Getting a featured snippet is basically hitting the SEO goldmine, resulting in increased clicks, traffic, and potentially, increased business.

The good news here is you don’t have to work that hard to get more featured snippets of your website. Interested? You should be.

Backed by the years I put into writing and SEO, I’ve put together a guide to help you identify featured snippet opportunities. 

How Do I Find Featured Snippet Opportunities?

Quick Answer: Use tools to look into where your website currently stands with regards to featured snippets. Use manual search and the same tools to find keywords with featured snippets you can aim for, as well as other related keywords you can leverage. From there, find quick-win opportunities based on your website’s authority, the content you can optimize, and the structured data you can apply. After making these changes, keep track of what techniques worked for your website, and what didn’t.

What are Featured Snippets?

This is a type of search engine results page (SERP) feature that answers your questions using a snippet that crawl bots have pulled directly from an article or web page. Often, it’s a summary of the information that Google thinks users are looking for.

Here’s an example from an older article of mine on link optimization:

Google has been rolling out featured snippets for an ever-widening variety of search queries for a while now. That’s because they’re great for serving quick answers to users. 

Why do Featured Snippets Matter in SEO?

Featured snippets are great for your SEO because they rank #0 on the organic search results. It sits on top of the #1 organic search result.

It’s also formatted in a way that makes it much more helpful and accessible to users, compared to organic search results. 

Let’s look at the featured snippet for the query “What is a featured snippet,” versus the first organic result on the same page.

And here’s how short a traditional organic result looks like:

That’s it. If I were the user searching this, I definitely gained a more substantial answer from the first, rather than the second.

And, if I was a curious user, I would be more likely to click on the article that feels more helpful to me—which featured snippets are formatted to be like. 

In short, having your content appear in a featured snippet is important for SEO because it can lead to way more clicks to your website. That means it’s good for your click-through rate and growing your organic traffic.

Types of Featured Snippets:

The most common type of featured snippet is the one I just showed you above, but Google can provide different formats in different spaces. 

As of the time of writing, there are five general types of featured snippets:

1. Paragraph
2. List
3. Table
4. Video
5. Accordion

Of these, we know that paragraph- and list-type featured snippets are the most common. Lists can come in numerical format, or in bullet format. You often see these two types when asking for definitions, instructions, and of course, lists of products. 

Recently, I’ve also noticed that Google is pushing for more table and video-formatted featured snippets. 

Tables are common if your search has to do something with product specifications, such as price. 

Videos, on the other hand, show up if you’re looking for how-to guides or demonstrations, where Google will show a specific section of a video that it thinks provides the most appropriate answer. 

Last are accordions. These I don’t see as often, but they look a lot like the People Also Ask section. When clicked, the accordion expands and almost always shows you additional featured snippets, which is fascinating.

Important Statistics on Featured Snippets

Let’s take a look at some general stats that I found from several studies regarding featured snippets. This data can give SEOs and site owners a better look into how they affect SEO, and how to find opportunities to gain more featured snippets.

19-23% of all SERPs include a Featured Snippet

One study from Moz states that they’re included in about 23% of all SERPs. Another study from SEMRush and Brando said they appear in 19% of all SERPs. Either way, this is up over 150% since 2016—that’s wild. 

Paragraphs and Lists are the most common types of Featured Snippets

According to SEMRush, Paragraphs made up 70% of all featured snippets, followed by lists at 19.1%. This study, made in 2020, might not have the most accurate numbers for 2023, but this shows us a pretty clear picture as to what kind of content format is often pushed as featured snippets in Google. 

Getstat also had the same findings in their own research—showing that Paragraph snippets showed up in 82% of all the featured snippets they saw.

People Also Ask sections are seen on 93.8% of Featured Snippet SERPs

Moz, in the same study, noted that we usually see the PAA section whenever there’s a featured snippet. 

Here’s an example, using the same search query as earlier (what is a featured snippet):

This is pretty interesting to me, as it shows that whenever there’s a featured snippet, there are several other opportunities for your article or page to get on the search results—even if, organically, it might not be ranking well.

If you can’t get the featured snippet spot, you can seed your keyword research, add some of the PAAs that show up to your content, and gain more chances to get put on the SERPs. 

Getstat’s research revealed another interesting tidbit: In 23% of the SERPs with both PAAs and a featured snippet, the first PAA had a similar answer to the featured snippet. 

Featured Snippets affect your CTR rate

A study by Ahrefs a few years back showed that, while featured snippets are eye-catching and informative, they don’t necessarily get the most clicks out of every site on the first page.

A page that’s #1 on a SERP without a featured snippet can get about 26% of all clicks. However, a page that’s #1 on a SERP with a featured snippet will only get about 19.6% on average.

This means the #0 spot effectively steals a good portion of the clicks from the #1 organic result. Pretty good tradeoff if you can’t quite beat the #1 result, but still want to get tons of clicks. 

How to Research Featured Snippet Opportunities

Manually looking for a featured snippet opportunity is going to take a lot of time. And, Google Search Console doesn’t currently show any information regarding featured snippets. 

I recommend using third-party tools to research featured snippet opportunities to optimize your content.  

Research Tools to Use for Featured Snippets

I use two tools to look into where our websites are at, in terms of featured snippets: Ahrefs and SEMrush. You can use both to check for your current rankings as well as untapped featured snippet opportunities. 

How to check your Current Snippets

Before you begin the process of looking for opportunities, I recommend getting a good idea of where your website is first.

On Ahrefs, just put in your domain, and click the organic keywords report. From there, you can filter the results by SERP features, and click on featured snippets.

The resulting list contains all the keywords you’re showing up as a featured snippet for.

With SEMrush, put your domain in the search bar, click enter, then select positions in the first menu you see below.

From here, you can further filter the results by clicking SERP features, which will show you which pages are currently shown as featured snippets (plus some other features, such as Local Pack).

On either tool, you can look at the percentage of your search results that appear in any kind of snippet. If you see a low number there, don’t panic. It’s common for most websites to have a low number—especially if you haven’t been trying to optimize for this kind of thing in the first place. 

What you’re getting here is a baseline for your optimization efforts. It’s good to know where you started to understand what’s working for you, and what isn’t, once you start trying to target featured snippets.

Plus, working within a niche where Google already considers you an expert is a pretty good place to start. You’re more likely to capture opportunities here than anywhere else.

How to find your competitor’s snippets

In the same way that you looked at your website’s standing, you can also check your competitors’. 

Why? Because you want to beat your competition. And if your competitors are showing up in the snippets 1 out of 10 times, then you should try to appear in them twice as much. That’s how you can get a bigger market share in your industry. 

The good news is that these two tools let you see the same data for your competitors. Just follow the same instructions using their website domain, and see where your competitors’ snippets are coming from. 

What keywords are they targeting that have a featured snippet? Are these snippets coming from their articles, pages, or homepage? 

These two considerations can reveal new opportunities as well as their tactics—both of which you can use later on. 

How to Identify Featured Snippet Opportunities 

This step-by-step guide can help you potentially win a featured snippet:

1. Check if keywords have featured snippets.
2. Look into keyword suggestions.
3. Optimize content for the featured snippet type.
4. Know your audience’s intent.
5. Make your content concise and informative.
6. Use schema markups.
7. Keep track of featured snippet targets.

Let’s get into each one.

Check if keywords have featured snippets

You can see this in SEMRush. If you look at your organically ranking keywords, you might see symbols like these, which indicate that the search queries show both organic results and structured results, such as featured snippets, PAAs, and more.

You should also check the SERPs manually to see what kind of featured snippet is showing up for this keyword.

From this, we know this particular keyword has a list featured snippet. This means that if I added a list to my old article, I can try to steal this featured snippet from the currently ranking website. 

Look into keyword suggestions

From there, go into Keyword Overview, which shows you related keywords and queries of your selected keyword. In the example below, I’m checking the keyword “how to tell seo is working,” which I used in a previous article.

This data shows what other keywords you might want to include in your article or page, as well as opportunities to hit the PAA section.

Optimize content for the featured snippet type.

Once you know what type of featured snippet your targeted keyword has, it’s time to optimize your content for it.

Make sure you’re adding something that fits the criteria. I also have other tips in another article I previously wrote on optimizing for featured snippets, if you need more help on that.

In the previous example, I said I’d add a list for my article targeting the keyword “how to tell seo is working” because that is the type of snippet I saw in the SERPs. 

