I see many people asking about the keywords and the one question that I found often is, “What is a Long Tail Keyword in SEO?”
This questions usually pops up when the SEO expert recommends using long tail keywords to get ranked in the search engines. Let me explain what it means.
Long Tail Keywords – Definition
In short, Long Tail Keyword is a keyword with a long tail (See What does keyword mean?)
That means the there are actually a lot of words in the keyword. Short tail keywords are short.
Let me give you three examples.
1.If your website is about the running shoes and you want to make a review of the Nike shoes.
Instead of just using “Nike running shoes” you can be more specific. A long tail keyword would be, for example, “The best Nike running shoes for men in 2016”.
2.Let’s take another example from the piano niche. You want to write an article about Yamaha’s piano.
Instead of just using, “Yamaha Piano Review” you may want to use “Is Yamaha YUS1 Piano Worth its price?”
3.Let’s say that you are teaching people how to make money online (as I am).
Instead of just using the short keyword, “Earn Money Online” you could use the long tail keyword, “Learn how to make money online writing blogs”.
Why Are Long Tail Keywords Important for SEO?
Using long tail keywords is definitely beneficial and I recommend to use them instead of the short ones.
I will give you three main reasons. I will be using the term Best Baseball Gloves for Boys aged 5 to 10 that one online marketer, Ram, used on his website to get very good rankings in Google (Read his article here).
1.You will be ranked for the several terms.
When Ram was using the long tail keyword Best Baseball Gloves for Boys aged 5 to 10 he was ranked at the same time for all of these terms:
- Best Baseball Gloves for Boys aged 5 to 10
- Best Baseball Gloves for Boys
- Best Baseball Gloves for
- Best Baseball Gloves
- Baseball Gloves
Think how much better it was to use his long tail keyword instead of just something short.
Ram was ranking #1 with 4 different keywords by only writing one article!
2.The competition will be lower.
When your term is more specific not so many people are competing with you.
Less competition -> better rankings for you!
The competition for “Best Baseball Gloves for Boys aged 5 to 10” according to Wealthy Affiliate’s keyword tool is 1.
Meanwhile the competition for “Baseball Gloves” is 247.
Many people are talking about the “big” and general things but when you are more and more specific with your keywords there will be no competition and you will get the traffic easily.
3.The visitors will be more targeted.
When you are using long tail keywords you can literally choose the people who are coming to your website. They will be more targeted which will mean more profit.
The person who is searching “Best Baseball Gloves for Boys aged 5 to 10” is looking for something very specific. He/she is probably the little boy’s father, mother or coach who wants to find the best baseball gloves for his/her boy.
If your keyword would be only “Best Baseball Gloves” there may be people who are looking for the baseball gloves for girls, women and for the 50 years old men. So only a little part of that group is your target audience if you are selling the baseball gloves for young boys.
It’s good that also those people come to your website but if you can decide you want to get the most targeted people to your website.
They will more probably buy your products and you will earn revenue.
Learn More about Keywords to Boost Your Online Income
Finding proper keywords plays very important role in the process of driving more traffic to your website. If you don’t get ranked in the search engines, you will miss a huge source.
But as you get ranked in the search engines the opportunities are limitless.
I wanted to share this knowledge about the long tail keywords because many beginners who are starting to earn money online don’t know this. I didn’t even know that I need to use long tail keywords when I was starting my Internet marketing career.
Long tail keywords are still only a little part of getting ranked in Google.
If you want to learn more on how to get the proper education in #1 online business university. I know many people who started in Wealthy Affiliate without the former knowledge and later started earning +$10,000/month income or even more.
So, the possibilities are really out there if you are willing to learn and use the knowledge in practice.
I hope that this article gave you the great answer for the question, “What is a Long Tail Keyword in SEO?”.
When you’re optimizing your website’s SEO and keywords, be sure to avoid keyword cannibalization. It means that you are targeting the same keyword with multiple pages and it creates a confusion on Google. Learn more in Matt Diggity’s article on cannibalization.
If you have any questions, leave them below and I will respond to you usually in less than 24 hours.
Hi Roope,
This is a very comprehensive article regarding what long tail keywords are and how they affect with rankings!
I have been always aiming at long tail keywords because of their lower competitions but was never aware that they can actually rank for several different terms. That’s a great news to me! Thank you for sharing this. 🙂
Yuko
Hi Yuko,
It’s great to hear that you have been aiming for the long tail keywords because they rank better than the shorter ones. I am also happy to hear that you learned something new from this article :). Little by little as you keep on learning and putting the things into action you will make great success in your online business.
-Roope
I find long tail keyword of good use to me when it come to ranking in search Engines. I am particularly in love with more specific chosen keywords, especially for the unique information you want to put across.
Your description of long word keywords is very clear, I found it very easy to follow, and understand what it actually means.
Thank you for your vital information.
Hi Albina,
it’s nice to hear that also you like to use long tail keywords. As you say they will get ranked better and they will also make easier for the visitor to find specific information.
I am glad that you found my text easy to follow. I always want to describe the things as simply as possible so even the visitors who are beginners can understand what I am saying. 🙂