In general, a longtail is used to describe a thesis from business administration. According to this thesis, companies with virtual products in particular make a large part of their sales with niche products. The increase in the range of niche products in the age of e-commerce is undisputed. Nevertheless, the long-tail thesis can only be verified in a few cases. Derived from this concept is in search engine optimization talking about long tail keywords. Similar to niche products, for which a lower demand is generally assumed, long-tail keywords are keywords that are searched for less accordingly. This means that long-tail keywords are multi-part search phrases with a lower search volume, but also less competition. Longtail keywords are increasingly relevant for modern SEO.
Longtail keyword – definition and description
A longtail keyword is a search phrase that usually consists of at least 3 to 5 words. Depending on which source you use, keywords made up of about 3 components are considered so-called mid-tail keywords. Longtails would therefore be even longer search phrases. And the longer a search phrase, the more specific the query becomes. Longtail keywords are more specific than generic searches, making it easier to target more specific audiences. This is an important factor, especially with the increasing use of voice searches.
Also, long-tail keywords have fewer competitors than generic keywords because they drive user searches map more accurately. This in turn is an important factor in keyword bidding for paid search and campaigns. Longtail keywords make it easier to drive quality traffic to a website. This subsequently increases the likelihood of converting leads. The traffic generated by long-tail search queries is usually proportionately higher than that generated by short-tail keywords. At the same time, long-tail optimization can also have a positive impact on the conversion rate.
Long Tail Optimization
When optimizing the website for long-tail keywords, you shouldn’t just keep an eye on the content. Long tails are relevant to the entire customer journey. The further this progresses, the more specific the matching keywords become, because the search queries of the users are increasingly changing from generic to specific formulations. Because it is not easy, especially for new websites, to quickly achieve a good ranking with frequently searched, generic keywords, long-tail optimization should be the focus here. It should also include the page hierarchy, internal links with mid- and long-tail anchor tags and the backlink-Construction should be taken into account. If you optimize for the long tail, you should design the corresponding text in great detail and make sure that there are many different combinations of search terms as well as thematically relevant terms and synonyms. Longer texts result in more combinations.
Longtail in SEO
If in the past more than 70% of all search queries consisted of long-tail keywords, it can be assumed that this proportion will continue to increase with the progress of voice search and the evolution of search algorithms. Users on Google now use the same language they use in conversations with other people. This is commonly referred to as “natural language” designated. With long-tail keywords, it is, therefore, more likely to reach exactly these users. Long tails are mutually beneficial: website owners get more relevant traffic, making it easier to direct it along their customer journey. And potential leads get search results that are more relevant to their queries. In principle, optimization for multi-part search terms can bring lasting success if you consider that there are theoretically an infinite number of possible combinations. SEOs should therefore not primarily focus on optimizing for individual or specific long tails, but rather on covering the website’s topic as broadly as possible in the content and thereby implementing as many long tail keywords as possible.