What Are Long Tail Keywords?
“Long tail keywords can effectively drive targeted audience to your websites and improve online visibility, allowing your brand to grow.”
Businesses often encounter a fact while struggling to survive in the competitive world of online marketing. Where long tail keywords can help any business reach its target niche demographics, most entrepreneurs (especially small-scale businesses and startups) are unaware of the concept.
If you are unfamiliar with this particular phrase, we are here to help you!
What Are Long Tail Keywords?
Long tail keywords are longer, more descriptive, and potentially attract relevant traffic. The phrases typically consist of more than three words and specifically serve the searcher’s own search intent here.
Since long-tail keywords are highly specific queries, they tend to have a lower search volume or a low search volume. However, these phrases can bring a valuable audience to a website, boost conversion rates, and further enable a business to expand and prosper. According to facts, the average conversion rate for a long-tail keyword is about 36%. These phrases are designed to accurately mirror how individuals conduct searches, allowing a business to reach focused audience segments.
Customers began their journey using generic terms or head keywords. However, as the search engines guided them toward resolving their issues, the search became more intricate and thorough. At this point, long-tail keywords play a crucial role in distinguishing your brand from competitors. The opposite of long tail keywords is short tail keywords.
Quick Facts On Long Tail Keywords
Long tail keywords can be concise as well. One or two-word searches having low search volume are also categorized as long tail keywords such as brand names.
Long tail keywords are responsible for increasing organic traffic to a website. Over 70% of search queries are performed using these specific phrases.
Voice searches also count as long-tail keywords.
Since long tail keywords are quite precise, they effectively improve the relevancy of the content.
Long tail keywords constitute 92% of all search engine queries users enter.
Examples Of Long Tail Keywords
Let’s explore some examples to have a better understanding of this concept.
For instance, if you search “vacation,” you will come up with various results. However, if you enter a long phrase such as “vacations to Maldives” or “Best vacation spots in Maldives,” the results would be more specific. They will allow the visitor to find holiday destinations worth visiting.
The word “coffee filter” may not attract high online traffic. However, the phrase “homemade coffee filter” indicates the final level of a consumer’s journey.
Some more examples of long-tail queries are:
Organic coffee shops near me.
Best accessories to pack for beach camping
Water exercises for women.
Gifts for men under $50
Gym bag for men.
Nike running shoes for women
Vegan pizza delivery in NY after midnight.”
And so on!
Why Are They Called Long Tail Keywords?
“Long tail keywords” originate from their location on the “search demand curve.”
So, what is a search demand curve?
A search demand curve illustrates the occurrence of search terms within a specific market. Although long-tail keywords tend to have more than three words, it is not the length of the phrase mentioned on the graph. In a search demand curve, keywords are positioned by their search volume.
The head of the curve shows keywords searched multiple times during a month but received a small amount of quality traffic. However, the graph’s tail illustrates unpopular queries with low search volume attracting more potential buyers.
The search demand curve reveals how businesses can capture traffic by effectively leveraging appropriate long-tail keywords.
Why are Long Tail Keywords Important?
The fact that long phrases are a great way to target niche markets alone increases their significance for any business. It’s essential to have a well-thought-out long-tail keyword strategy.
Long tail keywords are a fundamental component of every SEO strategy because they offer an array of benefits, including:
They Are Less Competitive
Long tail keywords are typically easier to rank for than generic keywords. It is because they are specific and cater to the needs of a particular niche. Therefore, they have relatively low competition. Hence, it helps to identify long-tail keywords to target low-competition keywords.
It gives companies and corporations (especially small-scale businesses and startups) an edge over their competitors. Content designed around long-tail keywords allows websites to achieve a favorable ranking on the search engine without much effort. According to Search Engine Land, 70% of all web searches come from long-tail keywords.
Offer a Better Conversion Rate
When you target Long tail keywords, it can open floodgates of traffic to your website. These precise and detailed phrases give valuable insight into the audience’s search behavior.
By analyzing specific long-tail keywords frequently used by people to find a particular website or content, you can uncover the intent of your targeted market. Because individuals using long-tail phrases are usually at the final stage of the purchasing process compared to folks searching for broader head terms.
Websites tailored around these queries can usher highly qualified leads and have a chance of enjoying better conversion rates.
Per the survey, pages optimized for long-tail keywords experience an average climb up to 11 positions (in contrast to 5 positions for head keywords).
Can Improve Content Visibility
The idea behind a keyword is to improve your online presence. And with long tail keywords, you have a better chance of appearing at the top of the search engine results.
Long tail keywords are detailed and reflect the intent of the searcher. Moreover, when someone searches their query using a long tail phrase, Google personalizes the search results depending on their location, age, gender, interest, and more. That means by infusing relevant long-tail keywords into your content, you can design a website that caters to various groups of searchers.
Helpful In Boosting The Rank For Low-Authority Pages
Backlinks, quality, structured data, relevance, and user engagement are common factors analyzed by the Google search engine before ranking a webpage.
A few giant industry players often dominate the ranking for high-competition relevant keywords. The web pages of these brands enjoy high authority because a substantial number of backlinks support them.
