What is a long-tail keyword in SEO? Tips & Benefits

Will you agree with me that communication becomes better and easier when you are specific?

Let me explain.

If you go to a bakery and ask for “bread” they will give you any bread.

But if you ask for “multigrain honey oats bread” you will get that instead of any bread.

Like the baker here, you need to be specific while performing a search and let the search engine know your exact intent to get accurate results.

Over the years, search engines have evolved and become smarter.

Google now focuses more on users’ experience and intent and has come up with autocomplete and voice search. 

To get exactly what they want, users use long-tail keywords while purchasing or performing voice searches.

Now, what is a long-tail keyword, and are there any benefits of it in search engine optimisation?

The answer is: Yes.

Dig in to go deep and learn how to use this hugely valuable keyword for the benefit of your site and how it helps your business and products stand out in the crowd.

What is a long-tail keyword?

I am sure you have got some idea about what a long-tail keyword is from the above example. 

As explained before, long–tail keywords are longer (multigrain honey oats bread) and more specific keywords than their short-tail counterparts (bread) that visitors may use when they are about to purchase something or when they are using voice search. In short, they give a much clearer idea about the user’s intent.

These keywords are 3 or more words long and super specific as they focus on a niche, unlike their short-tail counterpart, which are broad searches. 

They have a higher conversion rate as they are longer and more specific. 

How does it work?

Let’s go back to our previous example. 

If you are a bakery and have a website, chances are there that your webpages may not appear at the top of an organic search for the keyword “bakery” as there will be too much competition. 

But what if you have a specialisation? 

“Vegan Turkish bakery in Powai, Mumbai” has a better chance of getting customers who are searching exactly the same. 

What are the benefits of long-tail keywords?

Short-tailed keywords have a higher search volume and they are easier to incorporate into the content. 

But here’s the catch, the competition for these keywords is high, and it will be much tougher for you to rank for them.

On the other hand, long-tail keywords have many benefits that can help you build effective and power-packed SEO strategies.

Let’s check their benefits:

1. Lot less competitive

Long tail keywords are less competitive than their short tail counterparts. 

Let me give you an example. 

Suppose you want to write a blog on long-tail keywords, and your primary keyword is “long tail keyword”. Now, check the images below. There are already 8920 content pieces on “long tail keyword,” which includes high-competition sites like Ahref, Yoast, and Semrush. 

On the other hand “how to find long tail keywords” is a long tail keyword which has 101 competitions. 

Much lesser, isn’t it?

Additionally, Long-tail keywords are easier to rank as they are relatively low competition. Also, 70% of all web searches come from these keywords. And searches of more than 4 words cover 95.88% of Google searches. 

This means if long-tail keywords are not part of your SEO strategy, you are missing out on excellent opportunities to drive traffic to your site and make your business visible to as many people as you can.

2. Easier to create content

Creating content using long-tail keywords is much easier since the intent and query are super specific.

To understand it better, let me give you an example.

What if somebody told you to write a blog on “oil”?

Immediately you will have hundreds of questions like what oil you should focus on, is it cooking oil, massage oil, or fuel. If the person is talking about cooking oil is it cocsesame sesame oil, or mustard oil? 

And I am sure there will be many other questions in your, mind, and it will be next to impossible for you to gauge what is the intent of your user.

But if that same person asks you to write a blog on  “best cold compressed sesame oil for cooking”, your task will become super easy, since you now have a clear idea about the intent of your audience. 

3. Get a better conversion rate

As I said before, people use long-tail keywords while purchasing something online or performing a voice search. This means these keywords give a crystal clear idea about the searcher’s intent. 

For the same reasons,  businesses see a better conversion rate when they use long-tail keywords as they are catering to the right users and their exact needs. 

Let me help you understand with an example. Suppose you are searching for “face cream”. You will get hundreds of results that will show different skin creams which might not suit you.

But if you search for “organic face cream for dry sensitive skin”, you will find the product that best suits you. That way you will be able to make a quick decision and choose a cream from the hundreds of options shown in the SERPs. 

That’s how these keywords can lead visitors to make a quick buying decision.

4. They may help you rank for short-tail keywords, too

Most long-tail keywords contain short-tail ones for which you may want to rank. 

Let’s go back to the previous example: “organic face cream for dry sensitive skin” has “face cream” in it. This helps you achieve both your goal and increases the chances to rank for both keywords. 

5. They are best for voice search

Search engines have evolved over the years and become smarter. Google autocomplete guides you with long tail keywords. And people, while searching for anything online, use more conversational language.

With Alexa, Siri, and Google Home, searching for anything on the internet has become super conversational. 

These high-intent users are more likely to convert. When you use long-tail keywords, you are targeting these people who know what they want, and this helps boost your conversion rate. 

How to find long-tail keywords

Believe me, finding long-tail keywords is not a hard job. Here are some of the proven strategies which I use to find them.

Use Google’s People Also Ask Feature

Whenever you type a search query on Google, it shows this “People Also Ask” section which has many long-tail keywords which are mostly questions related to the query. 

And when you expand on each question Google shows even more questions and their answers.

You can use alsoasked.com to find more long-tail keywords related to your topic. 

Use Google’s auto-complete feature

Have you noticed the drop-down list of related terms while typing into Google’s search box? 

You can get more such suggestions by simply adding a letter to your search query.

Use Google’s related search

Whenever you enter your query in the Google search box at the end of the page it shows some related searches which again are great long-tail keywords closely related to the term you used.

Use other tools

Along with the above options, I prefer to use tools to find long-tail keywords. Ahref, MOZ, Google trends, Google Search Console, Semrush, and Keywords sheeter are some of the tools you can use. 

Keep a tab on your competitors

You can use tools like Ahref and Semrush to find what long-tail keywords your competitors are ranking for. 

Final thoughts

I am sure you will have no doubts about the importance of long-tail keywords in building your SEO strategy after learning all its benefits.

I am hopeful that the information I have given here has helped you understand how to fine-tune your website’s SEO with Long-tail keywords and boost its traffic using them. 

Following the tips  I have shared, you will be able to create excellent content aiming at high-value leads without any hassle and super fast. 

Feel free to reach out, in case, you want to know more about long-tail keywords.