Imagine that you sell widgets to install on other websites. One of the best ways to attract more customers is to rank well for queries related to widgets. You might think that ranking for phrases like “widgets” or “widgets for sale” is the solution, but that strategy could harm you in the long run.
Because, unfortunately, many other companies sell widgets.
Like you, these companies have recognized the importance of earning traffic from widget-related searches and want to rank well on search engine results pages (SERPs). Maybe some big players like Amazon and Walmart have even entered the space.
So here’s the question: How do you get people to look at your product pages when the SERPs are so competitive?
One way is to rank for long-tail keywords. This article explains what they are, how they work, and the best tactics for optimizing for these underutilized keywords.
What Are Long-Tail Keywords?
Long-tail keywords are queries specific to a searcher’s needs and are more focused than shorter phrases. They often represent the searcher’s attempt to get an answer to a specific question.
For example, if “widget” is our base keyword, then some related long-tail keywords might be “how to install a widget” or “how many widgets do I need.”
Long-tail keywords typically contain three or more words and are often written in natural language. Because they are so specific, these keywords tend to have a lower search volume. However, they also have less competition, making them more realistic for businesses to rank for.
Benefits of Targeting Long-Tail Keywords
If you are in a highly competitive organic search space, using long-tail keywords has four major benefits:
- Less Competition: Websites ranking well for short-tail keywords often ignore related long-tail keywords due to lower search volume. You can surpass competitors by attracting traffic with long-tail keywords and addressing content gaps.
- More Focused Searcher Intent: Going after keywords with more specific searcher intent can bring a more engaged audience to your website. You can use their questions about your products to bring them into the marketing funnel.
- Improve Topical Authority: You can become an authority on widgets by writing strong long-tail keyword content and becoming more competitive for all related keywords. This strategy is called creating “topic clusters,” where you structure content around a pillar topic.
- Earn Backlinks: Building links to high-quality content that answers user questions helps you increase your SERP rankings.
How to Find Long-Tail Keywords
Finding long-tail keywords is just one part of a larger keyword research strategy. However, for long-tail keywords specifically, there are a few strategies you can use:
Use a Professional Keyword Research Tool
Popular tools like Moz’s Keyword Explorer, Ahrefs, and SEMrush can streamline your search for long-tail keywords. In a keyword research tool, there are a few strategies you can use to find these keywords specifically:
- To sort for long-tail keywords, use a built-in feature such as SEMrush’s “questions” tab in their Keyword Magic Tool.
- Search for keywords that include “how” or “why” or other words that signal a question. Since long-tail keywords tend to represent searcher attempts to get an answer to a question, this is a great way to find those keywords.
- Search for keywords with lower search volume. Diving down into keywords with lower volume isn’t a guaranteed way to get good long-tail keywords, but it can help narrow the field.
Take Hints from Google’s Autocomplete Feature
Google’s autocomplete feature can suggest long-tail keywords based on popular searches related to your typed words. After typing in your keyword, read Google’s auto-complete suggestions and consider the content you can create based on those searches.
I typed “climbing shoes” into the Google homepage using an incognito browser. Some of those keywords are not significantly different from the primary term I entered. For instance, the search intent behind “climbing shoes near me” and “climbing shoes sale” is nearly the same as that for just “climbing shoes.”
However, some give me ideas for robust content I could write. For example:
- An article about finding the right size of climbing shoes.
- A guide on picking out the right climbing shoes for beginners.
- An article about fixing the soles on climbing shoes.
If my product is climbing shoes, these three pieces of content pulled from Google’s autocomplete tool would be great for my website.
Make Guesses Based on Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t have access to a professional keyword research tool and Google’s autocomplete is not working well for your specific keyword phrase, you can make guesses about what people are searching for based on your own experiences with customers.
Think about the challenges customers often face when they’re thinking about purchasing or have purchased your products. Some questions to ask yourself include:
- What pain points do my customers experience?
- What problems does my product solve?
- What challenges do customers face when using my product?
Searchers are real people who bring their real-life experiences online. This method will help you create content that answers user questions.
Real-World Long-Tail Keyword Examples
Let’s walk through everything we’ve just learned.
In this example, we run Planet Cats, a hypothetical company that sells cat food. Unfortunately, the cat food space in organic search is highly competitive, with major players such as Chewy, Amazon, and PetCo dominating the first page of the SERP.
Planet Cats faces a steep uphill climb to rank well for searches for “cat food.” They’ll also have a tough time earning traffic through organic search.
So let’s turn to long-tail keywords related to cats and cat food. In this example, we will use SEMrush’s keyword research tool to dig some up.
I can click on any keyword phrase to see who else is ranking and get more information about searcher behavior in that space.
Right away, I can see that “how much wet food to feed a cat” would make great content for Planet Cats. The top competitors on this SERP are still large, authoritative websites, but my competitors from the “cat food” SERP — Chewy, Amazon, and PetCo — are nowhere to be seen.
This piece of long-tail keyword content would also establish a baseline of topical authority related to feeding cats for Planet Cats. It would contribute to the pillar topic “cat food” and is essential if Planet Cats aims to target shorter-tail keywords like that in the future.
If I dig even deeper for long-tail keywords with lower search volume, I can find even less competitive SERPs.
“Can you buy cat food with food stamps?” is a long-tail keyword with 590 MSV. Even better, there are no cat-related sites at the top of the SERP. This answers a unique question directly related to our product, and it’s not competitive compared to other keywords.
Content based on this keyword phrase would also create link building opportunities for websites that wouldn’t usually talk about cats and cat food. Creating this content could help Planet Cats earn a wider range of backlinks that would not otherwise be open to them.
Ultimately, whether it’s for Planet Cats or your very real website, employing long-tail keywords is an essential part of any strategy to achieve good rankings in highly competitive SERPs. Less competitive SERPs, a more targeted audience, topical authority, and backlink potential are the foundations of a content strategy that can assist you in ranking for more competitive short-tail keywords in the future.