If, on the other hand, I saw that it was showing a paragraph-type snippet, then my strategy for this article would change. 

Pro-tip: whatever you saw in the current featured snippet you’re trying to claim, one-up it. If it’s listing, say, the seven benefits of something, list eight to ten. If it’s a concise description of a topic, try doing the same—but with a little extra valuable info (if you have some expertise in the area, this is where it would come in handy). 

Always try to beat the value of the current featured snippet with the content you’re optimizing.

Know your audience’s intent

Part of optimizing your content is understanding your audience. 

When people search certain keywords, they are looking for a specific answer—they may not know what that is, yet, but you should. 

You have to know what kind of answer they’re looking for. Knowing that will help you understand how to best answer their query. I dive deep into this topic in my other guide on how to make helpful content.

Crafting the right response makes it more likely for your content to become a featured snippet. 

Make your content concise and informative.

Aside from using the right type of content, you have to make sure your answers are succinct and relevant to the query. Make your answers as to the point as possible (think 2-3 sentences, max).

Why? Google regularly pushes for short yet informative answers in the featured snippet. So, we know this is the way to go. 

Another pro tip: add a quick summary section to your articles.

You might have seen this in other websites. I’ve also started doing it while I refresh some older content of mine, like this section I added to this article, and some of my older but high-performing work, like my guide to aggregate rating schema. 

Adding a “too long, didn’t read” (tl;dr) to your most popular pages is an easy way of gaining a few featured snippets here and there. Making small additions to deliver your content in a simpler way can actually do a lot for your SEO. Plus, it’s a really easy way to experiment with your content. 

Use schema markups

Schema markups are lines of code that feed search engines (like Google) data in a structured manner. This helps Google better understand your content and its context, which results in improved snippets, also known as rich snippets.

Applying the right schema markup when applicable can help you win that featured snippet. Some common ones include:

1. FAQ schema
2. How-to schema
3. Recipe schema
4. Product schema

There are two ways to add schema markups to your website. The first is through plugins, the second is through hard coding. I recommend looking into the different markups you can add to your content on the Schema website.

Keep track of featured snippet targets

Lastly, always keep track of your progress. Like I said earlier, you won’t know what’s working out for your SEO and what isn’t if you don’t have a baseline to compare it to. And the same goes for your ongoing progress—so monitor those featured snippet targets.

From there, you can continue applying what works well for your website to other pages, and get rid of the strategies that don’t.

Key Takeaway

As featured snippets continue to dominate the top of the SERPS, knowing how to identify featured snippet opportunities—and how to capture them—can help you increase visibility for your website. 

There’s a lot of untapped opportunities waiting on your website, so get ready to do some research into your keywords, and deliver the right answers in the right format in simple, concise language.

The post A Guide to Seizing Featured Snippet Opportunities appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

As you dive into the fast-paced world of SEO (search engine optimization), it’s important to understand the key concepts that will help you crush the competition and dominate the first page of Google search results. 

And one critical aspect of this world is understanding keyword search volume, a metric that reveals the popularity, trends, and competition surrounding specific keywords.

By understanding the search volume of specific keywords, you can effectively optimize your content to target relevant keywords and drive organic traffic—and potentially claim a spot on that coveted first page. So I’ve prepared a quick but in-depth guide to keyword search volume to help you out:

What is Keyword Search Volume?

Keyword search volume is a metric that indicates the popularity and demand for a specific keyword in search engine queries. It represents the number of times a keyword is searched for within a given timeframe, usually on a monthly basis. 

Why is Keyword Search Volume Important?

Keyword search volume is a valuable metric in SEO because it shows you the popularity and demand for specific keywords. By analyzing search volume data, you gain insights into the keywords that potential visitors are using to find information related to your industry or niche. 

This knowledge empowers you to optimize your website’s content and meta tags to target those keywords effectively, increasing the likelihood of ranking higher on search engine result pages (SERPs). In essence, keyword search volume allows you to align your website with the interests and search behaviors of your target audience.

The Difference between Seasonal and Evergreen Keywords

It is important to consider the variations in search volume, whether they are consistent or seasonal. Within this realm, two primary categories emerge: seasonal keywords and evergreen keywords.

Let’s look at one keyword: ”number coding in Manila.” 

Keywords like “number coding in Manila” are a kind of keyword that you can bet a few hundred people search for every day since the need for information on this topic exists no matter what time of the year it is. This consistency means they’re evergreen, and evergreen keywords have a relatively stable search volume for pretty much the whole year.

On the other hand, seasonal keywords are directly tied to specific times of the year, which means you can see regular fluctuations in their search volumes. For example, as the holiday season approaches, people are more likely to search for terms like “holiday gift ideas.” During this period, the search volume for such keywords sharply increases, only to fall off after the holidays have passed.

To effectively evaluate keyword volume, you have to consider the potential seasonal fluctuations in search volume. By understanding which high-volume keywords are evergreen, versus what keywords might be trending because of the current season, you can better optimize your content strategy to align with your target audience’s search intent throughout the year.

Determining Good Keyword Search Volume

The definition of good keyword search volume can vary depending on various factors, including the industry, niche, and goals of a website. 

Generally, a good keyword search volume is considered to indicate a healthy level of demand and relevance for a particular keyword.

While there is no universal threshold, keywords with higher search volumes often show greater potential for attracting organic traffic. However, high-volume keywords also tend to be more competitive, making achieving top rankings on search engine result pages (SERPs) more challenging.

On the other hand, keywords with very low search volumes might not generate significant traffic to your website, but they may have lower competition and therefore may be easier to rank top-of-page for. So, striking a balance between search volume and competition is crucial.

Factors to Consider in Keyword Search Volume

When evaluating the search volume of keywords for SEO, it is important to consider the following factors:

Relevance

Aligning your keywords with the interests of your target audience is arguably the most important factor. What’s the point of using a high-volume keyword, if none of the people who click on it are your target audience?

Understanding your audience’s needs, preferences, and search behaviors enables you to create content that addresses their specific pain points and provides valuable solutions. By doing so, you increase the chances of attracting qualified traffic and improve user experience (which we know to be important for a website’s visibility in search engine rankings).

Competition

The more volume a keyword has, the more competitive it likely is. It’s because they present something very enticing to any webmaster: more views, more clicks. That means there are going to be more websites targeting these keywords, and your website may not have what it takes to come out on top. 

So, you have to understand how much competition you’re dealing with before settling on a keyword. While seeing a keyword volume of, say, 10,000 per month feels really tempting, it will require a ton more resources and effort to achieve high rankings on the SERPs.

By strategically targeting keywords with a balance between search volume and competition, you can increase your chances of achieving higher rankings and attracting valuable organic traffic to your website.

That said, how competitive a keyword can be will vary across different industries, niches, and geographical locations. You might come across a highly searched and potentially lucrative keyword in your research, and find that the competition for it is moderate or low enough to be a good opportunity for you.

As in many of my other guides, my advice here is the same: remember to do your research when you look into potential keywords. 

Long-tail keywords

Unlike generic, broad keywords, long-tail keywords are more specific and usually consist of a phrase or a long string of words. While they may have lower search volume compared to broader keywords, they can drive highly targeted and valuable traffic to your website.

It often reflects a more refined search intent. Users who search using long-tail keywords have a clearer idea of what they are looking for. The more specific the query, the more likely that this person is really interested in what they’re searching for.

For example, someone searching for “best running shoes for flat feet” is more likely to convert into a customer than someone searching for just “running shoes.” By targeting long-tail keywords, you can align your content and offerings precisely with the needs and preferences of your audience.

While long-tail keywords may have lower search volume, they bring numerous benefits to your SEO strategy. By targeting these specific and intent-focused keywords, you can attract highly targeted traffic, experience lower competition, achieve higher conversion rates, and provide an enhanced user experience. 

Adding long-tail keywords to your content strategy can help improve traffic and, ultimately, the fruits of your SEO efforts.

Search intent

Search intent refers to the underlying motivation or purpose behind a user’s search query. Understanding Search intent is crucial in SEO because it allows you to create and optimize content that aligns with what users are looking for, ensuring that your website meets their needs and provides relevant information or solutions.

