Today, I will share with you a comprehensive Long Tail Pro review and will likewise guide you on how to use it to obtain the ideal keywords for your blog or niche sites.
Quality keyword research is essential for building a successful and highly trafficked website.
Without the relevant keywords driving your views and clicks, you can’t expect your site to be profitable or your business to be competitive.
Your keywords need to be pertinent, applicable, and easily recognized while also being uniquely catered to your products and services.
This is why you need a powerful keyword research tool like Longtail Pro to help you choose the right keywords so that your site can rank among the top within your field.
Long Tail Pro Black Friday Details
Long Tail Pro will provide a 50% discount for Annual Starter Plan and 50% discount + doubling allowances with a whopping +2 million keyword lookups a year for the new Annual Power Pro Plan.
Plus, they will launch a new feature for all the plans: the Rank Tracker email notifications and the Keyword Grouping feature.
Standard Allowances + New Rank Tracker email notifications and the Keyword Grouping feature
Keyword Research
Rank Tracker:
Backlink Analysis:
LongtailPro Review and Tutorial
What is Longtail Pro?
If you are in the digital marketing business, it is likely that you’ve heard of Longtail Pro or similar products.
Essentially, Longtail Pro is a keyword research tool that allows you to curate the most effective longtail keywords for your website.
This strong SEO platform lets you analyze your own website as well as those as competitors, and even lets you trank your own rankings over time.
There are a wide variety of metrics available in the Longtail Pro platform, including things like search volume, revenue potential based on ranking, and difficulty of ranking for any specific keyword.
Although the program is powerful and advanced, it is relatively easy to learn.
It will just require a little bit of time on your part, but this tutorial is here to walk you through all of its features and help you become a Longtail Pro guru.
LONG TAIL PRO Review Summary
Long Tail Pro is a long tail keywords finder that can support you dominate your niche competitors. I think this to be an awesome keyword research tool that every digital marketer SEO, affiliate marketer or blogger should have in their toolkit.
Pros
Cons
How to Use Longtail Pro
Before you commit to Longtail Pro as your core keyword research tool, you should make sure to download the free 7-day trial here.
This trial not only gives you unlimited access to the program and its features for a week, but it also allows you to join hands-on training sessions led by Longtail Pro experts.
The training can be as short as an hour, but you will walk away with a whole new world of knowledge.
While that training is a vital part of your onboarding, this manual will go into further detail and teach you the best ways to use Longtail Pro for the benefit of your website.
The goal is to make you a highly efficient keyword researcher and profitable digital marketer.
Let’s take a look at the basic setup of the Longtail Pro platform and the features that you can take advantage of.
If you’ve ever used an SEO research tool, this might look pretty familiar to you.
While the setup is clean, simple, and streamlined, don’t be fooled – this is a very powerful tool that can truly help you with your research.
You’ll notice that the default setup includes your Longtail Pro dashboard and multiple search bars.
These are going to be some of the most used tools on the platform, so it is recommended that you keep them near the top, however the view is customizable.
The easiest way to get started is to simply search for keywords and see how they rank in relation to your website and those of your competitors.
This will help you get to know the platform. Now let’s look more in-depth at the Longtail Pro dashboard.
Becoming Familiar with Your Longtail Pro Dashboard
You’ll first want to do some digging around the screens and tools provided within the Longtail Pro platform.
This will help you to familiarize yourself with the landscape and make it quicker and easier to navigate when you have to perform certain functions.
Dashboard Overview
Looking to the left your screen, you’ll see a sidebar that can be used to quickly navigate between all of Longtail Pro’s useful tools.
These tools include Keyword Research, SERP Analysis, Rank Tracker, and Backlink Analysis.
These are all important tools to use to make sure that your website is performing to the best of its abilities, and we will get into each one later in the tutorial.
You can also access your Profile Settings, Billing Information, Video Tutorial, and a Help tool which provides troubleshooting and online support.
