When attracting website traffic, do you put the focus on popular short tail keywords with the highest number of search intentions? That's understandable. Still, it's good to know that with proper use of long tail keywords, you can reach your target audience many times more relevant - and they you. Figuring out these long tail keywords takes some diligent work, but definitely pays off in the long run. Read: a vital website, with which you can cleverly capitalize on the competition.

During keyword research, SEO marketers can determine which long tail and/or short tail keywords are relevant to a particular website, service, brand or specific product. By using these keywords on your website, you ensure that visitors come to you through their search intentions.

Long tail and short tail

The search volume for short tail words is usually a lot higher than for long tail words. This is because by far the most search intentions take place on these, which means that competition on these keywords is high. This also means that you will pay more for these popular words in any Google Ads campaign. Finding a keyword with both high search volume and low competition is therefore the golden grail for SEO marketers.

Did you know that about 85% of searches are long tail keywords and 15% are short tail keywords? The number of long tail searches is expected to increase even more in the coming months and years.

So, despite the fact that the search volume on short tail keywords is higher, you can use long tail keywords to make website traffic arrive at your website very specifically. As a result, a visit to your website is in many cases perceived as more relevant to the visitor, since his search intent matches what he subsequently reads or sees on the web page in question. An additional advantage is that this way, website visitors are more likely to take action, such as a conversion, newsletter subscription or further search the website for additional information.

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We often see clients betting on a single keyword that has a tremendously high volume. When using only a single keyword on a given web page, you are bound to miss people's orientation on search engines. Consider, for example, how you yourself search for certain information via Google. Search intentions often consist of whole sentences or at least a combination of several words. There is also increasing use of voice commands, which are usually full sentences. So you can imagine that it pays to bet on commonly used long tail keywords to rank more relevant.

By researching long tail searches within your industry, you will find out exactly what people are looking for. And, of course, you can capitalize on this perfectly by answering these questions on your website. But, how do you find out what relevant long tail searches are?

Google guessing

First of all, you can use the standard search function on Google Search. As soon as you type one or more words here, you will automatically get a number of suggestions with high search volume. This means that Google displays combination terms that are searched for a lot. A disadvantage of this method is that you only get a short list of results and the search volumes behind these results are not displayed.

Listen to the audience

The online tool Answer the Public is best to consult if you are looking for questions people are asking in Google around one or more search terms. This way, you can anticipate a possible need and then pay attention to it in the form of content on your website or product descriptions on certain web pages.

Improve findability around one keyword

The tools Semrush, MOZ and Ubersuggest lend themselves perfectly to search around one specific keyword, where you are mainly looking for commonly used combinations. As an example: 'corner sofa'. You can use these tools to find out whether 'corner sofa leather', 'corner sofa fabric', 'leather corner sofa for living room', 'gray corner sofa living room', etc. are frequently searched for during a certain period. Based on these combinations, you can make the comparable web pages on your website as relevant as possible and possibly even make entire product categories as findable as possible.

Use your farm sense

In other words, use your logical mind, because that, in a nutshell, is what SEO is really all about. During keyword research, it comes in extremely handy if you can take a moment to fully put yourself in the orientation of a potential website visitor, or customer. You think about how the target audience may be looking for a particular service, product or brand of that customer. This can lead to standard questions, as well as new insights. These in turn can lead to unique and even strong keyword combinations, which can help the customer stand out from the competition.

Have you collected a nice list of long tail keywords? Great! Then it's time for content, because it allows you to maximize the use of these combinations of keywords. In product descriptions or supplementary texts on category pages, you can incorporate these individual words in a logical way. Indeed, in a logical way. That means that you can't drop them indiscriminately into your text, because that doesn't read well. Which brings us back to the last tip: use your common sense and put yourself - once again - in the shoes of the website visitor and check whether what you are looking for and reading is understandable, informs well or even activates. Good luck!

Want to learn more about how to better provide your target audience with information they are looking for? Our SEO specialists would love nothing better! Of course we are happy to chat about the possibilities. Get in touch and we'll talk soon!