Your Longtail Keyword Strategy Begins Today
Short keywords are so freakin’ hard to rank for. But finding longtail keywords and implementing them into a full-fledged longtail keyword strategy? Well, I believe whole-heartedly that that’s your ticket to success in your SEO game as a small business.
If that felt like complete and utter industry jargon, stick around. I’m not going to leave you confused on this topic! Let’s see if I can answer some of your questions about longtail keywords and help you start finding – and capitalizing – on your own!
What are Longtail Keywords?
Longtail keywords are phrases that people use in Google (or their preferred search engine) to find information and answer their questions. Businesses can use them to draw people to their websites and, ultimately, gain customers.
But, as I’ve said before, using these keywords should be about more than just getting people through your internet door. If you’re serious about not becoming another sleazy salesperson interested only in stuffing money into your own pocket, you sincerely want to help people get where THEY want to go.
There aren’t paywalls in SEO.
It’s ALL about posting information people need, and doing it freely — No strings attached.
Longtail Keywords vs Short Tail-
The difference between longtail keywords and shorttail keywords is simply their length. While there’s no standardized cut-off, longtail will never be a single word.
In many instances, two-word phrases also wouldn’t count as longtail. Sometimes, even three-word phrases would still fall under the ‘short tail’ category, in my opinion! Let me see if I can explain it with some examples…
Let’s say you’re a company that sells wholesale egg cartons.
Random, I know… but hey, the other half of my brand is a small family farm, and I was searching for cartons this morning. This example is fresh on my mind!
You want to use your blog to drive organic traffic and start researching keywords. Obviously, people will be searching for “egg cartons.” But there’s also quite a bit of competition for that term. People only search for it when they’re looking to buy, which makes it high-priority. It’s also a high-volume term, making it even more important to rank for. In my opinion, that’s a great short-tail keyword, and you should optimize your home page to rank for it.
By generously helping potential customers now, next week when they need more information, and in the following months when they’re searching for answers again… you become a trusted advisor.
Your blogs can target search phrases oriented more toward chicken owners who haven’t prioritized egg cartons yet. Maybe their first batch of chicks just arrived, and they need to troubleshoot why the coop stinks. Or they just found their first egg and wonder if they should wash it or not.
These people are potential customers, and you can help them with your knowledge about chickens.
You’ll optimize your blogs for their online searches using longtail keywords. “Why does my chicken coop stink” doesn’t have a very high search volume, but it has an AMAZING click-through rate, so ranking high on the SERP means people WILL land on your website.
You’re helping them, not knowing if they’ll ever buy from you. But by helping them now, next week when they’re searching for another chicken-related problem, and again the following month, you can become their trusted source for all things chickens.
Creating Your Longtail Keyword Strategy
To form a comprehensive longtail keyword strategy, start with choosing your pillar topics. These are typically broader and use shorter search phrases. Your supporting articles will use longtail keywords and link to the pillar to boost its ranking.
Take BearVault, a small family-owned business that provides bear-proof food storage canisters to backcountry campers. Their blog has long offered trail stories from their ambassadors, but in 2023, they decided to use it to drive organic search traffic.
A new pillar post, Backpacking 101, is optimized for a short keyword. Now, we’re working together to create a host of supporting posts for that pillar and capitalize on longer keywords, like “what to do if you encounter a bear with your dog.” Now THAT’s a long keyword!
The strength of your blog will depend on the quality of your keyword selection, your skill in optimization, and how well you answer the reader’s questions.
How to Find Longtail Keywords for Your Blog
Finding longtail keywords that will work for your business just takes a little know-how and time. Let’s walk through the same process I use when doing keyword research for my clients.
1. Use an online tool for research.
There are a variety of SEO platforms that offer valuable data on keywords. I’ll often compare and contrast the information given by Moz, Semrush, and Ubersuggest to see if there’s a consensus. If you don’t have the budget to pay for a monthly subscription, you’ll love the free searches allowed on each of these services. Take advantage of the free tutorials to get to know your way around, and you’ll maximize the time you spend.
2. Go to Google and analyze the SERP.
When you’ve honed in on a keyword that makes sense for your topic, run a search for it. That will give you what’s called the SERP, which is just short for “search engine results page.” The word “Sponsored” may appear in the top couple of results. Those have money behind them and don’t count as a top organic result. You can’t exactly ignore them; just know that being the first thing your audience sees will take money.
3. Click the top 3 organic results.
Take the time to read through the top-ranking results. Look for ways you can improve on them. Do they leave out important information? Are they difficult to read? Poorly formatted? Why do you think they’ve won such high marks from Google? You can gain so much insight from dissecting the top search results for your target keyword.
4. Think of relevant questions you can answer.
Beyond your primary keyword, you’ll want to use your secondary headlines, called H2s, for even longer search queries. The way search engines operate has changed in recent years, and the rise of AI has caused people to use their search engines differently as well. Snippets can answer searches for full-length questions, so use your H2s to cash in on those very specific requests.
Want to toss this task to me and run back to what brings you joy?
Book a free call to chat about putting me to work crafting and implementing your longtail keyword strategy.
Of course, you could guess… and you might even get lucky. But if you have the time, doing the research will, at the very least, help you feel confident in your strategy. And hopefully, it will do much, much more than that.
Longtail Keyword Strategies are Marathons
It’s important to know that using your blog to grow your online presence and draw organic traffic is playing the long game. Sure, you’ll probably see a small uptick from your first few posts if you choose just the right words. But the real payoff comes after months of consistent posting and years of updating the information in your article.
And don’t forget that your blog can ease the mental load for your social media content, too! Just take that information and create graphics, reels, or vlogs to get even greater reach and impact your current audience. Why work harder when you can work smarter?
If it feels a bit much, I get it. I’m already thinking about next week’s blog and how I need to make social graphics for it. Ironically enough, I’d much rather do it for you! Book a free call with me if you want help getting your nose off the grindstone.
