What Are Long Tail Keywords and How They Can Help You in SEO

Keywords are the backbone of good SEO. Relaying traffic to your webpage is often down to the way you model your content around keywords. At times, even high quality content may not help ensure good results. The content is important but the keywords mostly dictate its reach and ability to pierce.

What Are Long Tail Keywords?

They are keywords, just like any other and are used for the same function. BUT, they are more detailed and longer in format.

Here’s an example:

Why We Recommend the Use of Long Tail Keywords for SEO?

First things first, they are precise.

Example: A furniture store with an online presence might often use the general keywords such as furniture, chair, table, etc.

In case of a particular type of chair, say by a designer A, and label B, and category of luxury C, a long tail keyword can take the form of “A-B C chair”.

Here the keyword becomes detailed and way more precise than it was before. So, the chances of conversion are much higher in this case.

As depicted in the graph above, short keywords are also very hard to optimize. Needless to mention, PPC costs too are high for short keywords.

For example, targeting a long tail keyword such as ‘buy weight loss supplement in Chicago’ or ‘how to find the best weight loss product in Chicago’ is easier than it is the case with ‘weight loss supplement.’

For SEO writers, who prepare content and often struggle to get traffic in, long tail keywords are the holy-grail. One of the main reasons behind this is that SEO keywords in general are exhaustive and used universally; nearly all your competitors are using the same keywords and therefore, receive the same amount of attention from search engines.

For projects with stringent budgets, long tail keywords are saviours, as they are pretty much the only way traffic can be directed on the basis of specificity.