13 Best Free Tools You Need to Improve Your Long Tail Keywords in 2022

UPDATE: June 2022: My favorite long tail keyword generator is KWFinder even though I pay for Ahrefs which can also be used as a long-tail keyword generator. That’s how much I like KWFinder.

The tool is accurate and easy to use.

Are you looking for a generator for long-tail keywords?

Do you want more organic traffic?

Who doesn’t?

Even if comments are low, when you see people coming from search engines, you know you are helping others by empowering them with your information.

Do you want that fulfillment knowing helping others brings?

Today’s tip is as easy as counting to four.

That’s the tip– if you can count four (or more) words in your keyword phrase, you have a long-tail keyword.

SEO is getting harder.

Use long tail keywords and watch the traffic pour in.

After reading this post, you will know how to find low competition long tail keywords using free tools.

I always test my methods and I did using these longtail keyword tools.

This post will include a case study with screenshots that prove using long tail keywords work.

The thirteen long tail keywords tools this post describes will enable you to find keywords to boost your search engine traffic. The best part– all the tools are free.

Terms You Need to Know:

Short tail keywords: one or two words

Medium tail keywords: three words in a phrase

Long tail keywords: four or more words in a phrase

The Value of Long Tail Keywords

This topic is trendy. Long tail keywords are trendy. It is not in vogue to just use keywords. Keyword phrases are what the current SEO rage is about and what will garner you search engine traffic.

Consider these comments from blogger and marketer Darrell Antonio: “The days of focusing on a single keyword for each page are long gone.”

This makes sense. When users go to search engines, they type in a phrase, not a word. Often that phrase will start with “How to.”

Look at what users typed into search engines to find my articles:

Of the five listed here, only the first one is a word; all the others are phrases.

Let’s look at another example:

Look: This time all of them are long tail keywords, phrases four words or more.

According to Search Engine Land:

Users are now entering full queries or phrases in search engines, which… provide results more effectively.

In 2017, for your SEO strategy, it will be critical to:

Investigate. What are users searching for that brings them to your page? What questions do they want your content to answer?

Rahul Kuntala goes as far as to say you should not only use long tail keywords, you should put them in your headlines.

I interviewed Rahul and asked him for an example of how to do that. He responded:

Let’s assume your long tail keyword is “increase website traffic quickly”

You can use these following headline hacks:

10 Unusual Ways to increase your website traffic quickly in 2017
5 tips to increase your website traffic rapidly

You don’t even have to use the same keywords (for instance, in the second headline sample, I used “rapidly” instead of “quickly”).

Consider these comments from Mark Newsome‘s comments on 4 Ways You Can Improve Your Keywords & See a Big Surge of Traffic:

Too bad you still see far too many online newbie marketers still attempting to use the old school method of keyword
stuffing! Either that or they don’t even bother to learn basic keyword research at all!

Using only one keyword is “old school.” Today’s basic keyword practices involve using keyword phrases.

Victoria of Dazzle While Frazzled explained,

I’ve been going back and updating old posts and many of my very first posts had one generic word as the keyword! If I only I had known about long tail keywords when I started. The things we learn the longer we blog!

From Shamsudeen:

Effective keyword research is the foundation to a successful marketing. If you get your keywords right, you simply attract the right audience.

The tools in this post will enable you to conduct that research to find the right long tail keywords.

Why you need these long tail keyword tools:

Consider this comment from Sherab Tenzin when responding to my guest author’s article This Is How to Improve Your Blog’s SEO Without Money or Plugins:

The post would be more elaborate if he could have shared some more tools (free and premium) that can used for keyword mining by bloggers. Many know only of Google’s Keyword Planner.

Thanks
Sherab Tenzin

You are in luck! Consider this a follow-up to 5 Free Tools to Help You Easily Improve Your Keywords.

Use Free Tools to Find Long Tail Keywords

Alexa.com

When you log in, you see the keywords people are using to find your site. Use those in future articles.

[You will find an Alexa tutorial here.]

Keyword Tool

A very useful keyword discovery tool you might possibly not find in Google’s Keyword Planner. Shamsudeen recommends this tool for finding long tail keywords.

Google Keyword Planner

For many people looking for keywords and keyword phrases, Google Keyword Planner is still the only game in town. My post How to Easily Get Your Blog Found on Google offers a Keyword Planner tutorial.

