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.
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.
If you are in a highly competitive organic search space, using long-tail keywords has four major benefits:
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:
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:
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:
If my product is climbing shoes, these three pieces of content pulled from Google’s autocomplete tool would be great for my website.
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:
Searchers are real people who bring their real-life experiences online. This method will help you create content that answers user questions.
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.