Introduction:
If you’re creating niche sites, doing video marketing and/or running paid ads, you absolutely MUST do keyword research. Without doing any research, you’ll be going in blind.
You can do keyword research in 2 ways…
- Manually
- Use a reliable keyword research tool
The only advantage of doing it manually is that it will save you some money. But the disadvantages are many. Not only is keyword research time consuming and draining, but it’s very difficult to calculate a keyword’s competitiveness on your own.
The competitiveness score relies on a multitude of metrics and just finding these out is just too tiresome.
Which leaves you with the second option – using a keyword research tool. With a good tool, you’ll get in-depth data in minutes. You’ll be able to compile a long list of keywords to target, you’ll know your chances of ranking for a keyword before you even start and most importantly, you’d be able to do it all fast and without much effort.
There are many keyword research tools on the market because thousands of marketers need these tools – and where there’s money to be made, you can bet that there will be competition.
That’s good and bad news for you. The good news is that the competition forces many of these tools to keep improving and getting better… the bad news is that it can be overwhelming for you when it comes to choosing one.
Whenever keyword research tools are discussed, most SEO specialists and niche marketers will mention a few popular names such as Ahrefs, SEMrush or Long Tail Pro.
Our research showed that most beginner and intermediate marketers preferred Long Tail Pro (LTP). Let’s see why this is one of the most sought after keyword tools on the market…
The Pros
- Affordable
If you’re looking for a keyword research tool that does a good job, but you don’t want to pay through the nose for it, you need Long Tail Pro. Its affordability is a very strong selling point.
Quite frankly, Long Tail Pro will give you a lot of the data that the bigger brand keyword tools will give you… but for a fraction of the price. Currently, Long Tail Pro costs $37 a month ($297 if you pay annually). In comparison, SEMRush costs $119.95 a month.
While there’s no denying that SEMrush has more features and data, most beginner marketers are just looking for the basic keyword information that will help them rank their blog posts in the search engines. They don’t need white label reports and keyword cannibalization reports.
Long Tail Pro is simplicity in action. It gives you the keyword information you need without costing a bomb or overwhelming you with data. That’s exactly what most marketers want.
- Free trial
You can test Long Tail Pro for 7 days absolutely free. Once you see how effective it is, you’ll probably pay and upgrade. But for now, do give it a try and do some keyword research with it.
- Easy to use
The user interface on Long Tail Pro is a lot simpler than tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs. You’ll have no problem using it within mins.
If you need explanations and tutorials, Long Tail Pro has an extensive knowledgebase with articles and tutorials to help you. Since this tool is so popular, many marketers have posted tutorial videos on YouTube showing you how to use LTP effectively.
- Discovers new keywords for you
The keyword suggestion feature in Long Tail Pro will help you discover many long tail keywords that have less competition but a reasonably good number of searches. Generally, these keywords are easier to rank for.
You’ll want to save these keywords and target them in your blog posts, etc. This is how you drive traffic to your website by tapping into many long tail keywords.
- Keyword competitiveness score
Long Tail Pro will assign a score to each keyword according to how difficult it is to rank for them. You’ll want to target the scores that are in the 15-20 range. As your site gains traction, you can target the keywords that are in the ‘medium competition’ range
- Rank tracker
With Long Tail Pro, you’ll be able to track where your keywords are ranking in the search engines. This will save you time and effort. You’ll not need to check them manually. In fact, LTP will even email you your keyword rankings once a week, once you set it up in the settings.
- SERP analysis
With this feature, you can enter up to 200 keywords and LTP will analyze the top 10 results and let you know how your competitors are doing. This data will allow you to see what you need to do for your blog posts so that they surge past the competition.
- SEO audits
Besides just spying on your competitors, you also need to know your own site/s performance in the search engines. Long Tail Pro will let you to run an SEO audit on your site to see your site’s load speed, internal linking, on-page SEO and all the other issues that matter when it comes to ranking well.
Once again, this is priceless information that will give you an edge when it comes to ranking in the SERPS.
The Cons
Long Tail Pro may not be suitable for SEO agencies, expert marketers who need more data and so on. This is a good tool but it does have its limitations.
One could even say that it’s a mid-tier keyword tool and not a high-end one. Nevertheless, this is a proven keyword tool that has stood the test of time. You can’t go wrong with it.
Should You Get It?
If you’re on a tighter budget and don’t want to spend a ton on more expensive keyword tools, you’ll definitely be better off with Long Tail Pro.
It may not have the advanced features the other tools have, but it can produce enough data for you to create an effective content and SEO strategy to rank in the search engines.
Ultimately, that’s what matters. Long Tail Pro will work, if you work it. Get it and get your site ranking on the first page of Google for your keywords.