The bottom line is to look for keywords with low competition. If there aren’t many choices, search engine users will be more likely to pick your article.

My reluctance to use the site stems from the fact that while I am able to find keywords with low competition, I find Google’s Keyword Planner limiting when it comes to keyword phrases.

Soovle

My latest favorite long tail keyword tool is Soovle.

Let’s do an experiment. I need long tail keywords keyword phrases for this post. At Soovle, I typed in “long tail keywords.” Look at all the phrases it offered me!

(Note: As my post 1 Secret Tip That Will Make You See More Search Engine Traffic explained, you can’t use all of them. You need to limit your choices to a few.)

7 Search

See where to enter your keyword:

See if long tail keywords come up on the list the tool generates.

KW Finder

Look at all the choices KW Finder offered me for this post. I searched again for “long tail keywords.”

The best part: the site shows you the amount of searches for your keyword and how trendy those searches are.

KWFinder is my go-to tool. I am such a fan I don’t appreciate the limitations you get when you use KWFinder as a free long tail keyword tool. Therefore, I pay to use the tool soI get more keyword choices.

Hubshout

See what long tail keywords you rank for. Write about them again.

SEMRush

SEO Expert Robin Khokar recommends SEMRush.

With a free account, you can find out the top ten keywords and keyword phrases you rank for by typing in your blog’s URL. Use these in future posts since search engine users are finding you with them.

Neil Patel recommends doing the same with your competitors’ keywords.

Look at a screenshot of my results.

You can see the keywords search engine users are using to find my blog.

Count how many of them are the long tail, 4 words or more, and medium tail, 2 or 3 words long. How many are only 1 word long? One? You get my drift. People type in phrases to search engines. You need to type phrases when you tag your posts.

If you look at the eighth phrase down, you will see “free blog tools”. According to SEMRush, I rank for that keyword phrase, so I made sure to tag this post with it since this post is about free keyword tools.

When I clicked “Position Changes”, in my SEMRush dashboard, new keyword phrases people are using to find me came up. I will be sure to use them in future articles.

The Etech Explorer blog calls SEMRush a “must tool” for everyone. In a study of 97 marketing and SEO experts, SEMRush was found to be the favorite choice out of 10 SEO tools.

Buzzsumo.com

Buzzsumo tells you what’s trending. I know to put my keyword phrases in my headlines and tag my post with those phrases as well as tag my graphic with the keyword phrase. However, I am often torn about which keyword phrase to use.

For example, I didn’t know what keywords phrase to use for my glossary, 119 Blogging Terms You Need to Know to Be a Better Blogger. I couldn’t decide between “Blogging Terms” and “Better Blogger.” Clearly, I wanted to pick a keyword phrase that would get me more traffic on search engines.

I went to Buzzsumo and typed in both phrases. When I typed in “Blogging Terms,” not much came up. However, when I typed in “Better Blogger,” one article with those words in the headline had been shared over 53,000 times. Bingo! My decision was made! “Better Blogger” was my choice.

2020 UPDATE: Buzzsumo is now a paid tool.

Google Search Console

Click “Search Analytics”. You will see the keywords people have used to find you. Use them again in future posts.

Moz Keyword Explorer

Type in your search word, and check out all the long tail keyword phrases that turn up. In addition, the tool will show you how many monthly searches there are for that long tail keyword phrase.

Answer the Public

When I typed “long tail keywords” into the search bar, I found “how to find long tail keywords.” Since this is more than four words long, this is a long tail keyword. Neil Patel recommends keyword phrases are at least four words long. All the keyword phrases for my query were four words or longer as you can see in the screenshot.

UberSuggest

After typing in your keyword, UberSuggest actually sorts the keyword results into alphabetical order. They won’t all be long tail, but you’ll have long tail keywords on the list that is generated.

2020 UPDATE: Ubersuggest only offers 5 free queries. To use unlimited features of Ubersuggest, you need to pay $10. a month. Since Ubersuggest is now a paid tool, you might consider an Ubersuggest alternative.

[Read: Ubersuggest: This is the SEO Guide You Need]

Case Study: Do the Long Tail Keyword Tools Work?

Look: Since using these tools to find long tail keywords, my search engine traffic is growing!

