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Keywords are the lifeblood of digital marketing.
Anything your business produces through digital channels is ultimately to draw in viewers. Keywords determine how visible your content and messages are to audiences.
Keywords also inform what terms to include in your messages. Proper keyword targeting aligns your content with the topics and questions that customers are actively searching.
Managing a keyword strategy is an ongoing process that needs to be performed on a routine basis. Keyword performance is always changing, which means you need to be constantly adjusting your strategies.
That said, the real challenge of developing a keyword strategy is overcoming the competition.
Every keyword has limited space on the search results page. When you’re in a popular industry, this scare real estate is hard to obtain for your most popular keywords.
As a result, marketers need to be strategic with their keywords, which often means selecting long-tail keyword examples to target. These are potential search terms that are still valuable and actionable, but have less competition.
In this how-to guide, you’ll learn strategies for finding long-tail keywords that convert. This knowledge will help you reach customers even in highly competitive spaces. Let’s get started.
There are many different types of keywords that you need to consider when planning your keyword strategy.
Even though these keywords have low search volumes, their specificity makes it more likely for conversions to happen. Someone searching for “best smartphones” is in-market for a new phone. However, they are still researching and comparing prices.
Meanwhile, if someone searches the long-tail keyword “buy Apple iPhone 12 Pro 128GB in Pacific Blue,” it demonstrates high conversion intent. This search user knows exactly what model, size and color they want.
We’ll discuss keyword intent in greater detail at a later section of this guide.
Here is a chart that depicts how short, mid and long-tail keyword types impact search volumes and conversion rates.
In this chart, the X-axis represents the conversion rate and the Y-axis shows search volume.
Short-tail keywords have the highest search volumes, but the lowest conversion rates. Conversely, long-tail keyword examples will have fewer searches but a much higher likelihood of conversion.
A successful keyword strategy is not complete without long-tail keywords. Targeting these extended, more specific phrases isn’t just good practice; it’s a necessity if you want to be competitive in search marketing, whether paid or organic.
If you aren’t already including long-tail keyword examples in your strategies, you need to start.
Here are the reasons why you need to focus on these long-tail terms.
Ultimately, you want your keywords to lead to more substantial returns and a healthier bottom line.
By targeting longer, more targeted search terms, you’ll quickly see increases in your performance metrics.
For PPC keywords, this means:
For organic, SEO keywords, long-tail terms offer:
When you have higher conversion rates and lower costs, it’s a recipe for maximizing your Ads ROI. You can’t get better than that!
Long keyword phrases tend to include at least one of your short-tail targets. Thus, you aren’t missing out on ranking for those high-volume terms.
It’s not an either-or scenario, but rather a complete strategy that incorporates short and long keywords.
Plus, long-tail keywords can boost the authority and rankings of your pages. When people visit your site after searching a long, specific phrase or question, they’ll stay longer on the site and browse more pages. They are there for one particular reason or purpose.
These are signals that Google uses to determine your organic and paid search rankings.
When you research popular keywords and phrases, you find topics and questions that customers are currently searching in Google. These are helpful titles and subjects for your blog content.
So, if you’re ever out of topic ideas, looking at your long-tail keyword targets can be the inspiration you need.
You’ll be able to publish content that directly relates to the information that your customers are seeking. This will result in more visits to your blog content than if you chose topics at random.
On the topic of content, you can also use long-tail keywords to create more personalized messages and pages. Long-tail keywords can include descriptive words that hint at a user’s location, gender, income level, etc.
Consider a keyword phrase like “cheap women’s exercise class in Manhattan.” You have a location, a gender and the word “cheap” signals someone on a budget and looking to save.
You can use these descriptive words to your advantage by creating different pieces of content that target these different categories. This enables you to generate content personalized for specific audience segments.
Personalized content is more engaging and generates more interest because it’s catered directly to the customer.
Many long-tail keywords are question-based and conversational. If you pay attention to which questions and subjects are on audiences’ minds, you can detect new trends and topics gaining traction.
This gives you ample time to create content and adjust your messaging to include these emerging trends. You’ll be one of the first to provide information and offers regarding these topics.
One of the reasons that long-tail keywords are necessary for a successful marketing strategy has to do with the increased reliance on voice assistants.
Whether it’s a smart home product, like Amazon Alexa, or a smartphone assistant, like Siri, voice-assisted devices are more common than ever.
