What Is the Real Value of Long Tail Keywords?

Ravi Kolhe | 5/17/2013 | | | | | | |
Long-tailed keywords are currently much undervalued, which is a shame because they are capable of providing you with some of the most targeted traffic you will ever receive. Many people do not like them because they do not attract a large number of people, but they have got it all wrong. All that long-tailed keywords do is provide you with targeted traffic; it is a little bit like sieving the dust in order to find the gold nugget. This article explains what long-tailed keywords are, and then goes on to explain why they are so valuable to both your website and your SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

What are long-tailed keywords?

They are key-phrases, except that most people call them long-tailed keywords because they are phrases that people are likely to type into a search engine in order to find something specific. For example, you may call “House for sale” a set of keywords or a key-phrase. If you turned it into “Houses for sale in New York,” then that would be a long-tailed keyword.
Technically, you can call more than one keyword a long-tailed keyword, but the ones discussed in this article are ones that are a little more specific. They are closer to something that a person may type into a search engine in one go (one search).

How are they able to provide you with targeted traffic?

Some keywords are very popular, but they are often popular because they are entered in a lot of searches. For example, “house” is a very popular keyword, but it is entered in searches that range from “chicken house” to “house for rent.” So, even though the keyword “house” is very popular, it is not going to help you very much when you are trying to target a certain group of people.


Using long-tailed keywords allows you to optimize your website for people who are looking for something that is specific (the same thing that you are able to provide). If you pick popular keywords, then lots of people are going to search for them. But, you are not looking to get traffic from lots of people; you are looking for a specific group to visit your site. With long-tailed keywords, you can do that.

There is also less competition if you use long-tailed keywords. For example, if you optimize your website for the word “house”, then you have to compete with every website that has “house” in it, including completely unrelated businesses to yours, and even TV show websites. If you use long-tailed keywords, then you are only competing with the other websites that provide the same thing as you (i.e. your competition).

Are they something that should be included on every web page?

Long-tailed keywords are important, but they are not the foundation of your website. The foundation of your website should begin with the more popular keywords. However, you should add a few long-tailed keywords to your web pages, especially if they are a natural progression of your popular keywords. For example, a page about selling houses could start with the popular keywords such as “house”, “houses”, and “for sale”, with a few long-tailed keywords hanging added in there too, such as “low cost houses for sale” or “houses for sale in Chicago.”

How come Google Trends says they are unpopular?

Long-tailed keywords are unpopular because they are only used by small groups of people, but if the long-tailed keywords are related to your website or business, then that small group is full of people you should be trying to attract. They are your target consumer.

You also have to remember that Google Trends uses information that it collects over a long time that involves a lot of searches. Even the unpopular keywords are able to quadruple your web traffic. The numbers that Google use are averaged out so that even hundreds of searches seem insignificant, because they are juxtaposed to hundreds of thousands of searches.

About the Author:
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