At the top of your main screen, you’ll notice the keyword search tools, which is one of the best on the market.
Here, you can perform powerful analysis of different domains and suggested keywords to see how they can best be utilized.
It is here that you can also begin, name, and edit your campaigns for any domain that you want to analyze or convert.
To do so, simply enter your domain (or your competitor’s) in to the following field:
You can also click on the plus sign next to the “Default” tab to start an entirely new project:
By clicking here, you will bring up a new screen where you can name and save your project, allowing you to easily access multiple projects and perform analysis on a variety of sites and longtail keywords:
Once you have started a project, you can use the search toolbar to start your journey into researching keywords for yourself and your competitors.
There is also an option to manually search for keywords.
Note that there is also enable more advanced options by clicking the toggle button below:
This allows you to narrow your keywords down to monthly searches or suggested bids.
We will get into these features more shortly, but now that you have a basic understanding of your Longtail Pro dashboard,
let’s take a look at some of the shortcuts that will help your more easily navigate your screen as well as what they provide.
Longtail Pro Dashboard Shortcuts
As mentioned previously, the left side of the screen allows you to move throughout the platform with ease, allowing you to simply click any feature of the program and perform the corresponding analysis or research.
Let’s take a look at what each of these shortcuts means for your:
Keyword Research
This is one of the most powerful functions of Longtail Pro and will likely be your most-used product.
This is the tool that will allow you to research keywords for both you and your competitors and see how they are expected to rank.
SERP Analysis
SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page.
This shortcut will take you to the SERP Analysis tool which will help you to determine if you should be trying to rank for a certain keyword.
It will provide you with data that can be used to evaluate the most important keywords to focus on for your site.
Rank Tracker
This wonderful feature lets you track the rankings of keywords based on multiple websites.
This is great for comparing your domain to those of your competitors and helping you come up with a strategy to drive more traffic to your site based on current rankings.
Backlink Analysis
Backlinks are links leading to your website that come from external sites.
The more backlinks you have, the more likely you are to rank highly on the major search engines, especially if the linking sites are reputable.
This tool will analyze your backlinks and help you eliminate bad links such as those from spam websites.
Profile & Settings
This is an administrative tool that allows you to set your name, email, password, and language.
Billing Information
This should be self-explanatory – this is where you enter your billing information for your subscription.
Video Tutorials
There are 14 very useful lessons in this tab, and if you want to become a Longtail Pro expert, you should combine this tutorial with the video lessons.
Each one is 20 minutes or less and will provide you with some great knowledge on how to use the platform.
Help
Here you can access live support, quick guides, and frequently asked questions. The customer service at Longtail Pro is excellent and this is just one example of that.
Now that you have a stronger understanding of Longtail Pro’s layout and features, let’s take a deeper dive into how you can harness its power to help your website rank among the best.
Related Topic : How To Search For Keywords To Generate Traffic
Keyword Research in Longtail Pro
Performing keyword research in Longtail Pro is simple, but it takes some time to master it so that you can use the information to your advantage.
However, you’ll gain valuable insight and knowledge from the second you start using the tool.
Determine Your Keyword
One of the first things you’ll want to do is perform a search for your intended keyword on a popular search engine (we recommend Google).
This may seem counterintuitive, but it will actually help give ideas for new keywords on which to perform research.
For our keyword example for this tutorial, we are going to use “best tablet for drawing.”
As you can see from this Google search, there are many more relevant searches that will appear if you simply look for “best tablet for drawing.”
This can give you some ideas for future keyword research as you develop your website.
Now that you’ve determined your keyword and found a few other ideas, here’s how you can use Longtail Pro to perform in-depth research about the keyword and learn what new keywords will be beneficial for your business.
2.) Enter Your Keyword into the Search Bar
Again, for this example, we are using “Best Tablet for Drawing”
Once entered, hit the “Retrieve” key to see your results.
Now you will be given a large list of results related to your search.