However, new webpages or low-authority websites for small-scale businesses don’t have enough backlinks to attract their target niche, leaving them behind in the competitive online world. Long tail keywords can give them a strategic advantage in this situation. Businesses can boost their SERP ranking by designing relevant content around long-tail keywords and staying ahead of the competition.
Contain Head Keywords
Long tail keywords usually include seed terms that rank top on Google algorithms. This combination helps you achieve your goal of improving your ranking using primary keywords.
Increased website ranking results in a greater influx of organic traffic serving the ultimate purpose of digital marketing.
Help Optimize Results For Voice Search
Considering the search behavior of users is critical when optimizing for semantic search. Incorporating long-tail keywords is an essential component of this strategy.
Instead of typing, people often prefer to ask Google what they want at the moment. About 43% of millennials use voice search weekly, which brings more long-tail keyword searches.
Google crawlers using voice search tools such as Alexa, Siri, and Google Home always use long phrases and have a clear intent. They are looking for a specific product or service and fall under the category of “target audience.” So, carefully addressing long-tail keywords used during voice searches will likely improve your web page’s conversion rate.
Reduce Pay Per Click Expense
Websites that rely on Google Ads to reach their target audience can greatly benefit from long-tail keywords.
How?
In general, keywords with high search volumes come with elevated costs per click (CPC). But as we know, the broad keywords don’t exhibit exceptional conversion rates.
On the contrary, low-volume long-tail keywords possess precise targeting, often leading to higher conversion rates. Additionally, they tend to have lower CPCs. This scenario results in a beneficial outcome for pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.
How To Find Long Tail Keywords
There are several ways to find the right cluster of long-tail keywords for your website.
Google “Searches Related To”
The section “Searches related to..” at the bottom of Google Search results is a gold mine for long tail keywords. All you have to do is type the head keyword in the search bar and then scroll to the bottom of the page. The “Searches Related to..” will give you a selection of excellent long-tail phrases that you can use to target your focused market.
Take Assistance From Google Autocomplete
The Google Autocomplete feature is the simplest and quickest way to find long-tail keywords.
To filter out long-tail phrases using Google Autocomplete, you have to type a keyword in the search bar and let Google complete the sentence for you!
The search box will give you a drop-down list of related queries. Add a letter to your search term to uncover even more suggestions.
Note that autocomplete suggestions are not always long-tail keywords. More often than so, these highly competitive terms do not align with the long-tail definition.
Browse Forum Sites
When Google visitors cannot answer their queries satisfactorily, they turn to online forums such as Quora and Reddit to satisfy their doubts.
Hundreds of people interact on online forums and pour in their queries, giving you dozens of popular long-tail keywords for creating quality content.
To dig out long phrases using forums, navigate to an active forum frequently visited by your target audience. Include the titles of the threads and the phrases within the conversation in your list of “long-tail keywords.”
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a freely accessible tool that serves as a control hub for website owners. The various features are available within this tool aid brands in optimizing their website.
Go to the “Search Traffic” section, then head to the “Search Analytics.” Here, you will have a clear insight into the list of keywords getting more clicks from your audience. Spot long tail keyword phrases and optimize your webpage accordingly.
Use Keyword Research Tools
The best way to find long-tail keywords is by using topic research tools like Semrush. Moreover, it provides a wealth of options for effectively mining long-tail keywords.
The Keyword Magic Tool and the Keyword Gap analysis features help you generate keyword ideas for creating engaging content. Enter a general term into the search bar, and the tool will generate numerous keyword suggestions. The list includes high-volume head keywords as well as associated long-tail keywords.
Google Ads Keyword Planner
The Google Ads Keyword Planner is specifically designed for PPC campaigns.
Login to your Google Ads account and navigate to Keyword Planner. Two options will be displayed on the page:
Discover New Keywords”
Get Search Volume And Forecast”
Select the first option and enter a head keyword into the search field. Google will instantly generate relevant keyword terms and search volume for the respective phrase.
The Two Types Of Long Tail Keywords
All long-tail keywords are not the same. Some phrases reflect distinct search queries, while others are variations of more popular searches with lower popularity.
Long tail keywords have the following two types:
Supporting Long Tail Keywords
Supporting long-tail keywords revolve around general topics and provide additional context to the primary long-tail keywords. They have a broader nature and discuss general topics, making it more challenging to rank on Google. Google’s algorithm is sophisticated and also considers common keywords, factoring them into the ranking process.
It also means that achieving a high ranking for the main keyword can result in favorable rankings for the supporting long-tail keywords.
Topical Long Tail Keywords
As the name suggests, topical long-tail keywords are specific, descriptive, and target-oriented. These terms have lower competition, allowing them to achieve higher rankings on the Google search engine.
In Conclusion
The power of long-tail keywords in shaping the success of online businesses cannot be overstated. By delving into the realm of long-tail keywords, companies can unlock a wealth of opportunities to connect with their target audience on a deeper level. These longer, more descriptive phrases are not only a means to improve online visibility but also a pathway to understanding and addressing customer intent.
