{"id":13479,"date":"2016-11-03T20:11:22","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T20:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.agency.localmarketingguru.com\/?p=13479"},"modified":"2019-08-23T20:12:28","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T20:12:28","slug":"what-are-long-tail-keywords-and-how-do-you-use-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brightstag.com\/what-are-long-tail-keywords-and-how-do-you-use-them\/","title":{"rendered":"What are Long Tail Keywords, and How Do You Use Them?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Long Tail Keywords Overview<\/strong><\/h5>\n

People simply don\u2019t enter keywords into Google anymore \u2013 they\u2019re far more likely to phrase their query as a question. Believe it or not, this can actually work to your advantage, once you master long tail keywords. This is because they offer a far more targeted approach.<\/p>\n

What is a Long Tail Keyword?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A long tail keyword contains at least three words. Usually, one or two of the words would be generic, or what is known as a \u201chead term,\u201d while the others are more specific. Let\u2019s pretend, for example, that a pet owner is looking for a veterinarian in Boston. If you are a veterinarian in Boston, then obviously you want \u201cveterinarian\u201d and Boston\u201d in your head term, because customers searching just for \u201cveterinarian\u201d are never going to find you. But if they search \u201cVeterinarian in Boston,\u201d they will. Now, let\u2019s take it a step further and pretend that you specialize in pet birds. A good long tail keyword is \u201cBird veterinarian in Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n

See what you\u2019re doing here? By adding to your keywords, you\u2019re actually narrowing down the search criteria that will help your potential customers to find you. This means you get better, more qualified traffic, and higher conversion. Long tail keywords, because they are more specific, make your website more relevant to a person searching for your product or service.<\/p>\n

Less Competition<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, because you are targeting your potential customers more specifically, the people that find you are the ones who genuinely need your specific product or service. Your page is more relevant to them, and they are more likely to get in touch with you than they are to continue looking through other, less relevant websites. So, you get more qualified traffic, and a higher conversion rate, because you have weeded out the competition by using long tail keywords.<\/p>\n

Targeting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, there is a downside to long tail keywords. If you use them, you may be one of a very few who actually rank in your category. If you slip in the rankings, you could have a hard time getting back to where you were. So, make sure that your long tail key words are diverse \u2013 \u201cBird veterinarian in Boston,\u201d \u201cBoston avian vet,\u201d \u201cVeterinarian for your parrot in Boston,\u201d and so on \u2013 if you slip with one long tail keyword, you will probably be okay with others, and will likely get your lost position back in little time. Make sure, though, to always include your head terms in your long tail keywords while adding more complex, competitive terms.<\/p>\n

There are tools available that you can use to analyze the effectiveness of your long tail keywords. You may know, from reading past posts, that I am not just an unashamed HubSpot evangelist. In the spirit of full disclosure, I am also partnered with HubSpot.<\/p>\n

I can say in total honestly, though, that I think you will find no better tool than HubSpot\u2019s Keyword Tool<\/a>, which will help you to identify the long tail keywords that will drive more traffic to your website.<\/p>\n

Google Analytics is also very useful. The point here is that if you know which keywords, both individually and long tail, bring you traffic, you can focus on the customers who are using those search terms first.<\/p>\n

Keyword Research<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you find it difficult identifying long tail keywords that will work for you, one very easy method is simply going to Google.com and entering your head terms in the search box. Google Suggest will recommend variations of long tail keywords for you. Once you have identified low-competition phrases, include them in your URL, page title, page description, H1 tags, and also throughout your content. This will really help you SEO your blog posts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, once you\u2019re getting traffic, provide more content, videos or offers to move visitors to your site through the sales funnel. They are on your site, they are very qualified, and ready to buy your product or service.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Long tail keywords can be your best friend. They make it easy for people to find your product or service simply by entering a question into Google instead of muddling about with individual keywords. Still wondering \u201chow to use long tail keywords\u201d? Just copy and paste that phrase into Google. You just used long tail keywords to find out more information about long tail keywords! Now, apply that concept to your own product or service with the right ones.<\/p>\n

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