As you can see, there are quite a few longtail keywords related to the best tablet for drawing.
This screenshot only shows the first 7 for the sake of brevity, but your simple search yielded 35 results!
You won’t only be given the keywords, but also a useful analysis of each one.
If you look to the right, you’ll see the columns Avg. KC, Volume, Bid, Words, Rank Value, Lang, and Loc. See below for what each one of these means.
Avg. KC
This stands for average keyword competitiveness.
This is a number from 1-100 that tells you how difficult it is to rank on the first page of Google results based on the keyword. The lower the number, the better.
Volume
This is the average number of searches people have made that exactly match the keyword over the last 12 months.
This is based on the country you have selected and any other filters you may have made regarding target network.
Bid
This is a forecast of the average advertiser cost-per-click of the particular keyword.
This is useful information for determining how much revenue can be driven to your site based on these keywords.
Words
The total amount of words in the longtail keyword. You can filter and sort based on this, which is helpful if you want to focus on a particular length.
Rank Value
Rank Value is an estimate of the dollar value per month that you can expect from ranking as the top result.
Lang
The language that you are searching in.
Loc
The country that you are targeting.
So, those are the basics of researching and analyzing your keywords in Longtail Pro.
However, there are some more advanced features that we are now going to delve into so you can further understand its value.
Related Keyword Research
One great feature of Longtail Pro is that it allows you to search for Related Keywords, analyze competitor keywords, and even enter keywords manually.
Let’s start with understanding the purpose of Related Keyword Research, which was used in the example above.
This is the most basic of keyword research and allows you to find the most relevant keywords that are related to any given search.
If you are just starting your website analysis – or even in the beginning development of your website – this is the way to get ideas for which keywords you should use to ensure a high ranking.
You simply enter the keywords as previously shown and you will get dozens of results and in-depth analysis on each one!
Related : 5 Best WordPress SEO Plugins To Rank Your Site In Search Engines
Competitor Keyword Research
Once you’ve gotten used to related keyword research, you can move onto Competitor Keyword Research and analysis which is a very powerful tool allowing you to gauge your competitors and learn how to be more effective against them.
To start, make sure you are in the correct tab marked “Competitor Keywords.”
Here, you won’t search for a particular keyword.
Instead, you will enter the domain of a particular competitor in order to learn about the keywords with which they are ranking and gain an analysis of their performance.
We’ll stick with the drawing tablet example and enter the domain for the Galaxy Tab S6 – a popular item in the field.
After you hit “Retrieve,” you’ll be given another list of keywords that are being used by Samsung, as well as the same analysis that you received for your Related Keyword search.
Congratulations! You’ve just performed a competitor keyword search and garnered 68 results!
As easy as it seems, this gives you access to a wide range of analysis that can help you determine how you can get your product to rank higher and eventually overtake the competition.
Manual Keyword Research
Manual Keyword Research gives you a little more control over your search but comes with the higher likelihood of erroneous data.
Unlike the “Related Keywords” tool, which is limited to 5 words, you can search for up to 200 words with the manual search.
In this example, we are giving a very specific search term of “What is the best cheap tablet for freehand drawing?”
This is a long search that likely isn’t great for suggesting useful keywords in the long run but might provide you with some important data.
The results here are slightly different than your Related Keywords search, and there is some benefit in seeing them.
They can give you ideas for more detailed searches where users might want to know specific facts about drawing tablets.
By putting in long-winded searches in the manual tab, you can garner shorter results that can then be converted to more clicks and views.
So, those are the basics of keyword research with Longtail Pro.
This should give you a good foundation for performing quality keyword research and analysis, but you will have to practice yourself in order to become an expert.
Now let’s learn about some of the other features of Longtail Pro.
SERP Analysis in Longtail Pro
SERP Analysis is an important part of the keyword research process and will provide you with a myriad of benefits after you’ve mastered the keyword research tool.