I continued to use the 4-word keyword technique.

Look what I saw on January 4:

These results might vary according to

Your niche
What’s trending. Check Buzzsumo.com to see if your topic is trending.
Time of the year. People will research holidays during holiday seasons more often than other times of the year.

Those of you who have been reading my secret tips posts know that in 2015 I was receiving 2 hits from search engines a day. Now here I am two years later and receiving 68 in a day! My search engine stats are climbing!

You do not have to wait two years to see your hits from search engines rise this dramatically. In October, SEO expert Clay and I started emailing about SEO tips. He inspired me to use long tail keywords consistently.

Here’s the deal: Two and a half months later, my search engine traffic has leaped from 2 a day to 68 a day.

This did not happen overnight. As you saw from the previous screenshot of 58 hits in a day from search engines, my organic traffic (traffic from search engines) has been continuing to climb. I predict it will continue to rise as I continue to use long tail keywords in my blog post tags.

Look:

I was right! My search engine traffic has continued to rise. The 72 page views coming from search engines are not an anomaly. They have stayed constant.

It gets even better:

According to Alexa.com, my search engine traffic is up 71%.

Wrapping Up: Long Tail Keywords

Now you have a go-to list for when you need a longtail keywords tool.

According to Yandra Lassource from the She Blogs About Jobs blog, long tail keywords will get you more search engine traffic. However, newer blogs may take longer to rank on Google.

According to Neil Patel, long tail keywords are not enough. You need to combine them with strong content.

By offering strong content and using long tail keywords, search engines will be sending you increased organic traffic in no time!

Readers, please share, so other bloggers and website creators become aware of the free choices available to them when trying to improve their SEO. Share so other bloggers and marketers can use this list when they need a long tail keyword generator.

If you would like more free blogging tools, click here to get your own downloadable PDF of my 89 free blogging tools list.

I look forward to your answers in the comments section about long tail keyword research tools:

What long tail keywords generator do you use? Did I miss any you can recommend? What is the best tool to find long tail keywords in your opinion? Do you have experiences with any of these tools you can share? What do you believe is the best long tail keywords tool?

4 Ways You Can Improve Your Keywords and See a Big Surge of Traffic

5 Free SEO Tools to Help You See More Website Traffic

NoHat 101 – Keyword Research

Keyword Research Case Study

Source:

Many of these techniques are based on the work of Clay from PCMate.Org.

Kingged.com

AimForBig.com

Janice Wald

Janice Wald is the founder of MostlyBlogging.com and co-founder of the Mostly Blogging Academy. She is an ebook author, blogger, blogging coach, blogging judge, freelance writer, and speaker. She won the Best Internet Marketer Award and the Best Blogger Award at the 2021 Infinity Blog Awards. Wald was also nominated as 2019 Best Internet Marketer by the Infinity Blog Awards and in 2017 as the Most Informative Blogger by the London Bloggers Bash. She’s been featured on Small Business Trends, the Huffington Post, and Lifehack.

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LuAnn Braley

While I’ve been blogging for a number of years, I still feel like a ‘noob’ on the more technical aspects, which is one reason I like coming to your blog. It explains things in words I understand, and I find it to be a valuable resource as I go forward. For instance, I clicked through to each resource, and found the couple that I think will work best for me at this point. I also subscribed to a couple (more) blogs.

Reply to this message
- Rahul Kuntala
  
  Hi Janice,
  
  Great to know long tail keyword strategy is working for you. As someone pointed out “old school tricks don’t work”. All I’d say is: old school techniques still work if you do it right. Anyone who’s doing SEO for 5+ years know that targeting just 1 or 2 word keywords (like fitness or fitness tips) is too BAD and won’t work at all!
  
  This is where long tail keywords come into play.
  
  I’ve used long tail keywords + 2000+ word articles strategy with a ton of my clients and the results were always amazing (it works for any industry). Within 6 months, their search traffic not only tripled but their sales also went up. That’s the power of content marketing (when it’s done right).
  
  There’s one important thing to consider while targeting long tail keywords.. choose a combination of “user intent” + “commercial intent” keywords.
  
  User intent keywords = educating your audience about something (how to get rid of fat)
  Commercial intent keywords = making them to buy stuff from you (best weight loss equipment)
  
  When you use the above combination (while doing long tail research), both your search traffic and sales would skyrocket.
  
