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In his continuation of yesterday's article, Robbie Richards gives us SIX MORE ways to uncover profitable long tail keywords.

7. Bing Keyword Research Tool

Like the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, the Bing Keyword Research tool is free, will suggest key phrases related to the terms you enter, and will indicate the search volume of those keywords.

However, there is one key difference. Bing gives you the number of actual organic search queries, whereas the AdWords Keyword Tool only tells you how many queries trigger the keyword in Google’s paid search.

Here's how to do it.

Log into your Bing Webmaster Tools acount, hit the "Diagnostics and Tools" tab and select "Keyword Research."

Now, enter a seed keyword into the "Keyword Research" box. You can also set the date range and country to filter the results:

Hit "search" and you will be given a list of additional keywords related to the original search query based on relevancy. Hover over the dollar sign symbol to get a look at the average CPC:

Since Bing is a completely different search engine with a different user demographic, you will likely get some different long tail search variations.

8. Google Trends

Google Trends will show you high volume keywords before they are available in the Google Keyword Planner.

Even better, you can view a keyword's popularity over a given time period and identify long tail keyword opportunities before your competitors get to them.

Here's how to do it.

First, head over to Google Trends and enter the keyword you're targeting:

Interest over time is based on search volume and news headlines.

For this example, "led boat lights" is a seasonal keyword that has shown spiked growth over the last few years. This suggests a seasonal niche with positive seasonal growth.

Now, take a look at the "related search terms" report. You will notice a few new keywords that weren't shown in the Google Keyword Planner:

Bonus Tip: Hit the "rising" button to filter the results by keywords showing a spike in search volume. Get a head start on the competition.

9. Google Related Search

Every time you enter a query into Google you will see a section at the bottom of the page called "searches related to..."

You will often find some great long tail keywords with high commercial intent. For example, "best underwater boat lights" and "underwater boat lights reviews" indicate the user moving towards the end of the buying cycle, looking for product reviews and content containing product/service comparisons.

Some of these keywords don't show up when you search in the Google Keyword Planner.

If you want to take things to another level, take a keywords from the "searches related to..." box and enter back into the search box.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and see which terms are related to that keyword:

Rinse and repeat.

10. Soovle

If you want to find long-tail search terms your competitors are missing, check out Soovle.

This is a free tool that delivers keyword suggestions from Amazon, Wikipedia, YouTube, Google Suggest, Bing and a number of others.

Head over to Soovle and enter one of your target keywords:

Hit "soovle."

Now, you will see a list of suggested search terms from some of the major search engines:

As you can see, each website returns a different set of suggested search terms. Look at Yahoo's suggested terms, "12 volt led boat lights" and "surface mount underwater led boat". These are new terms and provide some valuable insights into the specific product attributes users are looking for.

You can download the results as a CSV by hitting the download button:

Bonus Tip: Click one of the results and you'll be taken to the search results page for that term. This will show you which competitors are ranking for the keyword and how they targeting the keyword in their content marketing/ SEO strategy.

11. Übersuggest

Übersuggest is another free tool that scrapes keywords from Google Suggest.

You get a ton of long-tail keyword ideas from this tool. Many of the terms won't make sense, but occasionally you'll unearth some golden nuggets.

The tool will take your seed keyword and adds every letter in the alphabet to the end of it to generate hundreds of long-tail keyword ideas.

Here's how to do it.

Head over to Übersuggest and enter one of your seed keywords, fill out the captcha and hit "suggest."

The tool returns 230 long-tail keywords.

As you can see, it has appended terms corresponding with each letter of the alphabet to the end of the seed keyword:

Click on each word to get further suggestions based on that term:

The keyword is very to manage. Simply click on the "plus" icon next to a term you'd like to add to your master list.

Then, head over to the right sidebar and click "get."

Then, you will see a pop up with your list of keywords. Copy and paste these terms into your master list.

12. KeywordTool.io

KeywordTool.io is another fantastic free tool that you can use to uncover a boat load of long-tail keywords. In fact, the tool will generate up to 750 suggestions for every keyword you enter. You can export the results.

Similar to UberSuggest, this tool pulls search terms from Google Suggest.

However, this tool is way more powerful than UberSuggest for one reason...it will add terms before and after the seed keyword. It allows you to choose from 192 different Google domains and 83 languages.

For example, if you entered the search term "led boat lights" into UberSuggest you would see results such as "led boat lights amazon" and "led boat lights bass pro" as keywords are only being appended after the seed term.

Let's take a look at the power of Keyword Tool.io.

Head over to the Keyword Tool.io site and enter a seed keyword. Set your desired search engine and language:

As you can see, the tool returns 226 long-tail keyword ideas. This includes results with keywords added after the seed keyword:

...and before the seed term:

Rinse and repeat.

Commercial Intent

Now that you have a large list of long-tail keywords, it's time to assess the commercial intent of these terms. Why do we want to focus more on keywords with high commercial intent?

Keywords with high commercial intent are positioned further down the sales funnel, close to the point of purchase. These are high-converting keywords that buyers are using to make a purchase. Many of these keywords will include terms such as "best", "reviews", "buy", "purchase", "sale", all of which clearly indicate the user is close to converting.

These keywords are the money makers!

