Sunday Morning SEO: How to Find Good Long Tail Keywords (Part 3)

In my last post, I gave the second step to finding good long tail keywords: targeting the keywords on your initial keyword list. Here is the third and final step.

• Part 1: Generate an initial keyword list.
• Part 2: Target the keywords.
• Part 3: Check your keyword logs.

Part 3: Check your keyword logs.

After your target keywords, wait a couple days and then check your keyword logs.  You’ll extrapolate that data to find more long tail keywords.  This step is important because your keyword logs provide some of the best data of finding long tail keywords.

As you go over your logs, look for these two things: the repetition of different words and phrases within your search terms and the search terms that send the most traffic.

For example, let’s pretend you have a online dating blog.  You check your logs and see these two words showing up a lot, profile and safety, within your search terms.

I would then write a variety of blog posts related to these words.  For example, posts like

• How to Get a Lot of Traffic to Your Online Dating Profile
• How to Take an Attractive Profile Picture
• 10 Online Dating Safety Tips
• Online Dating Safety: Watch Out for These 7 Warning Signs

Next, think of synonyms.

For example, if you have a wedding blog and you’re ranking well for affordable wedding dress, target synonyms like cheap, discount, and gown.

So, you could create posts like

• How to Buy a Discount Wedding Gown Online
• How I Found a Cheap Wedding Gown on Craigslist

Finally, for the search terms you rank well for, check the blog posts that rank well for those terms.  Then, create a blog post that targets the same keyword but goes over a slightly different topic.

For example, let’s say you have an audio book blog.  Your blog post entitled “Top 5 Audio Book Rental Sites” ranks well for audio book rental sites.  You can create a post entitled “Audio Book Rental Sites: How Do They Actually Work?”