as well.
If we find great questions and longtail keywords in Google, we will often run it through SEMRush as well. This way we know the monthly volume of the longtail keyword or question and the keyword difficulty.
How to Be Successful with Longtail Keywords
Longtail keywords is a game of quantity – and of course quality. Since the search volume isn’t usually as high, you’ll want to focus on having several of them. Focusing on just one longtail keyword likely won’t yield much success.
Each keyword may only bring in a small volume of traffic. But since we know that these are commonly searched terms, we know people are searching them often. Put together in a large collection of longtail keywords, you’ll have a sizable amount of traffic.
The real strength of longtail keywords is that they are easier to rank for. The lower keyword difficulty means that you can rank for it quicker and with less SEO efforts. A blog article can rank on its own. Then include in the needed call to action graphics and links, and you’ll have a new lead generation source.
The long-term strategy with longtail keywords is always finding more and more to rank for. Each new blog article or long page is another chance for those possible searchers to find your site.
Putting Longtail Keywords to Work
Longtail keywords are a great place to focus your SEO time. Each new blog article or landing page can bring in great new traffic for your site. All with far less difficulty and competition than a main keyword.
The goal might be to have several longtail keywords that your site ranks for, but no need to do all of them in one burst. Spread the longtail keywords out over time. Add in a few a month. This simple approach is much more realistic for many small businesses, especially when just starting with SEO.
If you’re looking to start bringing in more traffic with longtail keywords but not sure exactly what to start with, let’s talk. Full Scope Creative can help find the right longtail keywords for your business and help create a plan to get your site to start ranking for them.