Finding long-tail keywords is an essential part of any SEO campaign. While these keywords might be a little trickier to incorporate than broad terms, they can be extremely effective when used correctly. The key is understanding not just how to find long-tail keywords but also how to use them effectively for better search rankings.

What Are Long-Tail Keywords?

Long-tail keywords are descriptive search phrases that are usually more than three words in length. They may contain qualifiers (like color, texture, size, or other attributes associated with the broad term), or they may come in the form of complete phrases or questions. Because they are longer than short-tail keywords (or “head keywords”) with two or three words, they are more specific to your target audience and have far less competition.

For example:

Broad Keywords	Long-Tail Keywords
Men's T-shirts	Large organic cotton T-shirts for men
Best movies	Best 80s date night movies on Netflix
CBD	Full-spectrum CBD gummies for dogs

Why Use Long-Tail Keywords?

While it may be more difficult to weave long-tail keywords into a text narrative, there are several advantages of doing so:

70% of search terms are long-tail keywords. This has increased thanks to the prevalence of voice search.
Long-tail keywords are more targeted than generic terms and more likely to attract your target audience. This also makes long-tail keywords ideal for niche marketing campaigns.
There are generally fewer search results for long-tail keywords when compared to short, generic terms. This means that there are fewer pages you need to outrank in order to appear on the first page of search results. For example, the term “best movies” generates 673,000 monthly Google searches whereas “best date night movies on Netflix” generates 1,300 monthly searches. While the broader term has far more traffic, it’s also next to impossible to rank for. The narrow term allows you to enjoy some of the same Google real estate with far less competition.
Long-tail keywords can help new websites improve their ranking more than competitive keywords and head terms.
It's cheaper to bid on long-tail keywords for pay-per-click advertising through Google Ads because there is less competition for those terms.
Long-tail keywords have higher conversion rates than short (and hence more general) keywords because buyers are further along in the buying cycle and more likely to make a purchase decision soon.

How to Use Long-Tail Keywords In Content

It can be tricky to use a long-tail keyword as your primary keyword on a webpage because there are fewer variations of the term available to you. For example, "white blouses" can be worked into a narrative naturally at the beginning, middle, or end of a sentence whereas "how do you remove a stain from a white blouse" is an entire sentence in and of itself.

Instead of aiming for your usual keyword density, look for long-tail keyword opportunities in specific places:

The page URL
The page title (H1)
The meta description
Relevant alt tags
Within the product/service description or article itself (sparingly and where relevant)
Subheadings (where relevant)
Image filename

If you use long-tail keywords in combination with head terms, you have a higher chance of ranking for multiple keywords and increasing your organic traffic. This makes the content-writing process more efficient. It also prevents your narrative from reading like spam—one of the reasons you should avoid the formulaic writing that often comes with cheap SEO.

How to Find Long-Tail Keywords Online

There are several tools that business owners can use to find long-tail keywords—most of which don't cost a cent. After using these tools to make a list, you can refine it to find the strongest target keywords for your narrative.

Google Suggest

Google Suggest, also known as Google autocomplete, is one of the best places to look for long-tail keywords because the suggestions are based on real, popular search queries.

To find a long-tail keyword, you can type in the start of a question, phrase, or key term (for example "best movies ") and view the searches that begin with that phrase. Just note that the autocomplete suggestions may be influenced by searches you've made in the past.

To speed up the process, you could use one of the many popular free SEO tools that analyze and sort autocomplete suggestions for you. For keyword suggestions from a wider collection of sites—including Bing, YouTube, and Wikipedia—try looking up search terms in Soovle.

Google's Related Searches

At the bottom of the first page of organic search results, Google provides several suggestions for queries related to the search term you used.

You can choose one of these terms and enter it in the search box to find even more long-tail keywords.

In the example in this image, you see terms that are related searches for the keyword "organic cotton advantages".

If we then search for "organic cotton benefits environment," the related searches include some of the same keywords plus a few that are new (additional opportunities).

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a free tool that is available to verified website owners and shows the keywords your pages are currently ranking for. If you use this tool to your advantage, you could find pages that are currently sitting on the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th page of SERPs and could easily hit the first page quickly with a little keyword TLC.

To find these golden opportunities:

Log in to your Google Search Console account and click on “Performance.”
Scroll down and click on "Queries."
Sort the list by "Position" to see keywords that are ranking on the 2nd and 3rd pages of SERPs.
Scroll down until you find keywords that have an organic ranking in positions 10-15 and check the search volume of any relevant keywords in the Google Keyword Planner.
If one of the keywords has a decent search volume, click on the keyword and then "pages" to see which of your pages is currently ranking for that keyword.