Search intent can be classified into 4 different types:

• Informational intent refers to users seeking information or answers to their queries.
• Navigational intent occurs when users are searching for a specific website or brand.
• Commercial intent relates to users that are in the research phase and are comparing options before making a purchase decision.
• Transactional intent relates to users who are ready to make a purchase or complete a specific action.

By identifying the intent behind keywords, you can create content that matches the corresponding intent type and guides users through their desired journey.

How Do You Look For Keyword Volumes?

Analyzing search volume helps marketers like you understand the demand for specific keywords and make informed decisions about which ones to target. There are many ways to do this, but the most accurate way to look at search volume data is to use the right SEO tools, which are:

1. Google Keyword Planner
2. Google Trends
3. SEMRush
4. Ahrefs
5. SERanking

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular tools:

Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a free tool offered by Google Ads. While primarily designed for advertisers, it is also valuable for SEO professionals. It provides search volume data, historical statistics, and keyword ideas. By entering relevant keywords, you can access insights into average monthly search volumes, competition levels, and bid estimates. Google Keyword Planner is a great starting point for keyword research and planning SEO campaigns.

Google Trends

Google Trends is another free tool provided by Google. It allows users to explore the popularity and search interest of specific keywords over time. While it doesn’t provide exact search volume numbers, it shows relative interest and trending patterns. You can compare the search volume of multiple keywords, analyze regional interest, and view related queries. Google Trends is useful for identifying seasonal trends, tracking keyword popularity, and adjusting your SEO strategy accordingly.

SEMrush

SEMrush is a comprehensive SEO tool that offers a wide range of features, including keyword research and analysis. It provides accurate search volume data along with additional insights such as keyword difficulty, competition analysis, and keyword trends. SEMrush allows you to explore search volume for specific regions and languages, discover related keywords, and analyze the performance of your competitors. With its extensive database and advanced features, SEMrush is a valuable tool for in-depth keyword research and competitive analysis.

Ahrefs

Ahrefs is a popular SEO tool known for its robust keyword research capabilities. It offers accurate search volume data, keyword difficulty scores, and related keyword suggestions. Ahrefs also provides insights into keyword trends over time and allows you to track the search volume of specific keywords. With its comprehensive features for keyword analysis and competitor research, Ahrefs helps uncover valuable keyword opportunities and optimize your SEO strategy accordingly.

SERanking

SERanking is an all-in-one SEO platform that includes features for keyword research and analysis. It offers search volume data, keyword suggestions, and competition analysis. SERanking allows you to track keyword rankings, monitor search volume fluctuations, and identify new keyword opportunities. The tool also provides comprehensive reporting options to measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. I wrote a more extensive review on SERanking’s content marketing platform (which includes their keyword tools) if you’re interested. 

These tools are valuable resources if you want to get the most accurate and up-to-date numbers for keyword search volume. Plus, they offer some pretty valuable insights into how competitive these keywords are. I recommend exploring the features and functionalities of each tool to find the one that best fits your needs.

Benefits of Understanding Keyword Search Volume

Knowing a keyword’s search volume is crucial because it reveals the trend for that search term. From here, you can infer the keyword’s potential traffic as well as its competitiveness. Understanding that leads to some very important benefits for your SEO, such as:

Targeted Optimization

By understanding the popularity and demand for specific keywords, you can optimize your content to target relevant keywords that attract the right audience.

Increased Visibility

Optimizing your website’s content and meta tags based on keyword search volume helps improve your chances of ranking higher on search engine result pages (SERPs). This increased visibility drives more organic traffic to your website.

Competitive Advantage

Analyzing keyword search volume allows you to identify keywords that potential visitors are using to find information related to your industry or niche. By targeting these keywords effectively, you can stay ahead of the competition and align your website with the interests and search behaviors of your target audience.

Better Conversion Rates

By using long-tail keywords with lower competition and stronger search intent, you can attract highly targeted traffic to your website. These visitors are more likely to convert into customers or take desired actions, leading to improved conversion rates.

Informed Decision Making

Keyword search volume data provides valuable insights into the popularity and trends of specific keywords. This information helps you make informed decisions when selecting keywords for your content, optimizing your website, and planning your overall SEO strategy.

Key Takeaway

Now that you’ve finished this guide to keyword search volume, and seen the tools available for keyword research, it’s time to integrate this knowledge into your SEO strategy. 

By analyzing keyword trends and demand using reliable tools, you can optimize your content to attract the right audience. Remember to consider important factors like evergreen versus seasonal keywords, competition levels, the value of long-tail keywords, and user intent.

Remember, SEO is a long game, as search engine algorithms continually evolve. Make sure to regularly revisit and assess your keyword search volume to ensure the list you’re targeting is still working for you and your site. 

Stay proactive, adapt your strategy if needed, and maintain a strong online presence in the ever-changing SEO landscape.

The post An In-Depth Guide to Keyword Search Volume and How to Use it for Your SEO appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Keywords, as we all know, are the bread and butter of SEO. They are how potential customers find us online and are what we build entire strategies around.

But targeting the best keywords for your business is tough. Short tail keywords are attractive, but are often too competitive, too high volume for most to fight for—so what is the alternative? 

Here’s where long-tail keywords come in. They provide an untapped opportunity to drive more relevant traffic to your website and connect with customers further along their purchase journey. 

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the essence of long-tail keywords, examining their importance, advantages, and—most importantly—how to incorporate them effortlessly into your content strategy. 

What is a Long-Tail Keyword?

Long-tail keywords in SEO are keyword phrases with more than three words that are extremely focused and specialized. These keywords are more targeted and reflect users’ exact search intentions than generic or broad-based keywords. They can also provide users with a more customized search experience.

The Power of Precision

When you are conducting keyword research, you can specifically target the wants and demands of your target market. You may draw readers who are more likely to convert by including these certain terms in your article. 

For instance, if you own a running shoe business, it will be very difficult to rank at the top for the keyword “best running shoes,” much less gain much traffic from your efforts. 

If, however, you decide to target the keyword “women’s running shoes for wide feet” instead, then you are more likely to draw highly interested customers who are looking for that exact product.

After all, when someone enters that very long, very specific keyword, they are demanding one thing: the kind of product that they just searched for on Google. 

By positioning yourself as someone who can answer their demand, you grab their attention, answer their search question, and ultimately bring in users who are more likely to buy your product. 

There is a value of precision that specific keywords provide. You may attract people who have a precise aim and are inclined to become clients by using such focused terms. 

Less Competition=Less Cost

Though these keywords often have lower search volumes since they are more specific than short tail or broad keywords, there often are fewer opponents for this from other websites. 

In that sense, you can also easily rank at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs) for these keywords, and attract more customers by focusing on untapped niches in a crowded online market.

So, this level of specificity of the keyword not only helps you reach a particular target audience but also distinguishes you from your competitors who may only optimize for broader keywords like “best running shoes.”

By catering to the needs and preferences of your audience, you also position your website as a trusted and reliable source for those looking for that particular product.

Providing people with exactly what they’re looking for will allow you to gain traffic almost effortlessly in a less competitive space, and drive conversions on your website. 

What is an Example of a Long-Tail Keyword?

To further comprehend the idea of what a long-tail keyword is, let’s look at an example. 

Consider a bakery that specializes in making desserts and sweets without gluten. 

Instead of optimizing your website for a short tail keyword like “dessert,” an extended keyword example you might consider is “gluten free chocolate chip cookies.”

This phrase is extremely particular, addressing the dietary needs of a smaller audience looking for a particular type of dessert. 

Aside from dietary needs, another way to find long-tail keywords is to look at the preferences of a potential customer. Things like flavor, color, or size can lead to a long-tail keyword. A customer might look for “mini chocolate frosted cupcakes,” which is another area you could target.

In short, almost every descriptor or variation of the products you offer is a long-tail keyword that you can potentially target.

Why Should You Integrate Long-Tail Keywords in Your Blog Posts?

Using long-tail keywords doesn’t just have to be on your website pages—it’s a great strategy for your monthly blogs, too. 

Integrating these in your blog posts can have a significant impact on both your entire content plan and SEO efforts.

Focused Traffic

As I said earlier—these keywords reveal users’ intentions when they look for certain knowledge, goods, or services. 

You can draw readers who are more interested in your content and offers by including long-tail keywords in your blog entries. 

These users are also often further along in the purchasing process, which increases their likelihood of becoming customers. 

You can direct targeted visitors to your blog and improve your chances of accomplishing your conversion goals by tailoring your content to their particular demands.