Here's how to quickly gauge the commercial intent of your keywords.

First, copy your list of search terms.

Head over to the Google Keyword Planner. Paste or upload your list of keywords:

For this example, I entered a few keywords indicative of different stages in the buying cycle to clearly showcase the different levels of commercial intent.

Click "get search volume" and select the "keyword ideas" tab:

Now, pay attention to the "suggested bid" column. This metric will show you how much advertisers are bidding on a particular keyword. Naturally, higher bids are given to the most valuable (profitable) keywords:

As you can see, the phrase "best seo companies" has a much higher suggested bid than the phrase "seo tips."

Why?

Someone searching for "best seo companies" is likely researching which company they are going to contract for seo services. They are towards the end of the buying cycle.

Someone searching for "seo tips" is performing an informational search. These users are at the start of the buying cycle.

Competition for a keyword is another sign of commercial intent. This metric shows the number of advertisers bidding on a keyword in AdWords.

Generally, the more people bidding on a keyword, the more profitable the keyword:

Now, let's verify what the Keyword Planner is telling us.

Head over to Google and enter one of your keywords into the search bar. For this example, we'll search "best SEO companies."

As you can see, there are a bunch of text ads displaying above and to the right of the search results.

The number of ads indicates that there are a lot of advertisers bidding on this keyword. Another indication the keyword is very valuable.

Next, head over to your Bing Ads account. Log in and click the "tools" tab in the upper right corner.

Select the "keyword research" tool.

Enter one of your keywords into the search field:

Look at the "average CPC" column. The cost won't be as high as Google because there are less people bidding on the keywords in Bing. However, it should give you a relative comparison.

As you can see, the CPCs are still higher for the bottom-of-the-funnel long-tail keywords:

Bing does not provide a "competition" column.

Google Analytics

Another way you can determine which keywords are driving conversions is by using Google Analytics.

First, open your Google Analytics account. Then, go to "Acquisition>>AdWords>>AdWords Keywords."

Filter the list of top-performing keywords by the conversion column. This will show you which keywords are driving the most conversions through your paid campaigns.

These are the long-tail keywords you want to be targeting in your SEO campaigns.

Keyword Competition

By now, you will have a lengthy list of high value long-tail keywords.

However, not all keywords are created equally. Some of the keywords on your list are going to be more competitive — and take longer to rank for — than others.

Starting out, you'll want to target those high-converting keywords with the lowest level of competition (less legwork to get on the first page of the SERPs).

Here's how to do it.

There are two Google Chrome extensions that I highly recommend installing before you begin your competitive analysis.

Head on over to the Chrome extensions marketplace and install the following two extensions:

1. SEOQuake

SEOQuake supports Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari browsers. Follow the prompts to install and activate the toolbar.

2. Mozbar

Open the same browser you installed SEOQuake on, and install and activate Mozbar.

When you do a search in Google you should see information from SEOQuake:

And from Mozbar under each search result:

Now that you have these extensions installed, head over to google and do a quick search for one of your long-tail keywords:

Pay close attention to the "page rank" and "linking domains" metrics shown in the SEOQuake toolbar:

Why should you pay attention to these metrics?

The number of domains linking to a site is one of Google's top ranking factors. Essentially, each link pointing to a site is seen by Google as a "vote" of confidence. If these links are coming from related domains, it becomes a strong indication of relevancy and authority. The higher the "PR" and "LD", the harder it is going to be to outrank that page.

The example above looks promising.

The Mozbar extension compliments the SEOQuake toolbar nicely.

Because Page Rank doesn't get updated often, you will also want to pay attention to the Page and Domain Authority of each page in the SERPs:

If you find that the first page of the SERP is filled with pages that have high PA and DA metrics, you might want to elect to target a different keyword. In this case, it will take a long time before you even come close to cracking the first page.

Try and target the keywords that return results with PA and DA below 40. You can easily outrank these pages with strong on-page SEO and minimal link building.

Bonus Tip: If the SERPs are filled with pages that have high DA and low PA, you can still rank quickly for those keywords. Page authority is a much stronger ranking signal. Usually, you will see page pages from Amazon that have crazy high DA, but really low PA:

If you optimize and build links to your internal pages you'll still be able to outrank pages that are ranking solely off the authority passed through from the root domain.

Take advantage of the link analysis tabs provided on both extensions. You can drill in and see where sites are getting their links, and steal them!

Finally, you can use the Semrush Keyword Difficulty Tool to assess how difficult it is to take your competitors' position in organic search.

Open Semrush, enter your keyword and scroll down to "Tools" and select "Keyword Difficulty."

The higher the "Difficulty" percentage, the more difficult it is going to be to rank for that keyword:

Final Thoughts

Targeting high commercial intent keywords is the secret to a profitable SEO campaign. It allows you to capture users late in the buying cycle, improving your chances of conversion. However, not all keywords are created equally. Some are informational. Some are research-based. Some are more competitive than others.

Long-tail keywords will deliver more targeted traffic to your site, increase conversions and allow you to rank for a larger number of keyword variations. Remember, once you have made a list of keywords, take the time to determine the commercial intent and level of competition for the keyword. It will save you a lot of time and money!

How do YOU perform keyword research? Any techniques you'd add to the list? Leave a comment below and let us know.

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