With its latest updates, Google has gotten better than ever before at reading users’ intent with their searches. This means that Google is trying to match users with content that they’re intending to search for rather than what they actually searched for. Long-tailed keywords can help you to match your keywords with user intent better than shorter words and phrases.

What Is a Long-Tail Keyword?

A long-tail keyword is a full sentence or phrase that is intended to match something a user might search for. They became more common to address the rise of voice search. This is because a lot of people use voice search as a conversation, speaking entire phrases or sentences rather than just a few words, as they might have done if they were typing.

Why Are Long-Tail Keywords Important in Your SEO Strategy?

Long-tail keywords are important because they match what users are actually looking for. In both voice search and text searches, most users search using a full sentence or phrase. This helps them to express more fully what they’re intending to search for. In the early days of SEO search engines were only able to look for content based on each keyword individually. Now, search engines are much more intelligent and can parse the meaning behind the query and actually look for content based on the user’s intent.

Backlinko did a study that found that around 90% of all user searches used long-tail keywords. If you’re not producing content with long-tail keywords in mind, then you’re missing out on an important SEO opportunity.

What Are the Benefits of Long-Tail Keywords?

If you optimize with long-tail keywords, there are three primary benefits:

• Optimizes for voice search
• Lower competition
• Higher conversion

Not only do long-tail keywords optimize better for voice search and text searches that are worded more conversationally, they also have lower competition. The shorter the keyword or key phrase, the more companies will need to use the same keywords in their SEO strategies. The longer it is, the more you can narrow it down to match the intent of your specific target audience.

This is why there is a higher conversion rate with long-tail keywords. Google is able to better match users with your content. That means a higher-quality audience for your website. High traffic isn’t always good if your site isn’t what those users are looking for. A high bounce rate will negatively impact your ratings.

How Do You Come up With Long-Tail Keywords?

Coming up with long-tail keywords requires you to understand your users’ intent when they make their searches. You can start by thinking of the shorter keywords and key phrases that fit your content and industry. Then, choose a keyword planning tool and enter your keywords into it. The tool should provide you with keyword ideas based on your initial search. You should choose the ones that you think a user looking for information that your site provides would use. You may need to think about what you would search for yourself in order to find your site and convert a short keyword into a sentence or a question.