15 Best Tools for Finding Profitable Long-Tail Keywords in 2023

When it comes to SEO and content marketing, not all keywords are created equal. While you may be tempted to target broad, high-volume keywords, you‘ll often find yourself facing stiff competition for a spot on the first page of search results.

That‘s where long-tail keywords come in. These highly specific, often question-based queries tend to have lower search volume but higher conversion rates due to their laser-focused intent. Searchers using long-tail keywords typically know exactly what they‘re looking for and are closer to making a purchase decision.

For example, let‘s say you sell running shoes online. Trying to rank for a generic term like "running shoes" will be an uphill battle. But if you optimize pages around long-tail phrases like "best lightweight trail running shoes for men" or "most cushioned running shoes for marathons," you‘re more likely to attract qualified traffic that converts.

The challenge is uncovering those valuable long-tail keyword opportunities, as they are quite literally "the long tail" – making up the huge number of unique search queries that individually have low volume but collectively account for the majority of searches. While you could try to brainstorm long-tail keywords yourself, a far more efficient approach is to leverage tools specifically designed for surfacing relevant long-tail suggestions.

In this guide, we‘ll walk through proven tactics for identifying long-tail keywords, then dive into the 15 best tools on the market to streamline your long-tail keyword research. Whether you‘re an experienced SEO or just getting started with keyword targeting, you‘ll walk away ready to uncover lucrative long-tail opportunities to weave into your content strategy.

How to Find Long-Tail Keyword Ideas

Before we get into the top tools, let‘s cover a few key strategies you can use to generate an initial list of long-tail keywords for your site:

1. Mine Google autocomplete suggestions

Have you ever noticed how Google tries to predict what you‘re searching for as you type your query? Those autocomplete suggestions are a goldmine for long-tail keyword ideas.

Start with a general topic relevant to your business, such as "content marketing." Enter it into Google and jot down the long-tail autocomplete suggestions, like "content marketing agency" or "content marketing examples."

You can even add words like "how," "why," "best," "top," and "guide" in front of your short-tail keyword to uncover more question-based and long-tail variations searchers are using.

2. Expand short-tail keywords with modifiers

Another easy way to generate long-tail keywords is to take a short-tail phrase and append relevant descriptive words to it.

For example, if you sell yoga mats, start with "yoga mat" as your base term. Then add modifiers related to attributes like size, material, thickness, color, use case, etc. You might end up with long-tail keywords such as:

• Extra thick yoga mat
• Eco-friendly yoga mat
• Best yoga mat for hot yoga
• Yoga mat for tall person

Get creative and put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer. What features and details would you look for? Those modifiers are exactly what people will tack onto their searches to find the right product.

3. Check your website search data

Do you have an internal site search feature? If so, dig into the search terms visitors are entering to find what they need on your site. You may uncover some highly specific queries you hadn‘t even thought of targeting.

For example, an ecommerce brand might find that shoppers are searching for things like "organic cotton v-neck tshirt" or "slim fit chino shorts." Consider building new pages optimized around these long-tail keywords to help searchers find what they want faster.

4. Spy on your competitors

Peruse the websites of your top competitors and take note of the keywords they seem to be targeting, both on the home page and on interior pages. Specificallyook for long-tail phrases used in titles, headings, product names/descriptions, and blog posts.

Analyzing competitors‘ PPC ads can also give you insights into high-value long-tail keywords in your space. If they‘re shelling out money to bid on certain keywords, those terms are likely driving qualified traffic and conversions.

5. Conduct a content gap analysis

A content gap analysis involves taking inventory of your site, identifying topics and subtopics you haven‘t covered in depth, and mapping out new content to fill those gaps.

During this process, look for long-tail keywords related to your products/services that you aren‘t currently targeting with a dedicated page or post. These present prime opportunities to create targeted content that can rank for those specific search queries.

While the tactics above will help kick-start your long-tail keyword research, you‘ll soon find that manually combing through recommendations and assessing their SEO potential isn‘t the most effective use of time. That‘s where long-tail keyword research tools come in handy.

Top 15 Long-Tail Keyword Tools

Rather than relying on guesswork, these tools analyze search data to surface relevant long-tail keywords for your site and niche. Most provide key SEO metrics like monthly search volume, keyword difficulty scores, CPC, and more to help you prioritize the best opportunities.

Let‘s take a closer look at the top long-tail keyword tools and what makes each one unique:

1. SEMrush

SEMrush is a comprehensive SEO and PPC tool suite that offers robust keyword research features. Enter a seed keyword, and SEMrush will provide hundreds of related keyword ideas along with data on search volume, competition level, CPC, and more.

The Keyword Magic tool is particularly handy for finding long-tail keywords. It generates up to 3 million keyword variations for any topic and categorizes them into helpful subgroups. You can also see keywords your competitors are ranking for to get even more ideas.

Pricing:

Starts at $119.95/month with a free 7-day trial

2. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO toolset known for its massive index of over 10 billion keywords. The Keywords Explorer provides extensive data on search volume, keyword difficulty, CPC, and more.

