Long tail keywords are the specific, low-volume searches that sit behind every broad topic. One of them on its own brings little traffic. Together they make up almost all of the keywords people use. This page is part of our guide to question keywords, because a large share of the long tail is made of questions.
Where the name comes from
Picture every search on a topic lined up by how often people make it. A handful of broad terms sit at the front with huge numbers. Behind them runs a long, thin tail of searches that each get very few. That tail is where the name comes from.
The tail is long. Ahrefs says it has a database of over 110 billion discovered keywords, and that “keywords with fewer than 10 searches per month account for almost 93% of our U.S. keyword database.” In the US alone, that is 2.3 billion keywords with fewer than 10 searches a month.
Google sees the same thing from the other side. In 2019, Pandu Nayak, a Google Fellow and vice president of Search, wrote that “15 percent of those queries are ones we haven’t seen before.” Searches that new can only be long tail.
Long tail is about volume, not word count
You will often read that a long tail keyword has three, four or five words. That is a rule of thumb, not a definition. Ahrefs puts it plainly: “it is not the length of a keyword that makes it a long-tail.” It points out that there are many one-word keywords that get fewer than 100 searches a month. What makes a search long tail is how few people make it.
In practice, length and low volume usually go together. Every word you add narrows the search, and a narrower search is made by fewer people. That is why most long tail examples look like phrases or full questions. Just don’t throw out a short search because it doesn’t “look” long tail, or keep a long one because it does.
Head terms and long tail keywords side by side
Here is how the two compare. The examples are ours, to show the pattern, not measured volumes.
| Head term | Long tail keyword | |
|---|---|---|
| Example | coffee | how much coffee for a 12 cup coffee maker |
| Searches each | Many | Few |
| What the searcher wants | Unclear: buying, brewing, health, a café? | Clear: a measurement, right now |
| What page fits | A broad guide or a shop | One clear answer, often one section |
| Who you compete with | Every big site in the space | Pages that answer that exact need |
The middle row is the important one. A head term can mean several things, so the results page has to cover all of them. A long tail search usually means one thing, which makes it much easier to write the page that answers it. We go further into reading what a search means in what search intent is.
Why long tail keywords matter
The intent is clearer
Someone searching “coffee” could want almost anything. Someone searching “how much coffee for a 12 cup coffee maker” is standing at the machine. You know what the answer has to be, and roughly how long it should be. That clarity is most of the value.
People search in plain language
Nayak’s post said Google’s language work helps most “for longer, more conversational queries,” and that people often use “keyword-ese,” typing strings of words they think Google will understand. As search gets better at plain language, more searches come in the long, natural form. That is the long tail.
A lot of it is questions
Many long tail searches are full questions: “why is my cold brew bitter”, “can you reuse coffee grounds”. Questions arrive with their intent built in, and they make natural headings. That is why the long tail and question keywords overlap so much, and why the question keywords guide treats question research as the core of the job.
You don’t need a page for every variation
This is where people go wrong. Google’s guide to generative AI features says “AI systems can understand synonyms and general meanings of what someone is seeking,” so “you don’t have to worry that you don’t have enough ‘long-tail’ keywords or haven’t captured every variation of how someone might seek content like yours.” Its SEO Starter Guide makes the same point for search in general: “don’t worry if you don’t anticipate every variation of how someone might seek your content.”
So the long tail is a guide to what people need, not a list of pages to write. Ten wordings of one need belong on one page.
How to find long tail keywords
Every source below is free. Each one shows a different slice, so use more than one. The full tour, with what each source can’t tell you, is on how to find what people are searching for.
- Autocomplete. Start typing your topic and note how Google finishes it. Google’s help page says predictions “reflect real searches that have been done on Google.” Add question words and walk through the alphabet to pull out more. More on the feature in google autocomplete.
- People Also Ask. Google describes the box as “a cluster of questions that are related to what the user initially searched for.” Open a question and more appear under it. These are long tail questions, already grouped by Google. Where to find People Also Ask questions covers how to collect them.
- Related searches. In Google’s words, “a cluster of related searches that other people have done.” Good for spotting angles you missed. See related searches.
- Search Console. The Performance report groups data “by the search query users typed,” with clicks and impressions. Sort by impressions and look for long queries you appear for but don’t answer well. These are the cheapest wins, because Google already connects you to them.
- Your own customers. Support emails, sales calls and your site search are full of long tail questions in the exact words people use.
One warning about demand data: Google Trends “only shows data for popular terms, so search terms with low volume appear as ‘0’.” Most of the long tail will look like zero there. That doesn’t mean nobody searches it.
Is there a long tail keyword tool?
Yes, several kinds, and none of them is a long tail keyword tool in a strict sense. They are keyword tools you point at the tail.
- Keyword tools with filters. If your keyword tool can filter suggestions by volume or word count, filter for low volume and for words like “how”, “why” and “can”, and you have a long tail list.
- Google Keyword Planner. Google says it helps you “discover new keywords related to your business and view estimates of the searches they receive.” It lives inside Google Ads, and you need to finish account setup, including billing information, to use it.
- Question tools. Tools built on People Also Ask and Autocomplete hand you long tail questions directly, with no volume attached. PAA Box, our Chrome extension, is one of them: it opens the People Also Ask box on your own Google results page and exports every question with the question it came from.
We compare the free options, including Google’s own, on free keyword research tools. Whatever you use, the tool only gives you candidates. Deciding which ones deserve an answer is still your job.
How to use long tail keywords without making thin pages
- Group before you write. Put every wording of the same need together. One group is one page or one section. Our page on keyword clustering shows how to decide.
- Pick the clearest wording for the heading. Use the others naturally in the answer, where they fit. Google’s SEO Starter Guide says “keyword stuffing is against Google’s spam policies,” and that repeating the same words over and over is tiring for users.
- Answer first. Put the direct answer in the first sentence under the heading, then the detail.
- Link related pages. A long tail page should link up to the broader topic and across to its neighbors, so a reader can keep going.
The thing to avoid is a page per keyword. Google’s helpful content guidance lists, as a warning sign, “producing lots of content on many different topics in hopes that some of it might perform well in search results.” Its spam policies define scaled content abuse as “when many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users.” Hundreds of near-identical long tail pages are exactly that.
Common mistakes
- Judging by word count. Volume decides it, not length.
- Dropping anything that shows zero. Most tools can’t measure the far end of the tail. If real people ask it, it can still be worth answering.
- One page per phrasing. Group first. Variations belong together.
- Ignoring the head term. The long tail works best under a clear broad page that ties it together.
- Forgetting your own data. Search Console shows the long tail you already appear for. Start there.
Where to go next
For the bigger picture, go back to question keywords. To see which long tail questions come up most on a topic, read the most asked questions on Google. And if you want to use People Also Ask as your main long tail source, our page on people also ask keyword research has the step-by-step method.