One of the top keyword strategies you will find in any how-to guide refers to using long tail keywords. So, what exactly are they? And how do you identify them? We are trying to be helpful to you, so we prepared a simple and effective list of tips to find long tail keywords.
While other guides you find online will direct you to various paid tools, our list of suggestions includes only free ways to find long tail keywords. We understand your budget restraints and we try to direct you to solutions to build your SEO strategy that fit your possibilities.
First Things First: What Are Long Tail Keywords?
The name long tail keyword does not represent the actual length of the key phrase. It is true, they tend to consist of three words or more. However, the name actually represents the position of long tail keywords on the search curve.
Just look at the chart below:
Source: Flickr
As you can see the longest part of the curve is towards the end, where the number of Google searches steadily declines. However, as the explanation in the chart indicates, you have the highest chance of closing a sale if you try to rank for these less competitive keywords.
The main reason is that, being highly detailed, long tail keywords are used by consumers looking for a specific product with the intent of buying it. Thus, you can bring qualified traffic on your website, without having to compete with top brands that invest millions in the most frequently used keywords.
Where Can You Find Long Tail Keywords?
Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. How can you find long tail keywords to use in your content and get more relevant traffic?
1. Google Search
Google Search offers you three different locations to identify long tail keywords. The first of them is the auto-complete function of the search box. You know how it happens: you start typing something, and Google comes up with up to 10 different suggestions to save time. While some of them may not be a good fit, you will certainly find at least 2-3 relevant long tail keywords in this manner.
The second option is the “People also ask” section. Here, you can find many relevant long tail keywords to use in the FAQ section of your site. Thus you find long tail keywords, find new content ideas and get your site easier to find in voice searches.
Last but not least, the related searches section at the bottom of the search engine results page (SERP). This is a true gold mine because you may also discover main keywords you had not considered using before.
2. Answer the Public
Answer the Public is a very useful website if you want to find long tail keywords and blog post ideas. Simply type in a word and you will get a list of actual questions users asked online on that topic.
The result comes as a chart containing dozens of questions. Each of them contain valuable keyword combinations, as well as actual information people seek, and which you can supply in your content.
3. Soovle
Soovle is a very helpful and free tool. It aggregates search queries from the biggest platforms on the internet: Google, YouTube, Amazon, Ebay, Yahoo, Wikipedia, Ask.com and Buy.com.
Just type in your main keywords and you will find long tail keywords acquired from all these platforms. This will help you create topic clusters that cater to all types of search intents: informational, transactional and commercial.
4. Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is the creation of SEO expert Neil Patel. Using his decades of experience working with top companies, he created a simple and effective tool to help all kinds of businesses find relevant keywords.
You can register for free to obtain more suggestions than those available to guest users. The results contain other very useful details, such as:
- Average cost per click
- Mobile and desktop search volumes
- Content ideas based on the main keyword, including the number of site visits, backlinks and social media engagements they generated.
5. Your Own Google Analytics Page
The last place to find long tail keywords is the analytics data for your own website. If you go to Traffic Sources->Sources->Search->Organic, you will see a list of actual keywords users typed in when they found your site.
Most certainly, you will find long tail keywords you had not considered using so far. At the same time, you can understand the intent of users who visited your site from the way they formulated their search queries.