Voice searches are longer because they are spoken instead of typed. The conversational nature of these verbal searches aligns perfectly with the longer, more specific style of long-tail keywords.
Marketers that invest in paid search advertising need to be extra picky when it comes to keyword targets. Paid search advertising is also known as pay-per-click because the payment model charges for every click.
How much does every click cost? Keywords determine this. The more competition for a keyword, the higher the cost for clicks.
Thus, long-tail keywords are valuable to PPC marketers for several reasons.
Since long-tail keywords are more specific, they attract fewer people. They also appeal to fewer businesses.
For example, a keyword like “wireless speaker” is relevant to any business selling this type of product.
However, a long-tail keyword that includes this short-tail term, such as “JBL wireless speaker with USB 3.0,” appeals only to companies that carry this specific product.
If you take the time to identify longer, relevant keywords, you’ll face far less competition.
When Google Ads is calculating bid costs for keywords, it looks at how in-demand the terms are. If a keyword has a high search volume, it will undoubtedly have plenty of competition. More competition results in higher costs for every click.
Through long-tail keywords, you’re able to target more affordable keywords that have plenty of value and profitability to offer.
Plus, you don’t have to burn your ad budget on overly expensive keywords. This frees up more money to allocate to other keyword opportunities.
As discussed, the specific and highly targeted nature of long-tail keywords means they connect to audiences close to the point of purchase or conversion.
Let’s revisit the example of “wireless speaker” versus “JBL wireless speaker with USB 3.0.”
People that are searching the short-tail keyword are less likely to make a purchase. They are in the beginning stages of understanding what wireless speaker they want to buy.
When someone searches for a specific type and brand, it means that they’ve already done significant research. They are ready to make a purchase.
Search intent is the reason why long-tail keywords typically generate more conversions. When someone only searches for “wireless speaker,” it’s unclear what their intent is.
Are they looking for pictures of wireless speakers? Looking for places to buy wireless speakers? Reviews for wireless speakers? You don’t know because the keyword is so generic.
Even if you’re the top result for a short-tail keyword, there’s no guarantee that you’re offering what the user actually wants. They may click your link since it’s the first on the page, but they may quickly leave after discovering that they aren’t in the right place.
On the other hand, long-tail keywords allow you to create pages and content that meet the exact intent or demand of the search user.
Just how much better are long-tail keywords at driving conversions? Research suggests that long-tail keywords are 2.5x more likely to create a conversion than their shorter counterparts. As a result, longer keywords are 66% more profitable.
A lot of this has to do with long-tail keywords’ clear user intent and high targeting. You might receive fewer impressions and clicks from longer keywords, but those clicks will generate much stronger traffic and leads.
A generic keyword, like “blue jeans,” may result in 1,000 impressions and 100 clicks. Yet, only 5 of those 100 visitors actually purchase a pair of jeans.
Meanwhile, “buy cheap men’s straight-cut jeans” has a lower search volume and only generates 20 clicks. However, 14 of those 20 visitors buy a pair of jeans. They arrive at the site with clear intent to purchase.
The value of long-tail keywords has been stated repeatedly throughout this guide. The question remains: how do you find long-tail keyword examples relevant to your business and products?
The answer is PPCexpo Keyword Planner.
Each time you enter a search, PPCexpo Keyword Planner shows you hundreds of other words that relate to your query.
You can filter the results by long-tail or short-tail keywords.
Every keyword recommendation is shown with its search volume, estimated cost per click and how similar it is to your initial input.
You can use the sliders at the top of the tool to further filter by specific volume, CPC or similarity values. For instance, you could choose only to see keyword recommendations with over 1,000 in search volume and between $0.60 and $1.35 CPC.
You can also view this table as a chart. Each keyword is plotted based on its search volume and CPC.
While there are other keyword research tools, few tools offer as many filtering options as PPCexpo Keyword Planner. Then, there’s the added benefit of having your new potential keywords plotted on a chart for visual analysis.
The ability to search only for long-tail keywords is the cherry on top.
Long-tail keywords offer tremendous value compared to shorter and more generic terms. To recap:
Short-tail keywords:
Long-tail keywords:
Search volume and impressions are far less crucial to success than creating qualified leads ready to convert. This is precisely where long-tail keywords shine.
To begin finding long-tail keyword examples, look at your short-tail terms and build on them with additional descriptive words that increase their specificity.
When you’re ready to inject some data into your keyword research, you can invest in PPCexpo Keyword Planner.
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