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The Importance of Using Long-Tail Keywords in Your Writing

Keywords are an essential part of blogging and article writing. In an era dominated by search engines, infinite knowledge is at our fingertips, waiting to be consumed.

Keywords can help web consumers make well-informed decisions about what articles to dedicate their time to.
One keyword technique which is essential for writers to master is that of long-tail keywords. These types of keywords, when used properly, can help writers gain a genuine following who are invested in their brand.

Additionally, long-tail keywords can help boost SEO standing, build your brand/blog/site, and effectively increase your web traffic over time.

So, what are long-tail keywords?

How can you use them productively to improve your audience?

And why are they so important to developing a successful blog, brand, or site?

Short Keywords are Too Broad

For instance, let’s take the word psychology. Within 0.75 seconds, Google can retrieve 1,150,000,000 results for psychology.

If you’re writing about a topic related to psychology and use short/broad keywords, you’ll be competing against those billion other articles for traffic.

What does this mean?
You’ll lose out on consumers. This is especially true if your blog or brand hasn’t yet attained a significant following.
Additionally, using only short/root keywords may cause you to overload on keywords while writing, which will hurt your SEO standing on Google.

In order to produce quality writing that also draws in substantial traffic, utilizing long-tail keywords is a must.

What Do Long-Tail Keywords Do?

Long-tail keywords, when used correctly, can become an essential tool in a writer’s toolbox. If you know how to utilize them, long-tail keywords aren’t a manipulative technique to draw in confused consumers.

Utilizing them properly can help improve your content (and your traffic) in a variety of ways.

One way that long-tail keywords can support your writing is by helping to specify the subject matter of your article.
This ensures that those who click on your blog get information that is related to their needs rather than airy generalizations about a topic.

Long-tail keywords also eliminate some of your competition on Google. This isn’t to say that you should use them in a way that manipulates your consumers by falsely advertising the core of your article or post.
Rather, narrowing in on the specifics of your subject matter can help people put on intelligent blinders to find the well-informed content they’re really needing.

To demonstrate, let’s return to the psychology example.

Let’s say you’re writing a post about jobs in psychology. A few long-tail keywords (on the shorter side) that you could utilize might be psychology jobs, psychology careers, or psychology occupations.

Searching “psychology jobs” knocks your search results down to 284,000,000. “Psychology careers” gets you 272,000,000, and “psychology occupations” pulls up a mere 23,400,000.

Let’s narrow the scope even more by using lengthier long-tail keywords. Ultimately, this type of long-tail keywords will be your bread and butter when building a brand.

What is the number of Google search results for “psychology careers in law”? 184,000,000 results.

“Psychology careers in the military”? 57,800,000 results.

“Psychology careers in the medical field”? 78,700,000 results.

These may still be a significant number of search results, but they’re all nearly or over a billion less than a general search for “psychology.”

And slicing off competition isn’t all that long-tail keywords do.

They’re also a powerful tool when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO)


Besides narrowing in your search results, long-tail keywords also help improve your SEO standing. Long-tail keywords are prioritized on Google more than one-word/short keywords.

The reason?

Google is a major fan of long-tail keywords. They’ve taken it upon themselves to ensure that long-tail keywords are given SEO priority.

Google is highly concerned with providing their consumers with quality search results.

The use of long-tail keywords often promises that a blog, post, or article contains specific and thoughtful content.

As a result, using long-tail keywords should gradually earn you more organic traffic. This will increase your conversion rate in the process.

They’ll help out your audiences, too.


Most consumers don’t hop on Google and search for one keyword to find a product, service, or article matching their specific needs. People tend to utilize long-tail keywords while browsing the web.

Writing honestly with them isn’t a dirty trick. Using them properly means that you understand your consumers, your brand, and the needs you want your writing to meet.

Consistency is Everything

By this point, you might be thinking about utilizing long-tail keywords to increase your web traffic. However, throwing a few long-tail keywords into a singular article isn’t going to cut it. You must be consistent in your use of long-tail keywords, especially those that will transparently establish your brand over time.

How does this work?
If your blog/brand is all about jobs in psychology, you shouldn’t plan to write a singular blog using psychology jobs, psychology careers, or psychology occupations and never use these keywords again.

Rather, reinforcing these keywords and related keywords (i.e. psychology careers in the military) are essential to the continuous increase of your site’s traffic.

There is no magic button to push to increase your web traffic, and your audience won’t grow overnight.
Being consistent about your use of long-tail keywords can ensure that your brand is well-established/optimized to increase your following in a genuine yet effective way.

To get you started…

Fortunately, the web is full of helpful resources to help you get started using long-tail keywords in an effective way.
One of the most highly-praised resources is LongTailPro. This site can help you find long-tail keywords with low competition, high conversion rates, and high profitability. Workshops are also available.

SEMRUSH helps you view competitors long-tail keywords to understand the value and competition associated with each keyword.

KWfinder displays essential data about long-tail keywords so you understand the ins and outs of any keywords you may want to utilize.

Answer The Public lets you try out your essential long-tail keywords by providing you with the main questions surrounding searches for those keywords.

These are only a handful of the resources available to help you use long-tail keywords in a way that helps support the optimization of your site and the growth of your audience.

Long-Tail Keywords in Review

In present-day brand, blog, and site-building, short keywords won’t cut it. These simple keywords will cause you to lose out on essential web traffic.

Utilizing long-tail keywords can help to eliminate competition, boost your SEO standing, and productively increase your web traffic as you further develop your platform.

Do you have any tips about using long-tail keywords in an effective way? Any perks you’d like to add to the list?
Have you met success using long-tail keywords? Let us know in the comments below!

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