In 2017, there were more than 3.5 million Internet users worldwide. What’s your plan to get their attention, traffic, and conversions?
To be competitive, your plan must include a blog for your business. But getting blog articles noticed on search engines to bring in organic traffic can be tricky.
One way to get the job done is to become a long tail keyword pro. In this article, we’ll share with you what long tail keywords are and how to use them.
Keep reading to improve your blog’s search ranking, traffic, and conversions.
Long Tail Keywords: What Are They?
A common misconception about the name of these keywords is that it comes from the fact that they’re phrases instead of single words. While long tail keywords tend to be four words or more in length, this isn’t the source of their name.
Their name actually comes from their position on a graph known as the search-demand curve. The area of the graph that flattens out looks like a long tail, and that’s where these keywords live.
The reason they’re on the flattened tail end of the graph is that they don’t tend to get a ton of search volume. However, they have other benefits that outweigh low search volume:
- There’s not a lot of competition, allowing you to rank higher
- These keywords result in a lower bounce rate
- They tend to have higher conversion rates because they target intent
If you write a lot of blog entries incorporating many different long tail keywords, you have the opportunity to grab a higher ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs) more often.
Now that you know what these keywords really are, let’s dive into how to use them.
Become a Long Tail Keyword Pro
We can help you become proficient and even, dare we say, expert, at using these low competition keywords. If you follow the three steps outlined below, you’ll be able to write content targeting buyer intent.
We’ll explain each step in detail, but here’s what to expect:
- You’ll research long tail keywords
- You’ll strategically incorporate your focus keyword
- You’ll learn about how to write anchor text to avoid Google penalties
Long Tail Keyword Research
Keep in mind as you read this section that there are plenty of keyword research tools. Some cost money and some are free to use.
If you find a tool you like, then by all means, you should use it. For the purpose of our discussion, we’re going to focus on the Google Adwords Keyword Planner because it’s free to use.
First, log in to the planner. Click on “Find Keywords.”
Then, enter your keyword. For example, if you sell handbags, you might enter “leather handbags.”
Click the blue “Get Started” button. Google takes you right to the keyword ideas tab.
Scroll down and look for keywords that are at least four words long, like “leather bags for women.” These are your long tail keyword phrases.
Write them down. They’ll inform the next step of the process.
Create Content
Content creation is when you bring your long tail keywords to life through blog articles. We won’t go on at length about how to write a blog post because we want to focus on incorporating these keywords. Remember that a great blog post should be:
- Engaging: entertain and/or educate your readers
- Long-form: longer blogs are more engaging and rank better in SERPs
- Targeted: you’ll use your long tail keywords for this
Choose your main long tail keyword. This will direct the topic of the blog article.
You’ll want to include it in these key areas of your blog: title, intro, header, and conclusion. Don’t use it more than once in these areas; the age of keyword stuffing is long over and you can be penalized by search engines for stuffing.
You can use a few other related long tail keywords throughout your blog article. The key to incorporating them is to do so naturally.
Since keyword tools will often give you dozens of long tail keywords, you can get several blogs out of them. A keyword you use as a secondary keyword can become a primary keyword in another blog.
So, start writing, but before you publish, check out our third step to becoming a keyword pro.
Anchor Text
Anchor text is the phrase you hyperlink to internal and external pages. The reason it’s important is that it was once a way to beef up a page’s relevance to a particular keyword.
For example, if you were linking to a site that sold wallets, you might link the words “leather wallets” in hopes of ranking for that keyword. Google decided with its Penguin update that this practice is considered black hat SEO (search engine optimization) and can lead to penalties.
Google still wants you to link to other pages both externally and internally, so the best way to work within these requirements is to use another long tail keyword you’ve researched as your anchor text.
It’ll still be targeted, and it will still be optimized for intent. But you won’t face the risk of having your site penalized because Google thinks you’re trying to cheat your way into keyword-relevant links.
The Tale of the Tail
Now that you know how to research long tail keywords, how to write with them, and how to create anchor text for your links with them, it’s safe to say you’ve become a long tail keyword pro. You should feel confident that you can collect and use these valuable keywords to boost your intent targeting, SERP ranking, organic traffic, and conversions.
In this fairy tale, there can be a happy ending. Maybe you knew nothing about long tail keywords, but now you can use them effectively.
If you still have questions though, that’s alright too. Let us be your keyword fairy godmother.
Contact us with your questions about using long tail keywords. We’d love to help you maximize your blog’s capabilities with this magical element.
Although, if you remember – it’s not really magic. It’s harnessing the power of intent-based keywords and lower competition.
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