Long-tail keywords are specific search phrases that few people type each month, like “best drop servicing niches” instead of “drop servicing”. Each one brings little traffic, but together they make up most of the searches a small site can realistically win.
That’s the textbook answer. I measured what it looks like on a real site. On November 10, 2026, I pulled 90 days of Google Search Console data for The Niche Guru (August 10 to November 7) and sorted all 2,769 non-branded queries by length. Some of what I found matches the usual advice. Some of it doesn’t.
What are long-tail keywords?
A long-tail keyword is a query with low search volume and a narrow meaning. Most of them are three words or longer, but length is a side effect. What makes a keyword long tail is that it sits far out on the demand curve, where each phrase is searched rarely and there are thousands of them.
Here’s a real chain from my niche. DataForSEO shows “niche finder” at 390 searches a month in the US. Go one step more specific and you get “niche finder for youtube” (50), “youtube niche finder free” (40) and “niche finder ai” (30). Same topic, smaller audiences, clearer intent.
Long-tail vs short-tail keywords
Short-tail (or head) keywords are broad: “seo”, “niches”, “drop servicing”. Long-tail keywords narrow that down to a need: who it’s for, which platform, which problem.
| Short-tail | Long-tail | |
|---|---|---|
| — | — | — |
| Example from my data | drop servicing | best drop servicing niches |
| Impressions in 90 days | 557 | 87 |
| Average position | 51.6 | 37.6 |
| Clicks | 1 | 1 |
| What the searcher wants | Unclear: definition, course, examples? | A list of niches to pick from |
Notice the long-tail query got the same single click from a sixth of the impressions. That’s the pattern you’ll see again below.
What 2,769 of my queries show
Search Console’s query table had 2,779 rows for these 90 days. I removed 10 branded ones (my site name and a “site:” search) and grouped the rest by number of words.
| Words | Queries | Share of impressions | Avg. position | Queries in top 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | — | — | — |
| 1 | 126 | 3.7% | 29.6 | 37 (29%) |
| 2 | 492 | 32.8% | 51.3 | 65 (13%) |
| 3 | 802 | 26.6% | 56.5 | 85 (11%) |
| 4 | 640 | 17.7% | 61.8 | 53 (8%) |
| 5 | 334 | 9.1% | 59.8 | 32 (10%) |
| 6+ | 375 | 10.1% | 49.2 | 90 (24%) |
Three things stood out.
First, the long tail is where the variety is. Queries of four words or more were 49% of all the different queries but only 37% of the impressions. Each one is small. That’s the definition in numbers.
Second, my best non-branded query in three months was a long one: “best alternatives to collaborator.pro for link building”. It got 6 clicks from 20 impressions at an average position of 6.3. The head term “collaborator.pro” got 1 click from 193 impressions. Those clicks land on my collaborator.pro review, which has a section listing alternatives. One specific question, answered by one H2, beat the head term by a mile.
Third, the middle of the table is the weak spot. Three- and four-word queries together hold 44% of my impressions, and the 3-5 word band has the worst average positions (56.5 to 61.8). Those are the topics where Google tests my pages and finds something better. If you’re working on an existing site, that band is where I’d look first.
Only 42 of the 2,769 queries got any click at all. That sounds brutal, but it’s normal for a small site: most queries show you on page 4 or 5 a handful of times.
The part of the long tail you can’t see
The table above is not the whole story. Search Console’s chart says the site got 386 clicks and 86,236 impressions in those 90 days. The rows in the query table add up to about 61% of those impressions and under a fifth of the clicks.
The rest are anonymized queries. In Google’s own deep dive on Search Console data, Daniel Waisberg explains that queries which “aren’t issued by more than a few dozen users over a two-to-three month period” are left out of the tables to protect privacy, while still counting in the chart totals.
In other words, the rarest long-tail queries are exactly the ones Google hides. On my site they bring most of the clicks. So when someone tells you a page “doesn’t rank for anything” because the query list looks thin, check the chart total for that page before you believe it.
