How do you measure the performance of long tail keywords in organic search?

1 Choose the right metrics

Depending on your goals, you might want to measure different aspects of your long tail keywords, including traffic, rankings, clicks, conversions, or revenue. Impressions are a common metric to track, which shows how many times your page appears in the search results for a given keyword. The click-through rate (CTR) indicates how often people click on your page when it shows up in the search results. The average position shows how high your page ranks for a given keyword, while the bounce rate reveals how often people leave your page without taking any action. Conversion rate is a useful metric to measure how often people complete a desired action on your page. Lastly, return on investment (ROI) measures the profit you generate from your long tail keywords compared to your costs.

2 Use the right tools

To measure these metrics accurately and reliably, you need to use the right tools. Popular tools for measuring long tail keywords include Google Search Console, which shows impressions, clicks, CTR, and average position for your keywords. Google Analytics tracks and analyzes website traffic, including bounce rate, conversion rate, and revenue for your keywords. Paid or free keyword tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, or Ubersuggest can help you find, analyze, and optimize your long tail keywords. Rank trackers like SERPWatcher, SERPStat, or Rank Tracker can monitor and report keyword rankings over time.

3 Compare and contrast

To gain a better understanding of your long tail keywords performance, it is important to compare and contrast them with other keywords and factors. This can be done by comparing long tail keywords with short tail keywords, as well as with each other. Additionally, you should compare long tail keywords with different time periods to identify any trends, fluctuations, or seasonality. Moreover, you should compare long tail keywords with different segments such as audiences, locations, devices, or channels. Doing so will help you measure traffic, rankings, clicks, conversions, and ROI.

4 Experiment and optimize

To optimize your long tail keyword performance, you need to experiment and adjust your pages and content. This could include testing different title tags, meta descriptions, headings, images, content formats, lengths, styles, calls to action, offers, incentives, landing pages, funnels, and flows. By doing this you can see how it affects your CTR, bounce rate, conversion rate, traffic, rankings, engagement, conversion rate and ROI for your long tail keywords.

5 Learn and adjust

To measure the performance of your long tail keywords, you need to learn from your data and adjust your strategy accordingly. Identify which long tail keywords bring you the most and least value, as well as which have high potential or high risk. Additionally, determine which aspects of your long tail keyword strategy are working well or need improvement, and recognize which factors affect your performance positively or negatively. By doing this, you can focus on what will bring you the most value and improve any weaknesses.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?