In this post, we'll take a look at some powerful ways to find and use long tail keywords to use in your blog posts
If you want people to find your blog post in search engines, it needs to rank well.
Short tail keywords are often too competitive for smaller sites to own: instead, use long tail keywords to easily boost inbound traffic to your blog.
It’s easy to target a whole range of popular long tail keywords in your next blog post — only if you know where to find them…
Google, your own blog, rival sites, discussion forums — these are just a few good places to go long tail keyword hunting.
Recommended reading: 11 Critical Blogging Mistakes To Avoid In 2019
'Keywords' have probably been part of your blogging vocabulary for a long time. They’re the words that matter to your readers, and the key terms that are most relevant to your industry.
But what are long tail keywords, really? Let's take a quick look.
So why should your blog focus on targeting long tail keywords?
Because, essentially, they’re easier to rank for (and more helpful for users).
You might also find this statistic quite interesting - long tail keywords now account for 70% of searches!
OK, here’s how you can find the best long tail keywords to use in your next blog post.
It sounds like obvious advice, but Google is the first place you should look for the best long tail keywords.
It’s where your readers are already inputting a lot of keyword data — data that is easy to leverage to your advantage.
Let's begin:
Using the example of “blog tips for newbies,” this is the sort of data you’ll find:
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it: so goes the old adage, and it’s relevant to your blog too.
The way to find out what’s already working is to trawl your blog’s user data — there will be some useful insights hiding in plain sight.
Find what your readers are currently searching to arrive at your blog posts. You can do this easily in Google Analytics, all you need to is follow these simple steps:
Once you’re here, you’ll have some data that you can turn into long tail keywords. See image below.
Now, sadly, a lot of the data won't be accessible since Google Analytics uses the term 'Not Provided' to hide a lot of the keyword data, which also renders this feature close to useless.
Another method to consider using would be Google Webmaster Console using the following steps:
Take the most popular keywords and create variations and mashups so that you can target phrases that really work. Validate your ideas by plugging these seed words into a tool like Long Tail Pro, or Ahrefs and use their Keyword Explorer tool to get even more ideas!
Use these new longtail phrases to update, upgrade, and improve old blog posts, as well as using them as a basis for fresh new content.
Your competitors? Start by borrowing their keyword successes. Go to their blogs to see what long tail keywords are working for them… and steal them.
If you’re concerned this will take too much time, have no fear, I have the answer. Simply use one of the many great tools available to do your dirty work.
My personal pick is a free tool called SEOquake. It gives you the one, two, three, and four-word phrases used by a web page.
Another great tool to consider using to analyze competitors keywords is SEMRush, though, this is a premium tool.
After punching in the articles from your
It’s also the perfect tactic if you’re thinking of buying a domain or website and boosting its profile by writing quality blog posts.
Why?
Because it’s a variation on the skyscraper technique, an SEO approach that piggybacks off high-ranking content by taking what’s working already and tweaking it. Making this a quick and dirty way of boosting your ranking and driving up your revenue.
Good keyword research is about naturally incorporating the terms your readers use into your blogs. What’s a great way for you to find these terms? By looking through discussion forums.
Your first port of call should be these forums:
But don’t stop there. Find the niche discussion forums relevant to your blog.
Once you’ve got your list of forums, search through them and find the conversations most in-line with your subject matter
After you’ve done that, all you need to do is run them through a keyword analysis tool. This will give you a list of valuable terms to use as inspiration when creating your own long tail keywords.
Unless your blog is super well-known, there’s not a great ROI with trying to rank for short tail keywords. That’s not the case with long tail keywords, you just need to find the right ones. So now that you do, make sure you use them in your next blog post!
The very best of luck!