Some long queries now read like AI prompts
The 6+ word group surprised me. Its average position (49.2) is better than the 3-5 word groups, and 24% of those queries sit in the top 10. When I read them, many don’t look like things a person types:
- “+best crm & lead delivery companies 2025” (269 impressions, position 5.8)
- “x.com trending niches for high engagement and revenue 2025” (176 impressions, position 8.4)
- “best niches to grow fast on x twitter 2025 2026” (28 impressions, position 7)
None of those three got a click. 120 of my queries have eight words or more, 21 start with a plus sign, and not one of the 120 got a click in 90 days. I can’t prove who sends them, but they look like searches run by AI tools on someone’s behalf. I don’t count them as demand when I plan content.
How to find long-tail keywords
- Start with your own Search Console. Filter queries to positions 5 to 20 and sort by impressions. These are long-tail keywords Google already associates with your pages. My search intent guide shows how to read what each one wants.
- Type your main topic into Google and write down the autocomplete suggestions and the “People also ask” questions. They’re real searches, in the searcher’s words.
- Put your head term into a related-keywords tool (I used DataForSEO for the volumes in this post) and look at the 10 to 100 searches a month band.
- Read forums and Reddit threads in your niche. The way people phrase a problem there is often the long-tail query nobody has written a good page for.
- If you haven’t picked a niche yet, do that first. The free niche finder on my home page asks five questions and scores three niche ideas by demand, competition and monetization; start your keyword research inside the one you choose.
Write each phrase down with its volume and the URL that ranks for it today. You’ll need that for the next step.
How to use long-tail keywords without thin pages
The old mistake was one page per phrase: “best niches for tiktok”, “tiktok niche ideas”, “best niche on tiktok”, each with its own post. Google usually shows the same results for all of them, so they’re one question. You end up with pages competing against each other (keyword cannibalization) and, at scale, you risk what Google’s spam policies call scaled content abuse.
What I do instead:
- Group phrases that share an answer into one page. My keyword clustering guide walks through how I decide.
- Give a long-tail query its own page only when the intent is clearly different. My best long-tail query above is answered by one section of a review, and that was enough to reach position 6.
- Use the rest as H2s, FAQ questions or a paragraph inside the main page.
- Link the pages of one topic to each other so the whole cluster builds topical authority.
Long-tail keyword examples
These come from my own niche, with US monthly volumes from DataForSEO (November 2026) or my own Search Console:
| Head term | Long-tail versions |
|---|---|
| — | — |
| niche finder (390/mo) | niche finder for youtube (50), youtube niche finder free (40), niche finder ai (30) |
| long tail keywords (1,000/mo) | what are long-tail keywords (720), long tail keywords examples (320), long-tail keyword generator (90) |
| micro niche (170/mo) | micro niche blog ideas (2 clicks from 5 impressions, position 10.4) |
Frequently asked questions
How many words is a long-tail keyword?
Usually three or more, but word count isn’t the rule. “Prepostseo” is one word and gets 834 impressions on my site; “best alternatives to collaborator.pro for link building” is seven words and gets 20. Low volume and a specific intent are what make a keyword long tail.
Are long-tail keywords easier to rank for?
Often, because fewer strong pages target each one. In my data, though, the 3-5 word band had the worst average positions. Being specific helps only if your page actually answers that specific question better than what’s already ranking.
What is the difference between long-tail and short-tail keywords?
Short-tail keywords are broad and searched a lot (“niche finder”, 390 a month). Long-tail keywords are narrower versions with less volume and clearer intent (“youtube niche finder free”, 40 a month).
If you want to try this on your own site, open Search Console today, set the date to the last three months and sort queries by impressions with positions 5 to 20. That list is your long-tail plan for the next month. When you’re ready to turn it into posts, my guide to SEO for bloggers covers the rest.
