Want To See A REAL Long Tail Keyword?
The training here at Wealthy Affiliate will teach you how to find keywords for your affiliate website. The "low competition" phrases you search for, are also known as Long Tail Keywords.
Usually these phrase are 4-6 words long.
The fact that they are long isn't what makes them useful. The point is that they are super specific.
The more specific a keyword is, the more relevant your content is going to be. Your audience pool will be smaller, but they will be more engaged because you are speaking directly to them.
For example, if you search for "Blue Apron 2019 Wine Club Review", but only websites that review the meal kits are on page 1, that would be frustrating! But if you find a website that specifically reviews the wine portion of the meal kit delivery service, then you would be more interested in their content.
Long Tail Keywords Don't Always Show Up In Search Tools
Keyword search tools all have flaws, and one of the big ones is that they usually don't do very good with super low traffic phrases. That's why it pays to be an expert in your niche.
While all the marketers are using the same tools to discover phrases and competing for the same terms, you can go off and do your own thing. You can hang out where the real people are.
Here's a great example.
I was troubleshooting my wife's phone last night, and this is the phrase I had to search for.
samsung galaxy 8 nougat edge lighting not working phone off
That's 10 words long. Maybe I could remove the word "samsung", but anything else, and it would make the search results less relevant to my situation.
Unfortunately, there was no in-depth guide to how to fix this problem. Some people had the same issue, but nobody knew how to fix it, and many questions posted were left unanswered. This could be an opportunity for someon to write an article explaining that YES there is a solution and here's how to fix it, or NO, there is no solution so far.
Either way, that's traffic, and an opportunity to get someone on a mailing list, or get them interested in something else on your site.
I'm guessing that most keyword tools wouldn't show that long of a phrase. If they did, it would tell you that traffic = 0. According to my search, there are definitely more than zero people having this problem!
Low Traffic VS High Competition
You can write for low traffic keywords forever. There are millions of possible terms you could target, and that number is GROWING. Writing for ultra-low competition phrases like this is a great way to snag some easy rankings with a new blog.
Of course, it's frustrating to spend 3 hours on a post for 5 visits a month, so eventually you need to break out of your comfort zone and target some low-medium phrases, then medium, and so on.
By the time you're ready for that, you'll have a solid foundation of content already, and you can leverage internal linking to boost the rank of your posts targeting higher competition phrases.
Using the example above, you could link to a "How To Troubleshoot 3rd Party Apps On Android" guide, or "Top 10 Apps That Leverage Galaxy 8's Curved Display".
Treasure Trove Of Keywords
An underutilized way to find these super low competition phrases is to browse places people ask questions, then basically just copy the question as-is. I like to use Reddit, Quora, and Twitter, but you can use whatever social media channel is most popular for your niche.
If your website is about Android apps, or customizing Android phone for newbies, you could use:
- https://www.reddit.com/r/AndroidQuestions/ (57k members)
- https://twitter.com/Android/with_replies
- https://www.quora.com/q/Android-Fans (33k members)
The same goes for any niche!
Recent Comments
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Stop giving out our secrets. Lol just kidding but I can attest that ignoring keyword data in situations like this does work. A lot of keywords I rank for the tools show no volume for. But I know there is volume because Google auto suggests it. The problem with most keyword tools data count is that it's based on previous years data and not necessarily real time interest.
So there may be new product or topic that comes out in your niche that is hot right now. But most keywords tools wouldn't tell you that. So that's why I don't solely depend on their data. Sometimes you have to go with your gut. Or you can also use Google trends to see if there is some recent interest. Don't get fixated with exact numbers.
Exact. Plus, the bigger your site is, I feel like some of the bigger keywords are either "you rank, or you don't". It's kind of hard to force yourself to rank for something where Google just doesn't see you as relevant.
Sometimes, editing and updating works, but sometimes not. You may just run out of keyword-tool keywords to target and you have to start making stuff up!
Agreed. Sometimes no matter what you do, Google already has their favorite for certain topics and niches and they won't give you any love. I seen this happen since june for one of my other niche sites. It sucks.
But that's just how it is sometimes. You have to adjust and keep plugging away.
Thanks Nathaniell, your post is very true. I don't know if you received my 3 trainings here in WA in the last days. As my Sponsor I will thank you very much for your opinion with criticism included. I have started to work a lot on this platform and I have begun to see my first income, I am happy. Regards!
Claudio
I'm on Quora all the time but never thought of it as a resource for low competition phrases. Great ideas - thank you:)
I use these super long phrases occasionally but had not thought of searching the forums for them.
Great tip!!
My highest traffic post is also the post with the longest keyword phrase at 9 words.
See more comments
Great advice. It can be frustrating to come up with (what should be) a good keyword phrase, then see that the tools don't show the expected metrics. Sometimes the tools are right. Sometimes the tools just haven't caught up with that topic yet. I totally agree. You gotta do the research, narrow down your selections, then go with your gut on the final decision.