What are long tail keywords?

The long tail keywords (LKT) are the key specific terms which have the SEO function to attract a very specific part of the audience with higher probability of conversion

The term “long tail” comes from a fairly friendly comparison between keywords and the image of a dinosaur on a graph:

This comparison aims at explaining that the more specific a word, the lesser the searches. But, at the same time, those few searches will be of higher quality.

How do long tail keywords work?

Just to take an example, let’s imagine you own a pet shop with an eco friendly approach, so you sell organic nuggets and products. Intuitively, you could say your main keywords are:

  • Pet food 
  • Pet shop
  • Pets

Unfortunately those keywords are far too general. If you’re trying to have them positioned with content creation, you may find it really hard to compete against large existing pet shops which have already monopolized those terms in your area, or you may attract an audience that is actually looking for something completely different, such as buying a pet or even finding a vet. 

In order to reach your target audience, that is local and with a much more specific profile, you should resort to long tail keywords, like these:

  • Organic food for pets in… (your district or delivery range)
  • Home delivery of ecologic products for pets
  • Eco-friendly pet shop in… (your district or delivery range)

Clearly the amount of people searching for those keywords will be substantially less than the amount of users searching for “pet food” or “pets” across the entire network, but those visitors will probably match the search profile of your Buyer persona and they will be actually interested in purchasing what you sell.  

You may also like: How to boost your business growth through social media in an organic way

How can I know which my LTK are?

Long tail keywords are usually combinations of general keywords with more specific terms that can refer to:

  • Location (in a given city, in a given country, in a given district, etc)
  • Special features or attributes (eco-friendly, affordable, vegan, xfriendly)
  • Final user (for kids, for small breeds, for XL sizes, for x cellphone model)
  • Quality, materials or manufacturing

In order to identify yours, you should take into account these variables, though you may also resort to one of many LKT construction tools that are available online. 

Learn more about Long Tail Keywords

As Google algorithms change on an ongoing basis, as well as the needs of the audience and their searching methods, selecting long tail keywords is not an easy task and requires a strong expertise in SEO. 

You can learn more about this topic checking on the specialized resources below:

Do you need help picking Long Tail Keywords for your campaign?

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