Enhanced Relevance

By focusing on writing for long-tail keywords, you can produce content that is incredibly relevant to the particular wants and needs of your target audience. You can satisfy their expectations by providing them with useful and informational blog entries by answering their specific questions. 

This can also position your blog post as a reliable source of information in SERPs—usually in the form of a featured snippet or rich result for that search query. 

Improved Search Rankings

High competition makes it difficult to rank highly in the search results for short, generalized keywords. 

On the other hand, long keywords frequently have a lower search volume and face fewer competitors. By targeting these, you drive better results for much less effort and time spent. This is especially helpful if you work in a cutthroat industry. 

You can quickly build your online presence, improve your exposure, and increase organic blog traffic by concentrating on long keyphrases.

When Should You Use Long-Tail Keywords in Your SEO?

To maximize their impact, long keyphrases must be used in the right situations within your SEO plan. 

Here are some pointers on when you should use these keywords.

Niche Targeting

Long-tail keywords might help you more successfully reach your target market if your company works in a particular niche or caters to a specialized demographic. Although they could draw in a larger audience, generic keywords do not guarantee that they will be interested in your particular services. 

You may boost your chances of bringing in highly relevant traffic by selecting keywords that represent the particular demands, preferences, or pain points of your audience. 

For instance, if you sell eco-friendly yoga mats, you may reach yoga practitioners who are concerned about the environment and are looking for sustainable products by optimizing your SEO using long keywords like “natural rubber non-toxic yoga mats.”

Entering Competitive Industries

In highly competitive industries, it might be difficult to rank effectively for generic keywords in highly competitive sectors. Long-tail keywords provide you the chance to stand out and draw in a smaller but more intent audience.

You might find several long-tail keywords once you start your competitors’ analysis. When you do, you’ll see that the difficulty of targeting these is low, since they have lower search volumes and fewer people actively trying to rank for them. 

This may be a golden opportunity for you—you can enter your industry through what is essentially a side door. Take gaming laptops, for example, where your website could enter by marketing your “thin and light budget gaming laptops.”

Focusing on a very specific part of the market can draw visitors who are actively looking for the exact goods, services, or information you provide. And, before you know it, you’ll have secured territory in a competitive arena.

Content Optimization

I said earlier that long-tail keywords are great for blog posts, and this plays into a larger strategy for content optimization.

Users frequently utilize longer and more precise keyword phrases while looking for information or solutions to their problems. You can give thorough and specific responses to these questions by including long keywords in your blog posts, articles, and FAQ sections. 

Providing useful material not only enhances user experience but also helps address any content gaps your posts or pages may have. They can help you establish authority in your field and draw in people looking for in-depth information by including them in your content optimization plan.

How do I Search for long-tail Keywords?

Using tools like SE Ranking and Semrush are pretty useful for when it comes to finding potential keywords, but here are a few free ways to do your keyword research:

1. Google Suggestions: A great place to start as we know these are phrases that people are searching for.
2. Google’s Related Searches: Always check the bottom of the SERPs for more suggestions linked to your keywords.
3. Google Search Console: The performance report will show you the long-tail queries search queries that drove people to see or click on your pages. If you don’t have pages that are optimized for the queries you’re showing up for the most, consider making one to improve conversion and user satisfaction.
4. Q&A Sites: Since these forums contain plenty of potential pain points and queries from users, it’s a great source for your blog topics, FAQ section, and more.

Key Takeaway

Long-tail keywords are a potent optimization technique that increases conversion rates and drives focused visitors. You attract interested visitors who are more inclined to take action by concentrating on precise, pertinent keywords. These keywords provide you with a huge competitive advantage simply because of how targeted and exact they are. 

Maximize your SEO potential now with long-tail keywords. Take charge of your website’s visibility, attract highly engaged visitors, and drive conversions like never before.

The post Long-Tail Keywords: Game-Changers for Your Website Traffic and Rankings appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

A 1,000% increase in organic traffic is the dream. It is something you certainly can achieve and this guide will help you nail that by going for the best keywords you can center your SEO campaign on. As one of the cornerstones of an effective SEO strategy, it is essential to implement the right approach in choosing your keywords. Here is every question you need to ask yourself when doing effective keyword research for SEO of 2023.

What Does My Website Offer?

In order for you to start composing your list for your keyword research, you have to first identify WHAT you want to be seen from your website. Which of your service, product, or information would you like to be visible within search results?

For example, let’s assume that you’re building an SEO strategy for a cosmetic dental clinic in Sydney, Australia. It would ultimately make sense to use keywords based on the term cosmetic dental clinic itself and particular cosmetic dental services- such as dental veneers, dental implants, and other similar services and terms.

Who’s My Target Market?

Now that you’ve taken the first step in identifying your keywords, you move forward in adjusting your approach to your research. Provide revisions on your initial keyword findings based on WHO you want to attract to your website. “Who” usually pertains to 2 types of people who use search engines- these are people who search to get information and people who are looking to avail of a particular product/service.

It should be easier to identify which type you are inclined to target once you’ve acknowledged what pages on your website you want to be seen on the search results pages.

In addition, knowing your target market is also associated with WHERE you want to be seen. Adapting your keyword based on your location is one of the things that you should consider when doing keyword research. These keywords are specifically called geo-tagged keywords. They allow your website to rank for people looking for particular information or service within a specific area.

Continuing on our earlier example, building an SEO strategy for a dental clinic in Sydney, Australia would prompt you to include the term “Sydney” or “Australia” in addition to your keywords- cosmetic dental clinic sydney, dental veneers australia, etc.

Click here if you want to learn more about the importance of geo-tagging keywords!

How Are Your Keywords Performing In Google?

We’ve now further refined your keyword ideas. But before finalizing or implementing your keywords, you should first check out how it’s doing within the actual search engine. It wouldn’t be wise to start driving your car, without checking if your check engine light is on.

Start by observing and analyzing the search results for each one of your keywords. Let’s try searching for a keyword and then go through the search results. For the keyword ‘electric scooter philippines’, the result is the following:

Based on the image above, you’ll notice that the search results are dominated by the actual distributors or shopping websites offering electric scooters in the Philippines. If you’re a website that’s offering electric scooters within the Philippines, this is a clear indication that you can rank for this keyword.

Not only that, the geo-targeted keyword “philippines” ensures that the website will appear way better to people searching from the Philippines and not in other countries if you don’t serve those markets anyway.

What about search results that tell you if you can’t rank for a particular keyword? Take a look at the results for ‘best electric scooters’:

The results indicate web pages that offer guides and listicles that feature a variety of electric scooter brands. The websites that hold these pages offer only news articles and tech reviews.
As a website that offers electric scooters straight to consumers, it wouldn’t be applicable for you to rank for this keyword. Your website’s intention to sell is mismatched with the websites that provide news and articles as their service. The keywords that you apply to your website must always match what your website offers.

How’s My Competition?

Ah yes, competitor analysis. Who doesn’t love checking on the competition?

For all websites, especially if you’re just starting out your SEO, there will always be a more authoritative website that offers a similar product, service, or information as you do. This is why it’s essential for keyword research that you are able to analyze and study what your competitors are doing to their websites.

Understanding what keywords are they utilizing and how they’re building their website’s content will not only give you an idea of how to rank your own site but also figure out how authoritative they are. It’s not just about trying to expand your keyword list but also being smart on which keywords to target.

Let’s assume we’re trying to broaden our list of keywords for our e-commerce website in the Philippines for electric scooters. And the best way to do this is by using one of my favorite tools, the SE Ranking Competitive Research feature. We’re now able to single out what keywords one of our competitors is ranking for.

As you can see, the keyword that it presents is associated with the Difficulty metric. This allows users to have a more general idea of how competitive a particular keyword is. By using this information, you’d have a deeper understanding of which keywords to target.

If you just newly developed your website, go for lower difficulty. But if you’re building your SEO strategy on an already authoritative website, then you can compete for keywords with higher difficulty.

Only after further competitor analysis can you then identify which keyword should be utilized in order to gain more traction. Hey, they did the hard work, why not learn from them and put your own effort into it, eh?

What Are My Related And Relevant Keywords?

Lastly, with the keywords you’ve managed to list down, add keywords that are closely related to all of them. An easy way to do this is to look up sub-topics and synonyms for your chosen keywords.

Why?