  AND it usually takes 101 days (at an average) to get first page rankings for a medium to somewhat high search volume keywords but when you target long tail keywords with low volume (below 1000 monthly searches), you can get faster rankings.
  
  Okay, now that’s too much stuff to consume 😉
  
  Keep rocking Janice. You’re doing a good job.
  
  Reply to this message
  - Janice Wald
    
    Hi Rahul,
    Thanks so much for the kind words about my blog.
    Question: Can you please give an example of user intent” + “commercial intent?
    You mentioned an example of user intent, but do you have an example of commercial intent? Thanks,
    Janice
    
    Reply to this message
    - Janice Wald
      
      Sorry Rahul,
      That’s not what I need. A combination of both of them: A keyword combination that’s both user intent and would make you “buy stuff”. Thanks.
      Janice
      
      Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi LuAnn,
  Thanks for commenting on my post. Your comments made me feel great when they came in on Sunday. Thank you for the kind words about my blog. I’m glad I could turn you on to a few more new keyword tools.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
Yandra

Awesome post and insights! I’ve never used many of the keyword tools listed here, but they are worth looking into. I can honestly say that since focusing on SEO, keyword research and using long tail keywords, I have seen a consistent increase in my google traffic each month.

P.S Thanks for mentioning me in this great post!

Yandra

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Yandra

Awesome post and insights! I’ve never used many of the keyword tools listed here, but they are worth looking into. I can honestly say that since focusing on SEO, keyword research and using long tail keywords, I have seen a consistent increase in my google traffic each month.

P.S Thanks for mentioning me in this post!
Yandra

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Yandra,
  It was my pleasure to link to you in Sunday’s article. I have also seen an increase in traffic since focusing on keyword phrases as my post indicated.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
Nick

Long tail keywords are very important now a days since there’s been huge competition in search results so we need to focus on long tail keywords.

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Nick,
  It makes sense that keyword phrases would work. Thanks for coming by and writing with a testimonial about them.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
  - Janice Wald
    
    PS I like your avatar.
    Janice
    
    Reply to this message
- Alice george
  
  Definitely because short tail keyword have high competition, long tail keyword work good.
  
  Reply to this message
Lucie

Janice, this is such a helpful post! I have been focusing on longtail keywords for the last few months and I, too, have seen an increase in search engine traffic. I usually use Google Keyword Planner and Buzzsumo, but you have given me many other tools to experiment with! Thank you for always providing unique and helpful content. We love your blog!

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Lucie,
  Thanks so much for the kind words about my blog. Thanks as well for writing with validation that keyword tools and keyword phrases do work.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
Barbara Radisavljevic

Thank you. This is really helpful. I really don’t want to use a paid tool at this point. I already love some of these tools you suggested.

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Barbara,
  Great to see you here. Thanks for coming by on Sunday. I’m glad I could introduce you to some more unpaid tools. You never know if one doesn’t do the trick, now you have all these options.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
Donna

Thank you for giving me another valuable tool (and the resources to go with it) for my toolbox.
Shared on Flipboard.

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Donna,
  Thanks so much for flipping my article. Look me up over at Flipboard. I am MostlyBlogging.com. I am glad you enjoyed my SEO article; thanks for writing to tell me.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
John Doe

Always love your seo and Alexa posts.

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Thanks John!
  
  Reply to this message
Ritche

nice post… thank you for the tips…

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Ritche,
  It’s always my pleasure to help. Thank you for coming by on Monday to comment on my SEO article.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
josh

Hi! Found you through Pinterest and headed over to check out your website. First article I find is about SEO and long-tail keywords. Absolutely awesome! Keep up the great work!

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Josh,
  Thanks for letting me know where you found me since I always wonder. I am glad you enjoyed the article. I try to publish articles about SEO at least once a month.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
Cleo

Hi Janice,

Thanks for including 7Search as a good resource for researching long-tail keyword phrases; might I suggest an additional link for your readers to use? They can access our online keyword tool anytime by visiting http://7search.com/kst to research long-tail terms and their variants.