SERP is the Search Engine Results Page, and an analysis lets you take an in-depth look at the top-ranking websites for any given keyword.
From here you can determine if your desired keywords are relevant enough to allow you to rise to the top.
The SERP Analysis screen in Longtail Pro is quite a bit simpler than the keyword research page, as there is only one field in which to enter your term.
After you’ve done your keyword research, you can choose which keywords you want to perform an analysis on.
From our previous examples, one of the most common keywords was “best cheap drawing tablet, so we’ll go with that here.
Once entered, hit Retrieve and you’ll be given an impressive results screen:
One simple search term yields all of these results and analyses!
On the top left, you’ll see the Avg. KC, or as we learned earlier, average keyword competitiveness.
This shows you how difficult it is to rank on the first Google results page for the given keyword “best cheap drawing tablet.”
Useful info:
The Keyword Difficulty is shown on a scale from 0 to 100. The below the value, the easier it is to stand and rank for that keyword on the 1st page of google.
At a ranking of 27, this isn’t a perfect keyword, but it is still a lot easier than many.
Next to the Avg. KC, you’ll notice the Google Results Breakdown. This provides an examination of where the search results are coming from.
In this example, 91% are from organic results (meaning people actually searched for them), and the other 9% come from paid advertisements.
Other possibilities include featured snippets, local searches, and Google Knowledge Graphs.
Below Avg. KC is the Strongest Competitor Analysis, which inspects the strongest website for the given keyword based on a variety of calculations which we will look at in a moment.
Basically, this is the competitor on whom you should be the most focused if you want to succeed in your keyword research.
Next, you’ll see the complete Competition Analysis (we’ve listed the top 5 to keep it brief).
Here are 5 of the 9 organic search results returned by Google.
These are the websites that garnered the most results when “best cheap drawing tablet” was searched.
You’ll see a variety of metrics that are used to determine their competitiveness. They are as follows:
KC
Overall Keyword Competitiveness based on URL, page title, Majestic Trust Flow, Citation Flow, and backlinks
Domain KC
This is the competitiveness of the domain as a whole as opposed to the specific link.
Trust Flow
This analyses the reputation of the sites that link to the specific URL. A higher score means that the site is linked to other trustworthy sites.
Citation Flow
This is a measure of the influence that a URL might have in a particular realm. A higher score means it is more influential.
Domain TF
This is simply the Trust Flow of the domain as a whole versus the specific URL.
Domain CF
Like Domain TF, this is a measure of the Citation Flow of the entire site.
External Backlinks
Number of external links to the site from other sites
Page Ref Domains
Count of unique domains the refer to the page
Root Ref Domains
Number of domains that link to the main domain of the URL
Indexed URLs
This shows the total number of URLs within a specific domain. This allows you to get an idea of the total size.
Internal Links
How many links there are from the specific URL to other domain pages.
Site Age
This is simply how old the domain is. Older sites usually rank higher on Google as they tend to have more content.
This concludes the SERP analysis basics. As you can, it is an excellent tool to help compare and contrast your most relevant competitors and their keywords.
Rank Tracker in Longtail Pro
The Rank Tracker is another fantastic feature in Longtail Pro that can help you view your project as it becomes more relevant to the Google search pages.
There is some very valuable information to be gained from this tool as you continue to curate your webpage and learn the best keywords to use to drive traffic to your site.
As you can see above, the page is pretty straightforward.
The “Current Project Rankings” show you the number of keywords that you are currently ranking for based on search engine, as well as how their ranking is distributed as a part of all of the keywords in the project.
“Improved” shows you how many of your keywords have risen in the search engine ranks, while “Declined” shows you keywords that have fallen out of the rankings or aren’t being accepted by the search engines in any capacity.
This is very helpful to let you know what keywords you should focus on moving forward and which ones should be eliminated from your marketing plan.
Below your current project rankings, you can perform an analysis of specific keywords as they relate to a particular domain.
As you add keywords and domains, you will get a side-by-side comparison of their rankings over time.