Once you have this information, you may find that you’re already on the verge of ranking in the top 10 for valuable long-tail keywords that you hadn’t even thought of. With a bit of additional optimization, you could take the page from #12 to #3 in a matter of weeks.

Google Trends

Google Trends is a free tool that anyone on the web can use. Select the country, time period, category, and type of search that you're interested in and enter a search term to view its popularity over time. If you see that interest in a search term is stable or rising, these are the terms that you will want to target.

For example, interest in the keyword “Reddit” has consistently risen over more than a decade.

If you scroll down, you will see a map of your target region with the popularity by country (or state). Scroll down a little further and you will see a list of related topics and related queries in order of rising interest. This list is a great place to find unique ideas for long-tail keywords.

Google Ads

Google Ads is a useful tool if you plan to run a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. In the Search Query Report, you can view the search queries that led people to click on your paid ad campaign.

Try to determine which of these search queries actually led to conversions. These will be especially valuable keywords to target.

Google Analytics

If you don't run a PPC campaign through Google Ads, you can still find out some of the search terms your audience used to find you by using Google Analytics.

Sign in to your Google Analytics account, click on "Traffic Sources," "Sources," "Search," and "Organic" to see the search queries your audience used to reach your site. Scroll through the results and pick out the long-tail keywords that are relevant to your products, service, or function.

It’s worth noting that Analytics hides most of this keyword data, so it’s best to use Google Search Console for this intelligence.

Free Keyword Research SEO Tools

Using a keyword research tool can help you to find as well as analyze keywords. Many of these tools will allow you to download the results as a CSV file. The more keyword tools you use, the more variations you will find that could serve as the base for a piece of content.

Soovle (free). Search 1-2 words and view search queries from several different platforms.
Answer the Public (free and pro versions available). Search a 1-2 word phrase and see suggested long-tail keywords by country and language.
YouTube Autosuggest (free). Find keyword ideas for YouTube in the same way as you would with Google autosuggest.
Google Keyword Planner (free with Google Ads campaigns). Find keywords for your pay-per-click (PPC) Google campaign.

Question and Answer Sites

Scouring question and answer sites is a great way to find long-tail queries because you can easily see the kinds of questions people are asking online. While you might not use the question directly—particularly if it includes the poster's backstory—you can find phrases in the question and answers that you can then search specifically to find your target long-tail keywords.

There are several ways to find question and answer pages for your topic:

Google your keyword + "discussions," "forum," or "board" to find relevant forums.
Search your head term in Quora, Reddit, or Yahoo! Answers to find laterally related tail terms.
Look up related queries on eHow. Their keywords for SEO are strong and you might be able to improve on their content.

Once you have a list of popular questions, narrow the list down by researching the long-tail variations that attract the most searches per month. The questions with the highest search volume—and low to medium competition—are the best keywords to target.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a fantastic place to find target long-tail keywords because the information is very fleshed out.

When you begin with even the broadest of terms, the contents list and phrases used on the text can help you create long-tail keywords.

If we take the word "chocolate" as an example, you can see how the contents list provides a wide variety of subtopics to turn into a long-tail keyword.

If you then choose one, like "milk chocolate," and search the text using control+F (or command+F on a Mac), you can see related terms and topics.

Just as you would with lists of queries gleaned using other techniques, you would need to assess each keyword's ranking potential to find the terms that will convert into traffic.

Competitors

When it comes to finding popular topics, a competitor with a top-ranking page will often be the best source for a keyword that will bring in tons of traffic. If their audience is interested in the query—particularly an informational query—it's likely that the same audience will be equally as interested in what you have to say.

If you do take the approach of checking a top-ranking page for keyword ideas, be sure to approach the topic from a different angle to your competitors, bring together information from multiple sources, and improve on the information you offer.

How to Find Long-Tail Opportunities in a Nutshell

Finding long-tail keywords isn’t particularly hard. Using a few free SEO tools and search results, you can quickly create a list of ideas for adding interesting content and additional money terms to your site.

The work lies in selecting those terms that will have a high enough search volume, allow you to outrank your competitors, and actually lead to conversions. That’s where a professional SEO agency can be extremely helpful.

When done right, long-tail keywords can help you to improve your organic rankings tremendously while serving your audience's informational needs.

How to Find the Best Long-Tail Keyword Opportunities

What Are Long-Tail Keywords?

Why Use Long-Tail Keywords?

How to Use Long-Tail Keywords In Content