SEO is holistic. Targeting 1 keyword implies you target many. With the Google Algorithm updates in 2022, the search engine has been particularly inclined to websites that have good topical authority.

Google gauges a website’s credibility by also checking based on the number of relevant topics that a website is able to cover. If you want to be able to rank and write for the keyword ‘cosmetic dentist, then you’d have to also rank and publish articles for its subtopics such as ‘dental veneers’, ‘dental implants’, and other similar services.

Additionally, synonyms should also be included in your list of keywords to target. In the eyes of Google, there are some keywords that express the same meaning when searched.

Notice the bolded texts when searching for the term ‘cosmetic dentist’. This implies that Google understands that the user is also searching for the term ‘cosmetic dentistry’. This is also the same reason why SEO content writers sprinkle closely related keywords when trying to build content.

Key takeaway

With Google’s ever-growing updates in its search engine, there is increasing importance in ensuring your foundations for the keyword strategy you are using for SEO.

Keywords are what dictate and direct your entire SEO campaign. This makes keyword research an extremely important task at the get-go.

I hope that this guide has added value to you today and if it has, please also check out our full guide to keyword research for a new website here!

The post Drive Results with this Definitive Guide to Keyword Research for 2023 appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

SEO Powersuite’s Rank Tracker is already known to be one of the most reliable keyword tracking tools. It separates itself from other keyword tracking tools by providing data that others don’t offer. From the usual keyword rank tracking to ranking progressions, SERP analysis, integration of analytics and search console data, and keyword mapping, Rank Tracker is a proven tool that is worthy to be part of your arsenal of SEO tools.

Rank Tracker is not only known for its tracking features, but it also packs a powerful Keyword Research tool that SEOs should consider using. Twenty-three keyword research tools are integrated into it such as Google Ads Keyword Planner, Google Search Console, and Bing Related Search.

Recently, Rank Tracker’s built-in Keyword Research tool got an upgrade making it a better asset for SEOs. They’ve launched major data updates last year like their Backlink Index and Settings Sync. Now, with the recent update they launched, keyword research will be easier, much more detailed, and faster. Here’s a recap of their latest updates.

Server-Side Keyword Analysis Database

SEO Powersuite just launched their own Keyword Analysis Database in Rank Tracker. This allows users to get fresh keywords data from Google Ads without having to connect your own account. It gives you the exact number of a keyword’s search volume – no more rough estimates.

To make sure that users receive the latest data, their database is updated every 14 days. This allows users to make more accurate predictions and reports. To make sure you are using this data open Rank Tracker and go to Preferences and click on SEO/PPC Data. Make sure that under Google Ads Source, SEO PowerSuite Keyword Index is selected.

(This is only available for Professional and Enterprise license users. Visit SEO-Powersuite Rank Tracker to register.)

Keyword Gap Analysis

Getting a sniff of your competitor’s strategy and knowing what keywords they are targetting is an important SEO strategy and the new Keyword Gap Analysis lets you do just that. You plug in your competitor sites and it will show you keywords they are ranking for that you still aren’t.

The data is complete from the number of searches, cost per click for PPC, and estimated keyword difficulty. You could select keywords where your competitor is at the top 10, top 20, top 50, or top 100, and make priorities to the keywords you will target from there. You could filter it to show only keywords that have SERP features.

 The number of estimated searches are based on data of the previous 30 days and the default source of their data is Google Keyword Planner. It is also where they base how competitive a keyword is but you could customize it and change it to your preferred search engine under Preferences.

Competitor Auto-Suggest

One of the things I absolutely love about this update is that you can look for automatic suggestions on competitors based on your niche. It could lead up to new keywords to target and lead to more opportunities. To do that, under Preferences, then select Competitors, and click Suggest and Rank Tracker will automatically give you a list of websites that are in the same niche with you.

What’s Coming: Topic Competitors and Organic Rankings for a Single page/backlink 

Aside from these recent updates, SEO Powersuite is working on more updates for Rank Tracker and their other tools. One of which is called Topic Competitors which will allow you to input any keywords you plan on targetting and see an overview of the search results for these keywords to give you a better idea of what content should you produce. This is to be released mid-July of 2019.

For the other update, it is to be released for SEO Powersuite’s WebSite Auditor and SEO SpyGlass. According to their announcement, you will be able to see the exact pages on your website that is gathering organic traffic and analyze backlinks for not only the potential link juice they could pass on but the potential referral traffic it could give you. There is no specific date yet on when they are going to release this.

Key Takeaway

These latest updates to SEO Powersuite’s Rank Tracker made it not only a great rank tracking tool but also a versatile keyword research tool. In my opinion, what makes Rank Tracker a great tool is the diversity of its data sources. Aside from their own database, they have data from not only Google but also other search engines like Bing and Yahoo.

Keyword research is a crucial process in SEO. This alone can define the direction of an SEO strategy for months. Having the exact, detailed, and accurate data is important. Stealing competitors’ keywords and monitoring their movement should be a part of any SEO strategy. Have you tried Rank Tracker’s latest update? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think of their latest improvements.

The post Rank Tracker Update: Competitor Analysis and More Accurate Data appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Keyword research is a fundamental SEO practice that enables us to find the best set of keywords that will allow our websites to grow their organic search traffic. Along with the service of the brand, keywords are also the basis for how content will be formulated, along with how link building and social media campaigns would be managed.

When tracking and choosing keywords for Google, context is important, as any variation to the keyword is treated as a different keyword. For example, making a keyword plural means that you have generated another keyword for Google to track. While this usually can cause an adverse effect in your keyword rankings, making use of these variations provides more opportunities for users to be able to discover your content when done right. This strategy is known as keyword stemming, which is a practice that has been around for quite some time. With that in mind, here is a guide on keyword stemming, and how to utilize it for your content, along with a successful example.

What is Keyword Stemming?

Keyword Stemming is the practice or strategy of modifying different keywords through the use of variations. These variations come in the form of prefixes or suffixes that can be added to the root keyword. Pluralization is also another variation that can be used, as this is treated as a different keyword.

Google’s ability to understand user intent and context is a technology that has been continuously improved over the past few years. This ability enables the search engine to identify keywords and its variations and understand that they’re being used in a similar context in your content when being searched.

When should you use Keyword Stemming?

When used properly, Keyword Stemming allows your content to be more searchable when using variations of the original keyword. Despite its potential to be able to generate more traffic, there are some cases where using Keyword Stemming can hurt your traffic when the keyword variant does not completely fit with the content.

In fact, there can be times Keyword Stemming would not be advisable for certain keywords at all. It is best to make sure that it is a viable strategy on your end, and it can be done after taking certain factors into consideration. Here are some factors to consider when applying Keyword Stemming to your content:

Does it still fit the context?

One of the most important aspects of Keyword Stemming is making sure that the variant keyword still fits the context of the original keyword. Changing the context defeats the whole purpose of Keyword Stemming and will only cause your content to be inconsistent in tone and can confuse people who are viewing it. For example, “football” and “footballer” are two different things, one refers to the sport, and one refers to the athletes participating in the sport, which means that using both terms can greatly affect the context of the content that you are going to create.

Is the variation still related to the original keyword?

While the previous example of keywords is still somewhat related, there are times that adding a prefix or suffix to the keyword almost completely changes the meaning of the word itself. The main goal is to use a variation to gain more organic traffic and open up more opportunities to be searched, while still being able to retain the meaning of the root word.

Does Keyword Stemming work?

Thanks to Google’s continued improvements, it is able to understand user context much better than before. This allows the search engine to identify user intent and lead them to the right search results.

We tried out Keyword Stemming in one of our articles a while back, and got favorable results, with the article regularly becoming one of the most viewed articles monthly. The article is about the best URL shortening tools, and before even writing the article, one question that came into my mind was “Should I use “best URL shortening tools” or use “best URL shortener tools?”. In the end, I chose “best URL shortening tools”, as it had more traffic. However, “best URL shortener tools” is also a keyword that was a significant amount of traffic and tapping into that would help boost the overall traffic of the article even more.

To make sure that my article would be searchable for both keywords, I made sure to properly place them in the article. Luckily, both keywords have similar meanings, so the context of seeing them in the same article wouldn’t be out of place.

