What is a long tail keyword?

Long-tail keywords are terms with low search volumes. Despite what many people think, it has nothing to do with how long or short a keyword is, how well it’s likely to convert, or how specific it is. Long tail keywords are those three and four keyword phrases which are very, very specific to whatever you are selling. You see, whenever a customer uses a highly specific search phrase, they tend to be looking for exactly what they are actually going to buy. In virtually every case, such very specific searches are far more likely to convert to sales than general generic searches that tend to be geared more toward the type of research that consumers typically do prior to making a buying decision. o help illustrate this phenomenon, let’s take a look at the typical step-by-step buying path that a customer travels on the way to a making a purchase. Consumer becomes aware of a product. Consumer seeks information about that product in preparation for possible purchase. Consumer evaluates alternatives to product (features, pricing, etc…). Consumer makes their purchase decision. Consumer pulls out their credit card and completes the transaction. Consumer then evaluates the product after buying it and decides if they want to keep or return it. Using the above six step path to a purchase as our model, you can probably already see that you want to target the consumer who is somewhere around step four… Consumer makes their purchase decision. …because once they have made their decision to buy something, that’s when they start using very specific search phrases to seek out their target purchase.