Although the previous examples didn’t have results yet, you can see the Google Rank as it changed over time.
Updates are provided every 24 hours, so if you don’t have them right away, they might show up the next day.
The Rank Tracker is nice because you can search for pretty much any keyword on any domain – it doesn’t just have to be your own.
This is great for those who are just starting their sites or if you want a detailed breakdown of your competitors keywords.
It is important to stay on top of the trends and not to just look at rankings on a single day.
If something is trending downwards, you will know to avoid that keyword in the future, and vice versa for those that are gaining traction.
Backlink Analysis in Longtail Pro
One oft-overlooked feature of SEO programs is that of Backlink Analysis.
This feature can analyze your website or that of your competitors to gain knowledge about the quality and number of links that a given domain or URL is receiving from other websites across the internet.
There are a variety of metrics that provide you with valuable information about any given website, and we will go over them as we walk you through this easy-to-use tool.
As you can see, the Backlink Analysis main page is simple, similar to the SERP analysis. However, the data that it provides is invaluable and should be used thoroughly.
To stick with our tablet example, we will use Samsung’s domain for their main page, as they are a major provider of tablets worldwide.
Unsurprisingly, Samsung has a large database of backlinks from websites of all different kinds.
With 4,124 referring domains and 295,674 total backlinks, there are many sites that link to Samsung’s page, and we can see that it has a strong ranking and reputation.
At first glance, some of these metrics may sound confusing, but here’s a quick breakdown of them.
Referring Domains
This shows the number of domains – or master websites – that contain links to the target that you are searching.
Total Backlinks
This is the total number of links from any part of a website that refer to the page in question.
Trust Flow
A measure of link quality from 0-100. In other words, Trust Flow analyzes the websites that are linking to a domain (Samsung in this example) and calculates how trustworthy they are. Sites such as spam pages or that come from unreputable sources will lead to a lower score. You want a higher score here.
Citation Flow
This is an overall score showing how many reputable sites are linking to the domain. It demonstrates how much influence a domain has in its particular realm. A higher score shows that many websites are linking to the domain.
Now, onto the backlink analysis.
Here you are given the top 50 backlinks to Samsung’s main domain page. We are listing the first five as it is not useful to analyze each one for the purpose of this tutorial.
The number one backlink is from ATSC, and the score is calculated based on all of the metrics you will see to the right of the URL.
Again, these look confusing at first, but are pretty to easy to understand as we break them down.
Source TF
Source Trust Flow. Much like how the Samsung has a Trust Flow score, this shows the Trust Flow of the listed source, in this case ATSC. Again, this is a measure of the quality of the sites that are linking to ATSC.
Source CF
You’ve probably figured out that this is short for Source Citation Flow. This number represents the measure of ATSC’s influence on the internet based on the keywords.
Target TF
This is the Trust Flow measure of the specific URL that ATSC is targeting in the given backlink.
Target CF
Similarly, this is the Citation Flow of the same Samsung URL.
External Links
This is the number of total links going out from the source page.
Target URL
The specific URL on the domain (Samsung’s here) that the source is linking to.
Anchor Text
If the URL is shown in the form of clickable text from the source, that text will show up here. In this case, there is no anchor text.
Indexed
This is the date that the source link was originally added to the search index.
Last Seen
This indicates the last date that someone viewed the particular link.
Date Last
In the event that the link was deleted, this would show the deletion date.
Other Longtail Pro Features
While you have just learned the most important functions of Longtail Pro, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a variety of other features that will be very useful to you!
Here are some of the add-ons that aren’t directly related to SEO and keyword research but that will provide plenty of value in the long run.
Video Tutorials
Longtail Pro offers a wide range of video tutorials that are included to help you become a master at keyword research and search engine optimization.
Most videos are under 20 minutes long, so you won’t need to spend too much time catching up on your skills to make your website more relevant.
Here is a breakdown of the 14 videos currently included.