One of the things that you must know when doing keyword stemming on your content is that you have to be patient with the results, as this can take a while to see. One of the best tools to see which organic keywords are being used to search for your content is Ahrefs. All you have to do is to enter the URL of your content, and you can already see the number of organic keywords used to access the webpage.

One of the most interesting findings was that the top keyword used to search for the article was best URL shortener tool instead of best URL shortening tool, which is the keyword present in the title of the article itself. Along with these two keywords, numerous variations of URL shortener and URL shortening are also present, with most of those keywords having a significant search volume.

These multiple keyword variants have helped boost the traffic of the article, gaining thousands of views during 2018, making it one of our most viewed articles for the whole year.

Key Takeaway

Keyword Stemming may be a strategy that has been around for a while, but with Google’s improved technology, it is now a strategy that is more effective than before. Utilizing Keyword Stemming is a process that requires an optimized strategy to work, and with our example, it is something that can give your organic traffic a good amount of boost.

If you have questions and inquiries about Keyword Research and SEO in general, leave a comment below and let’s talk.

The post Using Keyword Stemming to Enhance your Organic Traffic appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Typographical errors are something that tends to happen on a regular basis, whether it be from a typical post on a blog or social media, and even during search queries. For the lattermost part, Incorrect and misspelled keywords in search is something that tends to happen quite often.

When it comes to keywords, Google ensures that these typographical errors would still lead to the desired search results as much as possible. However, it is still worth looking into these incorrect and misspelled keywords and see how their impact can affect traffic to certain websites and search results.

Google and Typos

When it comes to looking for one of the most misspelled search terms on any search engine, perhaps few can come close to the number of times that Google has been misspelled. From Gogle, Gooogle, to Googel, the search engine’s name has been misspelled so many times that there is a considerable amount of traffic from it.

A look into one of our Google-related articles on Ahrefs shows that misspelled search queries are a viable source of traffic for these kinds of articles. As you can see, the number of incorrect keywords is quite abundant, and looking a bit further would help you see more incorrectly typed keywords. There are many reasons as to why people type them incorrectly, from simple keyboard lapses to people intentionally typing an incorrect term in order to find the correct one using Google. As mentioned earlier, Google has measures that make sure that users would learn the actual spelling of the keyword and take them to the results that they are looking for.

Incorrect Keywords and Traffic

As you can see, incorrect keywords have the potential to impact website traffic, as Google would attempt to correct the term, and take you to the closest related result. One example of mistyped keywords affecting the traffic of a webpage is our article about the Best URL Shorteners for 2018. One of the keywords used to find this article is ow.ly, which is one of the tools mentioned in the article, and it is also a keyword mistyped numerous times.

The volume of these mistyped keywords can range from a small 100 to 10,000 above, which is evidence of their impact on search traffic. Thanks to Google’s system, these incorrect search results can lead to meaningful results, making it a more effective search engine.

Search Habits

A look into mistyped and incorrect search terms also helps you know more about search habits as well. You can see how people conduct their search, from hastily typed searches that lead to typographical errors, seeing how words are linked together to get the intended result. Taking a look at this is important, as it helps you learn more about how to optimize your keywords in order for more people to be able to reach your article.

Upon looking at the numerous mistyped keywords in our URL Shortener article, it made me see the numerous ways that the article can be searched, which led to adding more relevant tags and other possible keyword combinations that people might enter. This helped me bring in more traffic to the article, as it allowed more people to find our posts. I’ve done this a few times already, and it has helped give a nice boost to a number of our articles.

Do you need to optimize?

When it comes to optimizing your keywords to be able to take advantage of these misspellings, it is best to make sure that you look into every possible keyword combination that has significant volume and add it as a tag or within the article. Depending on your topic, there can be dozens of keyword combinations that can be used, with some of them guaranteed to be able to lead to your article. Keyword research is always an interesting journey, as looking for competitive and high-traffic keywords is one of the first steps into starting a good SEO strategy.

Key Takeaway

Misspelled and incorrect keywords provide a nice look into search habits and word preferences and help you find out how people are able to discover your article through search. Through the use of keyword research tools, you can take advantage of these mistakes, and capitalize to make them work for you.

If you have questions and inquiries about keyword research and SEO in general, leave a comment below and let’s talk.

The post A Look into Misspelled Keywords and Typographical Errors in Search appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Having a long-tail keyword strategy has always been an undertaking that numerous SEOs try to avoid. Most of them think that it is too time-consuming hence a waste of time; it also uses up a lot of their hard-earned money. It’s perfectly understandable because it is known that long-tail keywords have low search volume, and it is not just worth the effort.

That is why they often opt to rank for popular keywords, but it often ends in failure. The competition for these kinds of keywords is huge, and if you do not put it the extra effort into your strategy, you will just end up wasting a lot of your time and effort.

Here’s an advice to help you: if you do not have a long-tail SEO strategy, you are wasting a precious opportunity that could have otherwise helped you rank higher. Researching long-tail keywords, targeting low-competition keywords that have high conversion rates, and to use these keywords to improve your content’s performance has never been easier as it is now. I’ll be showing you how to do exactly this.

Long-Tail Keywords

These types of keywords are immensely targeted search phrases that specifically fulfill the searcher’s intent. Long-tail keywords typically have low search volume, high conversion rates, and low competition.

They are called “long-tail” because when plotted in a graph of keywords and search volume, they would be on the “long tail” or nearing the end of the search demand curve. This means that they are the keywords that only a few people are searching for them on a monthly basis.

Despite having low search volume, long-tail keywords are definitely easier to rank for and they have a higher chance to convert users into customers than the high-ranking keywords. It is because long-tail keywords possess a specific and clear need that only you and a few number of people can solve. They are basically driven by the intent of the users.

Additionally, when you have completely understood the search intent of your target audience, you can then create content that specifically tackles queries and eventually converts.

Here’s an example: A few users are searching for “Samsung Galaxy J7 Pro price”  – which indicates a very specific intent to purchase. When compared to a search query for “Samsung price”, then the second query is much less clear – which could lead to numerous interpretations such as they might be looking for Samsung phones in general, or an update about the prices of Samsung phones; not about specifically buying a phone.

Keep in mind that the length of long-tail keywords varies from time to time. Some of them are more than three words because of the specificity of the search query while other have less than three words such as brand name searches. All of these can be considered as long-tail keywords.

Why They are Important for SEO

A commonly known fact is that almost 70% of search traffic comes from long-tail keywords, and many of these keywords are business specific. You could only imagine how successful you will be if all of these immensely targeted queries bring about leads directly to your high-converting pages.

Essentially, there are three primary benefits of targeting long-tail keywords:

1. Fewer Competition

Since these keywords are specific to a certain business or field, the competition will only be between you and few others that share your niche. One of the best things of targeting long-tail keywords is that they do not need as much effort to rank well when compared to the high-ranking keywords. A great link building strategy or a perfect meta description for your landing pages could result to a higher ranking and conversion rate if your targeted keywords are sufficiently specific.

2. More Conversions

The simple act of researching long-tail keywords will definitely help you in discovering search intent. If found, you will be able to ascertain queries that indicate an intent to buy and the need for additional information. When you have found all of these, you can already direct qualified leads into your sales process, and to also improve your content marketing efforts and conversion rate optimization.

3. Use it to Optimize for Semantic Search

It has been known that long-tail keywords are essential when you want to optimize for semantic search. Since today is a time of technological advancements, the use of voice search and talking to bots are commonplace. Whenever a user performs queries through these platforms, more often than not, they use long-tail keyword phrases such as questions and commands with specific intent.

Make a habit of predicting what the user’s intent behind the questions, and provide answers about your business or services to improve your efforts in targeting long-tail keyword phrases.

Take note that targeting top converting long-tail keywords even if they have low search density can still be immensely valuable for your business.

Looking For Long-Tail Keywords

Ranking for the correct long-tail keyword could lead to a successful business venture, and discovering new long-tail keywords is as easy as it sounds. You can create a list with considerable length in a matter of minutes. Here’s how:

• Compile the long-tail keywords that you know you rank for.
• Open your preferred keyword research tool.
• Go to Search Traffic.
• Then Search Analytics.
• Select Clicks, Impressions, and Position.
• Lastly, click Download to obtain the complete list.

Next, download the same information about your PPC campaign, FB page, Twitter, Youtube videos, Instagram, and any other metric that you think of that possibly give you new terms. To have a single place to put them in, input them into a single spreadsheet.

