How to Research Long Tail Keywords
One of the biggest mistakes most of the newbie SEOs do is to run after keywords with highest search volume. It’s great to target those keywords with millions of searches a month, but as a matter of fact, the higher search volume a keyword has, the highest completion it gets, which means you need time, money and stamina to wait for the result. Besides, these generic keywords make only 30% of the total searches made by users. The rest 70% contains all targeted and more specific keyphrases which we call long tail keywords.
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Instructions
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What are Long Tail Keywords?
In order to better use long tail keywords, it’s very necessary to understand what actually the long tail keywords are. So, here it goes:
A key phrase consisting of at least three words.
Ideal long tail keyword length is between 3 to 5 words, but anything beyond 5 is good to go as long as it makes sense.
A specific feature of a product.
A question.
Expectations out of a product/service.
Examples:
How to tie a tie
2012 London Olympics schedule
Sony Cyber shot camera 10MP -
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Why Long Tail Keywords?
Using long tail keywords results not only in increasing traffic, but conversions too. Below are the detailed benefits of using long tail keywords.
Long tail keywords are less competitive and so do not need much effort for ranking well.
Working on many long tail keywords, ranking at top for each and getting traffic from them is of course better than working on a single highly competitive keyword and not ranking at page one even. (Keep highly competitive keywords a long term target.)
In terms of time and money, the investment has better ROI.
Some long tail keywords are extensions to your main highly competitive keyword, and ranking better for long tail improves the visibility of the other as well.
More targeted traffic means better conversions and increased profits.
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Limitations of Long Tail Keywords:
Besides benefits, there’re some limitations too, which you must know in order to better target long tail keywords:
You cannot target too many long tail keywords on a single page; so, you should have multiple pages targeting related long tail keywords only.
Working on single or a couple of long tail keywords won’t help, you need to work on bulk in order to boost traffic.
Long tail query brings conversion only and only if content on the landing page is highly relevant and calls to action.
Conversion is also dependant on UX, navigation, availability of product/service images, videos reviews etc, and all these factors to be taken into account along with targeting long tail keywords.
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How to Find Long Tail Keywords
Finding long tailed keywords is a detailed process which involves extensive manual as well as tools for research. Find complete long tail keyword research process and tools used for the same.
