By De-de Mulligan

Every client I have ever worked with hopes to land on page one for specific keywords. 

That is my dream, too. 

But here's the reality -- In the SEO world, you are only going to rank for short-term keywords (one-two words) if you have high domain authority (greater than 60) AND are willing to spend much money for blogging, case studies, and PPC. 

Here lies the conundrum - most small business owners don't have high DA or large marketing budgets. 

So what are you left to do? Focus on longtail keywords. 

What is a long-tail keyword? It's a search phrase that consists of three words or more. I recommend you focus on the or more because Google and others are moving toward natural language queries, which makes sense with the increase in voice searches. 70% of all searches are now long tail. 

Long-tail keywords also have three primary benefits:

1. They are easier to help you rank

2. You can reach your niche audience faster

3. You can spend less money on PPC because there's less competition for these words

Five Key Ways to Find Long Tail Keywords

While you're welcome to pay to be on the top of the page (if you can beat out your competitors for that specific search term),  below are free tools to help with on your keyword journey.  

I will use the example of someone searching for a digital marketing agency in all my samples. 

Google Auto Suggests

I went to an incognito page, typed in "digital marketing agency" and the following drop downs appeared: 

• digital marketing agency cleveland
• digital marketing agency near me
• digital marketing agency services
• digital marketing agency for small businesses

Google Related Searches

It’s located at the bottom of your search. In my case it brought up: 

• website design and digital marketing agency
• content for digital marketing agency

Google Keyword Planner

Primarily used for paid campaigns, this tool can be instrumental in understanding the search depth and competition. 

Digital marketing agency and internet marketing service ranked highest with these parameters. 

Wordstream Keyword Tool

This free tool can give you search terms and the volume associated with them. Here are the top three in my industry: 

• social media marketing
• internet marketing service

Answer the Public

This free website can help with writing relevant content for your website pages or blogs. Here are my questions: 

• What is a digital marketing agency?
• How do digital marketing agencies charge? 
• How to choose a digital marketing agency? 
• What services do digital marketing agencies offer? 
• Why hire a digital marketing agency? 

Other Tools

If you wish to go deeper, there are other tools to look into, including: 

• Google Trends
• eHow
• Yahoo Answers
• Answers.com

Mulligan Management Group is Here to Help

If you are overwhelmed by this information, please give us a call at 330-472-7673 to discuss how we can help you find and use your long-term keywords.