You could also try to find new long-tail keywords that are related to you that you know that you could rank for. Here’s how to create a list manually:

• Obtain a list of seed keywords. You could use your preferred keyword planning tool to search for a list of seed keywords. I recommend that you veer away from Google AdWords. This tool is great if you are looking for a list of commercial terms, but it purposely ignored long-tail terms with lower search volume.
• Use Google’s autocomplete suggestion feature. Input each and every seed keyword that you obtained into the Google search bar and list down its autocomplete suggestions.
• List down the related search suggestions. Go to the bottom of each SERP (Search Engine Results Page) to see the related search suggestions.
• Do the same for other search engines that you want to optimize for.
• Add the potential long-tail terms to your spreadsheet.

It might sound difficult, but in today’s software advancements, it will actually be very easy. If you are using the best programs, you can even filter through multiple search engines in a few clicks, and they may even discover long-tail keywords that you have overlooked.

Now that you have a complete list of your potential keywords, filter through it and remove those that do not specifically represent user intent. When you are done, you will be ready to proceed to optimize your pages and add them to your content.

Building Content Around Long-Tail Keywords

What you need to do now is to count how many long-tail keywords you have, and how they are related to each other. Historically, you should make pages for each long-tail. If you can, then that would be good. However, doing this is not always possible.

Whenever you have compiled hundreds of long-tails that you can target, you will be needing content other than landing pages. Here’s what you need to do:

Separate your long-tail keywords by search intent, and compile them accordingly. For example, you have the terms “Casio watches Lazada” and “Casio watches Zalora”, then the intent of these keywords is “places to buy Casio watches”. It’s that easy.

Basically, what you will be doing is organizing your long-tail keywords by topic – which will lead to you finding the most natural group for them to be in. If you already have content that answers the intent that you discover, then you could just insert these keywords into your page. On the other hand, if you do not have any content for them, then you already have an idea for your next piece of content.

Of course, when you are already in the publishing phase of the content, then make sure that you have the perfect meta description and title tag because they will be the ones that will, essentially, be introducing your content to users.

Key Takeaway

Now that you know why you should use a long-tail keyword SEO strategy, use what you learned here to your advantage. However, always remember that your long-tail keyword strategy relies heavily on the content you generate.

If you are not that well known in the industry, start by generating high-value assets, creating content about the industry, and it could also help you if you revise your web copies to impart you UVP (unique value proposition) to your visitors/customers.

Take note that it is also important for you to measure your rankings and traffic while putting out content for your new long-tail keywords. When you do, you might even discover more keyword phrases that you can target, and it will help you to continuously build up your reputation and enhance your on-page SEO.

What are your thoughts on using a long-tail keyword SEO strategy? Let’s talk in the comments section below.

The post TUTORIAL: Why You Should Target Long-Tail Keywords appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Keyword research has always been, and always will be, one of the most integral stages of building a competent SEO campaign.

However, finding the right tool in order to do so can be a challenge of its own. That’s why I’m glad to introduce the newest addition to our ever-growing toolbox: Ferzy.

What is Ferzy?

A relatively new entry in the market, Ferzy is an all-around keyword research tool that provides its users with a bird’s eye view of their chosen keyword and its related metrics in an easily digestible interface. Perfect for both beginner and advanced users alike, it shines when it’s used for projects that require speed and precision.

What Can Ferzy Do For Me?

Ferzy’s greatest strength lies in its simplicity of use. While other tools – such as Google’s own Keyword Planner – require a bit of fiddling around before starting up, Ferzy does not. It gets straight to the point.

Upon loading the homepage I was instantly presented with its search bar, beckoning me to enter a keyword.

After clicking “analyze” I was quickly taken to the dashboard where my keyword’s metrics were displayed in an aesthetically-pleasing and easy-to-understand page.

(Note: You can further adjust search parameters such as language and location by clicking the triple dot button located on the upper right side of the search bar.)

All the data presented – each useful in their own right – combined seamlessly to provide me with an accurate picture of how my keyword would perform.

Let’s break down the features one-by-one and see how they all fit together:

• Keyword suggestions: Long tail keywords related to your query can be found in the leftmost panel, expanding upon your seed keyword’s initial idea. The suggestions are interactive; clicking on one of them will refresh your dashboard and show its stats without losing your original query.
  • C.P.C.: Also known as cost per click. Advertisers who use Google Adsense will make the most out of this. Basically, it assigns a monetary value equivalent to a click on one of your ads with that particular keyword.
  • Searches: Unlike Google’s Keyword Planner (when you’re not running a campaign), the search volumes Ferzy show aren’t rounded-off estimates. They’re more precise.
• SEO difficulty chart: Found at the top, this pie chart + numeric score combo gives you a strong visual representation as to how hard it would be for you to rank your keyword.
  • Ranges from “Very Easy to Almost Impossible”.
• Domain age: This bar chart tells you how old your competitors are. While it may not be the biggest ranking factor, it still helps to know the history of what you’re going up against.
• Top 10 Google Results: Your keyword’s top 10 claimants are displayed in the horizontal box below, right beside columns of useful information that could help you determine how hard it would be to outrank them. Here’s what they mean:
  • Page Authority (PA): Gauges how credible a page on your site is.
  • Domain Authority (DA): Gauges how credible your site is as a whole.
  • Links: How many backlinks their site has. Learn more about that & linkbuilding here.
  • Domains: Counts how many unique sites link back to that specific URL.

That’s it.

For Beginners: How Do I Use Ferzy’s Data?

We’ve got a great, detailed tutorial on how to conduct a keyword research here.

It’s not too difficult – as long as the keywords you choose are relevant, specific, and are geographically tagged. Also, make sure that you go for low competition, high search volume keywords. That’s the sweet spot. It doesn’t hurt to check out what your competitors are doing either.

Similarly, if you want to go a little deeper, Ferzy offers a free 5-day email crash course that talks about everything you need to know about keyword research in general. Here’s a sneak peek:

Day 1 covers the basics:

• The importance of keywords and how they can help make your site successful
• What types of keywords there are
• Short tail vs long tail keywords
• Existing websites vs new websites

Day 2 covers how you can generate your own keywords:

• Online resources to gain ideas from
• A short tutorial on how to search for extra keywords with Ferzy

Day 3 covers keyword analysis and grouping, as well as:

• What cost-per-click is
• What exact searches are
• How you can expand on your keywords better
• How you can organize your keywords

Day 4 covers how you can create a research plan, and:

• How content affects your rankings
• How domain age affects your rankings
• How your links affects your standing
• How domain authority and page authority are
• What the SEO difficulty score is in Ferzy

Day 5 covers how you can approach a certain niche in terms of keywords:

• Short tail vs long tail in terms of difficulty
• “Easy victory” keywords and how to find them

Ultimately, though, it’s up to you to develop your own method for searching for keywords. While Ferzy is a great first step towards doing so, keep in mind that there are a multitude of other tools out there that can perform just as well. It’s all about what’s comfortable for you.

So, How Good is Ferzy?

Again, there are alternatives. Ahrefs, SEMRush, Wordstream, (paid) and even Keywordtool.io (free) can help your search out. So why use Ferzy?

Because it’s so simple.

That’s both its strength and its weakness.

On one hand, it’s effective in minimizing the work needed to forecast how hard it’ll be to rank your preferred keyword. It serves both yours’ and your competitor’s statistics on a silver plate, and it boils down everything you need to know in one click… and in one page. It’s essentially keyword research on easy mode.

There’s no learning curve, sure, but the lack of other, more complex features makes it seem shallow –  especially when it’s compared to any of the other aforementioned paid tools.

There are other minor nitpicks, too:

For one, there was no way to save the data onto my computer and import it into Excel as I usually do. I was stuck saving the URL and having to open it in Chrome every time I wanted to refresh myself on a certain keyword’s stats.

It also doesn’t help that Ferzy doesn’t support keyword searches in bulk, which means I was forced to open an individual tab for every keyword I needed. In the end, I couldn’t help but feel that the process had actually become slightly more cumbersome.

There were also times when I encountered strange results like this one:

However, do note that these little issues may be moot soon, seeing as the developers told me that they plan to integrate fixes to address these in the future.

One thing I’d really like to see is the implementation of a system that creates downloadable reports for you. Hopefully, they’ll be just as well-designed as the dashboard is!

How Much Does Ferzy Cost?

