WHY LONG TAIL? 7 reasons to focus on long tail phrases

Introduction

Are you wondering why your SEO strategy isn't delivering the results you're looking for? Are you investing significant resources into SEO, but your conversions still leave much to be desired? You're probably making the same mistake that most businesses make - focusing solely on popular, general keywords, ignoring the potential hidden in the so-called "long tail."

In today's article, we'll explain why a long-tail strategy is not an option, but a necessity for any business that wants to maximize its SEO ROI. You'll learn 7 key reasons why long-tail keywords should be the foundation of your SEO strategy.

What exactly is "long tail" in SEO?

The term "long tail" comes from economics and was popularized by Chris Anderson of Wired magazine. In the context of SEO, long tail phrases are specific, multi-word queries that are much less popular than general keywords but that generate more traffic overall.

Examples:

• Generic phrase: "sports shoes"
• Long tail phrase: "best mountain running shoes for women with flat feet"

Long tail phrases are characterized by:

• More words (usually 3-5 or more)
• Greater specificity
• Lower competitiveness
• Higher purchase intention

In our experience, over 70% of all Google searches are long-tail phrases . This is a huge potential that most companies completely ignore in their SEO strategies.

7 Key Reasons Why You Should Go Long Tail

1. Less competition, faster results

Generic phrases like "shoes," "insurance," and "SEO" are extremely competitive. Many large companies with huge marketing budgets have been fighting for the same positions for years.

Our research shows that getting into the TOP3 for a popular general phrase can take up to 12-18 months of intensive activities and a significant budget. In comparison, high positions for long-tail phrases can be achieved after just 2-3 months with a much smaller outlay.

Case study: For one of our clients from the clothing industry, the positioning for the phrase "clothes" after a year of intensive activities stopped on the second page of results. At the same time, long tail phrases like "elegant wedding dresses for mother of the bride" reached the 1st position after only 6 weeks and started generating sales.

2. Higher conversion

The more specific the query, the more precise the user’s intent. Someone searching for “shoes” may be in a very preliminary stage of research, while someone searching for “red women’s high heels size 38 genuine leather” is probably ready to make a purchase.

Our data shows that the average conversion rate for general phrases is around 1-2%, while for well-chosen long-tail phrases it can reach 5-10% or more.

In practice, this means that:

• 1000 visits from general phrases = 10-20 conversions
• 1000 visits from long tail phrases = 50-100 conversions

The difference is dramatic and translates directly into the ROI of your SEO activities.

3. Precisely reach the target group

Long-tail keywords allow you to reach exactly those users who are looking for your specific product or service. Instead of competing for the general attention of thousands of random users, you focus on a few hundred perfectly matched potential customers.

An example from our practice:

• A client offering accounting services for small e-commerce companies initially positioned itself for the phrase "accounting office Warsaw" - a difficult, competitive phrase generating inquiries from companies of various sizes and from various industries.
• After changing the strategy to long tail ("accounting for online stores", "VAT settlements for e-commerce", "accounting for sales on Amazon"), conversion increased by 340% with similar traffic.

4. Lower customer acquisition costs (CAC)

In SEO, as in other marketing channels, the key metric is the Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). Due to lower competition and higher conversion, long-tail phrases offer a much better cost-to-effect ratio.

Our data from the last 50 projects shows that the average CAC with a generic keyword strategy is about 3.5 times higher than with a long-tail strategy.

5. Better suited to modern searches (especially voice)

With the rise of voice search and assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa, the way people search for information is changing dramatically. People are increasingly formulating queries in a natural, interrogative way, using full sentences instead of short phrases.

According to our research, the average length of a voice query is 7-9 words, while text queries average 3-4 words. This means that the long-tail strategy fits perfectly into the growing trend of voice searches, which are predicted to make up 50% of all searches by 2025.

6. Less susceptible to algorithm changes and Google updates

Google regularly makes changes to its algorithm that can drastically affect the rankings of pages. Our many years of observations show that sites positioned for long-tail phrases are much less sensitive to these updates.

Why? Long-tail phrases are more responsive to specific user intent, which aligns with Google’s long-term mission to deliver the most relevant results possible. When your content perfectly answers a specific query, Google is less likely to change its position when updating.

7. The cumulative effect - the sum of traffic from many long tail phrases exceeds the traffic from several general phrases

The power of the long-tail strategy is in scale. Instead of fighting over a few competing generic keywords, you can dominate hundreds or thousands of long-tail keywords. While each keyword generates a small amount of traffic, the sum of them often outweighs the potential of the generic keywords.

An example from our experience:

• A kitchen equipment store tried to position itself for the phrases "pots", "frying pans", "kitchen accessories" (total potential: ~40,000 searches per month).
• After implementing the long tail strategy, the focus was on phrases such as "frying pan with ceramic coating for induction", "stainless steel pots for professional chefs", etc. (over 600 long tail phrases).
• Total traffic: 65,000 visits per month with significantly higher conversion.

How to effectively implement a long tail strategy?

Successful implementation of a long tail strategy requires a systematic approach:

1. Conduct in-depth phrase research - use tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush or specialized long-tail phrase tools such as AnswerThePublic.
2. Group phrases by intent - categorize long tail phrases by user intent (informational, navigational, transactional).
3. Create dedicated content - each group of long-tail phrases should have a dedicated page or article that comprehensively answers the query.
4. Technically optimize - take care of the technical foundations of SEO so that Google can easily index and understand your content.
5. Track and optimize - monitor results, identify top-converting phrases, and continually evolve your long tail strategy.

Case Study: How Long Tail Keywords Increased a Supplement Store's ROI by 287%

Summary: Long tail is not an option, it's a necessity

In today’s highly competitive SEO environment, a long-tail strategy is no longer an optional extra, but the foundation of a successful strategy. With lower competition, higher conversions, and better alignment with user intent, long-tail keywords offer a much better return on your SEO investment.

Remember that an effective SEO strategy is not only about gaining traffic, but above all about gaining the right traffic - users who are likely to become your customers.