One unique feature is the "Questions" tab, which surfaces the questions people are asking around your topic. This is perfect for finding long-tail, conversational keyword opportunities ripe for FAQ or how-to style content.

Pricing:

$99-$999/month with a 7-day trial for $7

3. Moz Keyword Explorer

The Moz Keyword Explorer has a huge database of over 500 million keywords and offers useful features like keyword grouping and search volume forecasts.

It assigns each keyword a "potential score" from 1-100 based on its estimated value in terms of traffic, difficulty, and organic CTR. This helps you quickly spot high-opportunity keywords to target.

Pricing:

Free limited version or $99-$599/month

4. Long Tail Pro

As the name implies, Long Tail Pro is a tool dedicated to finding profitable long-tail keywords with low competition. In addition to providing keyword ideas and search volume data, it has a built-in competitor analysis feature.

By analyzing the top 10 pages ranking for a given keyword, Long Tail Pro calculates a Keyword Competitiveness score to gauge your chance of breaking into the top results. It also highlights "easy wins" you could potentially rank for without building many links.

Pricing:

Starts at $37/month

5. KeywordTool.io

KeywordTool.io leverages Google Autocomplete to generate up to 750 long-tail keyword suggestions for any term, sorted by search volume. Simply enter a topic, and the tool will mine Google‘s prediction algorithm to return a list of related queries and questions.

In addition to Google, KeywordTool.io provides suggestions from YouTube, Bing, Amazon, eBay, Play Store and more to help diversify your keyword targeting across different search engines and platforms. It also has a useful "Questions" filter to isolate query-based keyword ideas.

Pricing:

Limited free plan or $89/month

6. Ubersuggest

Acquired by digital marketer Neil Patel, Ubersuggest is a freemium SEO tool that provides keyword suggestions, search volume, CPC, and ranking difficulty scores. It pulls in Google Autocomplete and "related searches" data to generate hundreds of keyword ideas.

The Keyword Ideas report has handy filters to see question-based keywords as well as prepositions, comparisons, and related topics. For example, if you search for "content marketing," Ubersuggest will show keywords like "why content marketing is important" and "content marketing vs social media marketing."

Pricing:

Free limited searches or plans from $29-$99/month

7. KWFinder

Part of the Mangools toolkit, KWFinder aims to help users find low-hanging-fruit keywords with high search volume and low SEO difficulty. It rates the competitiveness of each keyword on a scale from 0-100 and color-codes them so you can easily spot less competitive terms.

In addition to the usual search volume and CPC data, KWFinder provides useful metrics like search trends over time and exact search volumes for different keyword variations. It also lets you analyze the SERPs for a keyword to gauge page authority and backlink profiles of the top-ranking results.

Pricing:

Plans from $30-$80/month

8. Serpstat

Serpstat is a growth-hacking platform that includes tools for SEO, PPC, content marketing, and competitor research. Its keyword database spans over 100 countries and includes over 7 billion search queries.

One standout feature of Serpstat is the "Tree View" report, which groups keywords by search intent and shows how subtopics are related. This visualization makes it easy to find long-tail keywords and build content clusters around key topics.

Serpstat also provides a helpful "Value" metric that factors in search volume, CPC, and competitiveness to assign each keyword a total potential traffic cost – in other words, how much that keyword is worth if you manage to rank for it.

Pricing:

Plans from $55-$333/month

9. Answer the Public

Answer the Public finds questions, prepositions, and related terms for any keyword by scraping Google and Bing autocomplete data. The results are presented in a striking visual format that shows the relationships between different long-tail variations.

The free version provides limited results, but the Pro plan gets you unlimited searches plus features like search listening alerts, search volume metrics, and the ability to save reports. Answer the Public can be a great complement to other keyword tools, as it specializes in surfacing query-focused long-tail phrases.

Pricing:

Free limited searches or $99/month

10. Keyword Snatcher

Keyword Snatcher is a long-tail keyword tool that generates up to 2,000 keyword ideas from Google Autocomplete and related searches. You can see search volume, CPC, and Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) metrics for different countries.

One handy feature is the ability to create different projects and subgroups to organize your keywords. You can filter the suggestions to show only questions, include/exclude specific terms, and export your lists to integrate with other tools.

While not as powerful as some of the other tools on our list, Keyword Snatcher is straightforward and affordable for bloggers or small businesses looking to expand their long-tail keyword ideas.

Pricing:

Lifetime access for a one-time fee of $47

Find Your Long-Tail Keyword Opportunities

The key to a successful SEO and content marketing strategy is to target the right mix of head terms and long-tail keywords. Tools like the ones we‘ve covered can supercharge your keyword research and help you discover lucrative long-tail opportunities you may have otherwise missed.

Remember, the goal isn‘t to cram as many long-tail keywords as possible into your content, but rather to identify the phrases your target audience is using to find solutions like yours. Focus on creating comprehensive resources that directly address searchers‘ needs and weave in long-tail keywords naturally.

Over time, you‘ll be rewarded with higher rankings for long-tail searches, more qualified organic traffic, and ultimately more leads and customers for your business. So don‘t neglect the long tail – start uncovering your golden keyword opportunities today!