At the time of writing, Ferzy is offering significant discounts on their plans:

• FREE – $0/month – Try it today!
  • 10 searches per 24 hours
  • 25 related keywords per search
  • 10 keyword difficulty evaluations per 24 hours
• STARTER – $27/month | Discounted: $17/month
  • 100 searches per 24 hours
  • 250 related keywords per search
  • 100 keyword difficulty evaluations per 24 hours
• BUSINESS – $47/month | Discounted: $37/month
  • 500 searches per 24 hours
  • 800 related keywords per search
  • 500 keyword difficulty evaluations per 24 hour

Key Takeaway: Ferzy As A Whole

As I mentioned before, it’s a great tool for fast and precise keyword evaluations that don’t require a lot of digging. It worked tremendously well when I used it to search a few keywords for my upcoming blog posts, but held me back when I used it for other tasks that required a much longer list of keywords.

Nevertheless, it’s comprehensive, it’s inviting and simple to use, and it gets straight to the point. While it has its flaws, it’s worth noting that this is still early in development and that a lot of new features are lined up for release.

Overall, it’s a great substitute for other tools and it can hold up in light everyday use, but as it is, it can’t stand as a replacement.

The post Keyword Research Made Quick and Simple – Ferzy appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.

Google keyword tool used to be a favorite keyword research tool among digital marketers and SEOs. But in recent years, Google has reduced the amount of keyword data available to people in Keyword Planner as well as with Google Analytics.

A lot of people brushed off keyword research and started saying things like “just create great content” or “write content for people instead of the search engines”.

While creating high quality content is important, ignoring keyword research and SEO is foolish.

The fact is that even though less data is available through Google’s tools, people still use keywords to find what they’re looking for. Finding out what keywords people are using is still as important as ever if you want to succeed in getting search engine traffic.

Webmaster’s Note: This is a guest entry by Brian Lang from Small Business Ideas Blog.

Although I only blogged once a month last year, I was able to increase SEO traffic to my site by over 1,300%. And much of that traffic comes from long tail keywords in my content.

So how can we find useful keywords to incorporate into our content?

The good news is that there are plenty of other tools that you can use to do keyword research to get the long tail keywords that aren’t available in Google Keyword Planner.

Here are a few useful tools that you might not know about:

1. GrowthBar

One of the most reliable keyword research tools that I’ve used is GrowthBar. The GrowthBar Web App has different features that could help you rank and their Keywords & Content tool is just one of them.

In this tool, you can enter any keyword and find out its search volume and keyword difficulty. It will also provide you an outline for the content that you need to rank for the keyword that you want.

And when you purchase GrowthBar, you’re not only getting the web app but you’re also getting access to the GrowthBar chrome extension.

Many people who do keyword research forget the first step. Your first destination should always be Google search results because it gives you a feel of how you should rank for the keyword you have in mind.

GrowthBar provides the estimated monthly volume of a keyword that you searched for and the ranking difficulty score. GrowthBar also provides a list of keyword suggestions that provides more data and more keywords than the regular related search from Google.

2. SERPs Ubersuggest Alternative

One popular method of getting more keyword ideas is through the keyword suggestion feature that Google and other search engines provide.

Basically, when you start typing into Google, it suggests keyword phrases that you might be searching for.

These keyword suggestions are based on phrases that people actually search for. You can try typing a variety of keywords to get more keyword ideas.

Several tools have been created to generate hundreds of keyword suggestions automatically with a single search. One of my favorites is SERPs Ubersuggest Alternative.

One of the nice features of this tool is that unlike other keyword suggestion tools, it provides keyword volume and CPC data, which can help you decide which keywords to focus on.

3. Tag Crowd

Another way to get keyword ideas is to analyze content from your competitors. Tag Crowd is an easy-to-use tool that will allow you to quickly see what keywords are important on a web page.

Simply click the “Web Page URL” tab and enter the URL you want to analyze in here. Tag Crowd will then display a cloud of keywords, with the most important keywords highlighted.

You can also analyze your own content or other text by using the “Paste Text” tab.

4. Niche Laboratory

If you want to get keyword ideas from pages that are currently ranking for a keyword phrase, then you might want to try the free search at Niche Laboratory.

Niche Laboratory will grab data from the top results for your search term and provide a list of keywords and keyword phrases from those pages. It also displays a keyword tag cloud to show which words are most important.

In addition to keyword data, it also shows a list of the top 10 sites, their title and meta description tags, related images and forums related to that niche.

Finally, related Hubpages shows you some related content that other people have written and can provide inspiration for your own content ideas.

5. Merchant Words

If you are doing keyword research for e-commerce, then you may want to consider adding Merchant Words to your keyword research tools. This tool can be especially useful for people that are selling on Amazon.

Merchant Words crawls Amazon and gets keyword data from Google. It then combines the data to provide volume estimates for each keyword.

You can try to the free search on their site to see how it works, but it only provides a few keywords. The paid versions start at $30 and will give you access to more keywords.

6. Answer the Public

Content marketers might want to play around with Answer the Public to generate topic and even content ideas.

In addition a long list of alphabetically sorted keyword suggestions at the bottom, Answer the Public also provides questions and list of popular prepositions.

It does this by combining keywords with terms like “what”, “when” and “how” for questions and “for”, “like” and “near” for prepositions. This can automatically generate keyword and content ideas that other keyword suggestion tools might miss.

7. Seed Keywords

If you have a marketing team or even a few friends to brainstorm with, then you might want to try out Seed Keywords.

With Seed Keywords, you can create a scenario or question and ask people what they would search for if they were looking for an answer in the search engines.

People can then enter their keyword phrase ideas and Seed Keywords will compile those ideas.

You can then download the results as a CSV and even click on a link to search in Google to see what results show up.

BONUS: SEOPressor

If you are a blogger, then you may want to check out the SEOPressor plugin for WordPress, which comes with quite a few features.

You can specify up to 3 main keywords that you want to rank for and SEOPressor will analyze your content for these keywords. It can also warn you of over-optimization if your keyword phrase appears too often on the page.

It also provides related keywords that you can insert into your content or replace other phrases.

Other features include easy internal linking, rich snippets and social media integration.

This plugin can be convenient for bloggers since it’s located within WordPress, which means you can do your keyword optimization without having to go to another site or app.

 BONUS: Ahrefs Keywords Explorer

Ahrefs Keywords Explorer is the go-to tool if you want to discover tons of unique keywords. Its database contains over 5.6 billion keywords supplied with a bunch of unique metrics. They signal which keywords work in terms of traffic generation.

Some queries look promising due to a high search volume, but that’s misleading. As Google shows a Knowledge Card with an immediate answer, they bring few page visits. With Ahrefs’ Clicks metric, you can estimate the organic search traffic potential for any keyword.

To get an answer to some queries, it’s enough for users to click on the first result only. It means you may get no visits even if you rank as high as #2 in SERPs. Clicks Per Search metric reveals how many search results users click on for each query.

Since the system collects users’ clickstream data, it reveals quite accurate Search Volume. Due to the large backlink index, Ahrefs also gives an accurate Keyword Difficulty score based on that data.

With Ahrefs’ visualized interface, smart filters, and sorting options, you’ll find it easy to research keywords for your projects.

Another BONUS: SEO Powersuite’s Rank Tracker

Rank Tracker is a versatile keyword tracking tool that has a built-in keyword research tool. It integrates 23 keyword research tools such as Google Ads Keyword Planner, Competition research, Domain research, Google Analytics, and Search Console. While you can get data from each individual depending on your target search engine, you could use the data of all these tools to discover more keywords.

Aside from major keywords you could find. collecting long-tail keywords is easier as Rank Tracker will give automatic suggestions.

Their recent update also added a new feature called Keyword Gap where you could compare and acquire keywords your competitors are ranking for. Their update with their database also gives you more accurate and fresh data.

To Sum It Up

Creating content for people is important. But so is keyword research and understanding what phrases people are using to find content.

SEO and keyword research aren’t dead. And if you aren’t incorporating keywords into your content, then you’re probably missing out on a lot of search engine traffic.

If you need some more keyword tools to play with, then check out this massive compilation of over 70 keyword research tools and ideas: 70+ Keyword Research Tool Alternatives to Google Keyword Planner

The post 7 Unique Keyword Research Tools that You Might Not Know About appeared first on SEO Services Agency in Manila, Philippines.