Best,

Cleo

7SearchGuys

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Cleo,
  I appreciate you coming by to give us more information about your keyword tool. I plan on checking out the link you brought us myself.
  I enjoy using your keyword tool. It was my pleasure to write about it.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
Shamsudeen Adeshokan

Hi Janice,

Nicely written and full of useful practical tips. Thanks for the mention too, I appreciate the support.

Thank you.

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Shamsudeen,
  Thanks for coming by to thank me. It was my pleasure to link to your helpful content.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
handbagsyou

I clicked through to each resource.

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Thanks for reading what I wrote and checking out the tools! Did you keep my blog open while you did?
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
Kathleen - Bloggers Lifestyle

This is so very interesting. I had never heard of Soovle, quite an experience there.

A great help.
Kathleen
Blogger’s Pit Stop

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  ?
  
  Reply to this message
Roseann Hampton

Thanks for such great information! I am fairly new to blogging and there is just so much to learn!

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Roseann,
  That’s what I do here. I help new bloggers. Thanks for your comments on my SEO article.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
Grammy Dee

Lots of good info and resources. Thanks Janice from Grammy Dee, #WednesdayAIM #LinkUp #BlogParty, social media shared.

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Grammy,
  Thanks for the comments and for sharing my post. I trust you’ll apprise me via email each Wednesday when your linky goes live.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
Reuven

I love this post. There are so many useful ideas and links to work with! Thanks

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Reuven,
  Thank you for your comments. I agree. I thought 13 was a wide range of choices. Glad you enjoyed.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
Vicky Rout

Janice Wald these are very best tool for long tail keyword also Longtailpro is good

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Do you pay for long tail pro or is it free?
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
Lisa

I love the tools you introduced here! I’ve been using long tail keywords for a long time and they definitely are the key to getting a lot of Google search traffic! I love using Ubersuggest! So many great ideas.
thanks for the informative insights too!
Best
Lisa

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Lisa,
  Thanks so much for writing me. I am glad you enjoyed the tools.
  I am planning a post on Ubersuggest. May I as why you like it so much? If I use your comments, I’ll link to you.
  Thanks,
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
  - Lisa
    
    Hi Janice! I’d be happy to send you my comments on why I like it so much! Will get that to you in the next couple of days.
    Best
    Lisa
    
    Reply to this message
    - Janice Wald
      
      Much appreciated Lisa, thank you!
      Janice
      
      Reply to this message
Josefa

This is a blessed day for me! In my first week of blogging I nearly receive 699 visitors. But the next day my readership dropped to 25. I almost wanted to drop out of blogging. And I studied my layout and stuff, and I never paid attention to keywords, long tail keywords most especially.

I said this is a blessed day because I happen to come across this article full of gold. Once again, you have proven yourself to be an angel and mentor to all types of bloggers. And I really do appreciate all the effort you put into your work. I will definitely bookmark this post.

Thanks again, Ms. Janice,
Josefa: http://writeaboutwhat.com

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fnaf world

The free tools you share help me a lot in improving long tail keywords. Thank you for sharing these great tools.

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Janet Travis

I have used many of the above tools to find longtail keywords. I use one called Jaaxy. I find it pretty accurate.

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Janet Travis

Great info.I have used many of the above tools to find long-tail keywords. I use one called Jaaxy. I find it pretty accurate.

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Janet,
  I am also familiar with Jaaxy. I also like it. The problem I have with Jaaxy is I don’t consider it a free tool. I know you can use it for free; I have. However, the number of times you can use it for free is limited. Has something changed or do you pay to use it? I hope you don’t mind my asking. Thanks for commenting.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
Janet Travis

I use Jaaxy with the wealthy affiliate platform. You can upgrade but it’s not really necessary if you are a wealthy affiliate member.

Just a heads up.
This commenting program is not working too well. Hence the reason I have 2 comments.

Reply to this message
- Janice Wald
  
  Hi Janet,
  Thanks for the heads up about the commenting program. I’ve fixed CommentLuv. I realize there are still problems with the comments which should be fixed by the end of the week.
  Janice
  
  Reply to this message
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Muzammil Sh

Hey Janice,
Long-tail keywords really work. I’ve read the complete article and do more work on long-tail keywords of my website for better ranking. Recommendations of other SEO experts give importance on long-tail keywords.
Thanks a lot for the user guide on long-tail keywords.
Cheers

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