Finding Seed Keywords – Seed keywords are the root of longtail keywords and are needed in order to advance your research. This video will help you learn the basics of finding seed keywords.
Understanding Intention and Finding Better Seed Keywords – When you have learned how to find seed keywords, you can use this video to better understand the intention of each word and learn how to make your searches even more effective.
Seed Keywords and Basic Keyword Research – This is a more in-depth bootcamp into keyword research, and pushes you into the realm of longtail keywords, which will help you to get a more detailed analysis of your keywords and allow you to gain a competitive edge in the keyword game.
Competitor Analysis – While we went over the competitor keyword module, this goes a little deeper into the idea of analyzing others in your market.
You’ll need to be continually monitoring and evaluating their performance, and you can gain some great insight from this video.
Using Rank to Determine Keyword Profitability – Ultimately, you will want each of your keywords to be as profitable as possible based on their clicks and relevance.
This module will help you look at rankings to decide whether or not you should use particular keywords.
Combining Keywords and SERP Crossover – When you perform a SERP analysis, you don’t want to just know the numbers. You want to be able to utilize your keywords effectively, and this video will help you do just that.
On-Page SEO – Learn how to create valuable, on-page SEO for your site.
Site Structures and Silos – This is a great tutorial for helping you to structure your site and create SEO silos that will increase the traffic throughout your site.
How to Fill out your Silos – Once you’ve grasped the concepts of silos, you’ll want to be well-versed in filling them out and spreading the content throughout in an effective manner.
Outsourcing Your Content – If you are running a content-rich page, you may need to outsource some of it in order to keep up with SEO algorithms. This will give some valuable tips on how to do so.
Outreach – Outreach is very important to keep your website on the map, and this bootcamp is an excellent resource for improving yours.
Beyond Google – Although Google is the most well-known search engine, you can benefit from having results on other pages and platforms. Learn how to reach these platforms with this module.
More On-Page SEO – The second in the on-page SEO series
The Final Day – This is a round-up of all of the videos and is designed to help you have a cohesive and comprehensive experience with the Longtail Pro platform.
Longtail Pro Pricing
There are three price points available for Longtail Pro, and they are all very reasonable for someone who is looking to improve their ranking on the internet.
Longtail Pro Annual Starter
This is the cheapest option, coming in at only $47 per month.
It is the most basic package with the fewest lookups included, but it should provide ample numbers for those who are just starting with their website and SEO outreach. It includes:
Longtail Pro Annual Pro
This is the middle-of-the-road package and is still very affordable at $67 per month. This is excellent for growing businesses who need a little bit more access. It includes:
- 2500 keyword lookups per 24 hours
- 2500 KC Calcuations per 24 hours
- 2500 SERP lookups per 24 hours
- 200 Tracked Keywords monthly
- Unlimited Tracked domains
- Daily Rank Updates
- 2 Simultaneous Login
- Plug-and-play template system
Longtail Pro Annual Agency
The Agency package is the most expensive at $147 per month.
It is perfect for larger companies who require multiple logins and will be performing extensive keyword research for the continual improvement of their website’s SEO. It includes:
- 6000 keyword lookups per 24 hours
- 6000 KC Calcuations per 24 hours
- 6000 SERP lookups per 24 hours
- 1000 Tracked Keywords monthly
- Unlimited Tracked domains
- Daily Rank Updates
- 2 Simultaneous Login
- Plug-and-play template system
I’ve negotiated a 30% off for emarketinghacks Readers. Enjoy.
Sum Up
Long Tail Pro facilitates the search for weakly competitive keywords with a high search volume, particularly those with a commercial value therefore easily convertible.
It is also easy to learn and use, so anyone can benefit from it.
It also allows you to see who your competition is and the top 10 current results for keywords in any niche.
It is undoubtedly a very good tool and if you don't like it, you have a 10 day money back guarantee, so give it a try and see for yourself!
Further Reading: