Believe it or not, you’ve had have access to the best source for long tail keywords all along - Your customers
The best long tail keywords for your business, are the ones your potential customers are using
While that may seem like a pretty obvious statement, it is still powerfully true. Yet so many businesses I work with spend hundreds or thousands of dollars each month on services and tools to help uncover their “best” keywords.
To be clear, I am all for research and data analytics, but only when the best answer isn’t blatantly clear. If you have no idea what terms your customers are searching, and no way of figuring that out, then a paid solution probably makes sense…
Before you shell out some cash, here are some tips to find the best long tail keywords for your business without paying a dime - and probably get better results too
Your Salespeople
They are (or should be) talking to your customers every day. They should be able to tell you the most common questions they get. You can use those questions to build out your keyword list. The real key here is to try and understand the typical verbiage your customers use. In other words, how are they asking these questions and what words are they using.
Your Custom Service Team
Another front-line group, your support team should have a good grasp on some of the major topics your customers are interested. There are plenty more reasons to use your service team as a key insight into the minds of your customers, but this one can help you find long tail keywords that are very specific to your business - which is the whole point!
Customer Surveys
If you’re not sending these out, then, well...you should. They are immensely useful for improving your service and customer retention, while also providing another source to uncover new long tail keywords. Try to incorporate open-ended questions that allow you to capture the actual words your customers use
And while we’re on the topic, here’s a few more ways to find some really good long tail keywords for your business
Google Alerts
Fresh news always creates a void of relevant content. Every time WordPress updates, new phrases are searched that have never been before. For example, “Updating to WordPress 5.1 broke my contact form” probably wasn’t searched very often until WordPress actually released v. 5.1.
Using current events that are specific to your industry and business is a great way to find long tail keywords for cheap, and get there before your competitors
Your Competitors
While you are searching for long tail keywords, you should take note of the websites you find. Clearly, those sites are doing a good job of capitalizing on strong keywords. You might want to consider subscribing to their blog or checking in regularly. Every time they release a new post, you should consider targeting the same keywords. After all, there’s a reason they are writing what they write.
