What is Long-Tail Traffic?

Traffic that enters a website as a result of niche searches or long tail variation keywords. Long tail keywords are used in SEO as a cost-effective way to drive traffic to a website without having to bid on expensive keywords. A preferred method for smaller businesses, long tail keywords is used in articles and other types of online content.

There are various tools available online that will allow you to create your own long tail keywords and phrases. With 15 percent of keyword searches being entirely unique, the use of long tail keywords to drive long tail traffic to your site is not just cost-effective but a great way to get the most traffic possible to arrive at your content.

The name long-tail came about because of the shape of the distribution graph showing the number of keyword searches. If you created a graph showing the popularity of keywords across the entire web you’d find that just a handful of searches (Amazon, Youtube, Netflix) would rack up an immense number of searches.

You would also get a surprise, because those top search terms, or the “head” of the search graph, account for just 10-15% of all internet searches. There’s another 15-20% that account for the middle of the graph, and that means roughly 70% of all internet searches are for long-tail keywords. That means that even though each individual long-tail phrase won’t bring you loads of traffic, it is much easier to rank for these long-tail terms. And once there are enough of them being targeted for your site you’ll find your traffic growing more rapidly and organically.