This guide is for bloggers, small business owners and marketers who want more specific, lower-competition search phrases to build content around, without paying for a keyword tool. Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific queries, such as “how to filter queries in Search Console” instead of just “Search Console”. Google has no official definition of the term; it is a practical label.
Contents
Start with what you already have: Search Console
The best long-tail data is the data about your own site. The Performance report in Google Search Console shows the queries real people typed before seeing your pages in Google results. If you want a wider walk-through of the report, see our post on finding quick SEO wins in the Search Console Performance report. Here we focus on pulling long-tail ideas from it.
Read the Queries tab
Open the Performance report and select the Queries tab above the table. According to Google’s help page, this groups your data by the search query users typed. You can toggle four metrics: clicks (times a user clicked through from Search), impressions (times your site appeared in results), CTR (clicks divided by impressions) and average position. You can also change the date range and search type (Web, Image, Video or News).
Sort by impressions and look for queries with many impressions but few clicks. These are topics Google already associates with your site.
Enjoying this? Get our best tips by email
Practical SEO, link building and content strategies, straight to your inbox.
Filter for long and question-style queries
Google’s advanced filtering help page describes the steps:
- Click “+ Add filter” in the filters row.
- Choose “Queries”.
- Pick “Queries containing” or “Queries not containing” for a plain substring, or “Custom (regex)” for a pattern.
- Enter your value and click “Apply”.
Substring matching ignores case but is otherwise exact, including spaces. For regex, Google says the syntax is RE2, matching is a partial match unless you anchor with ^ or $, and it is case-insensitive by default. To match several values, separate them with a vertical bar and wrap the whole expression in parentheses. You can switch between “Matches regex” and “Doesn’t match regex” to include or exclude.
This example is a pattern to adapt, not an official recommendation:
| Goal | Example regex | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Question queries | ^(how|what|why|when|where|who|which|can|does|is|are) | Anchored to the start, so only queries that begin with a question word (note the trailing space) |
One caution from Google’s own page: filtering by query can change report totals because of data truncation and omitted anonymized queries. Use the filtered list to spot ideas, not to calculate exact traffic.
Google autocomplete: ideas from real searches
When you type into Google, it tries to predict what you are looking for, which Google’s help page calls autocomplete. On Google’s blog, Danny Sullivan describes predictions as time-saving suggestions that help people finish a query they already have in mind, based on real searches. The same post says predictions factor in language and location, so they can differ by region, and that they are not search results and not the same thing as Google Trends.
Google also says predictions are not simply the most popular queries on a topic. So autocomplete is a good source of phrasing ideas, but a poor source of volume data. Practical tips:
- Type your seed topic followed by a space and add a letter, then read the predictions. Repeat for a few letters or question words.
- Google’s help page says personalised predictions appear when you are signed in with search personalization on.
“People also ask” boxes and related searches are another popular idea source. The Google pages we opened for this article do not describe either feature, so we will not make claims about how they work.
Google Trends: compare interest, not volume
Google’s Trends help page says the tool offers a largely unfiltered sample of Google searches, anonymized, categorised and aggregated, so you can see interest by geography and over time. Numbers are not search counts. Each data point is divided by total searches for its location and time range, then scaled from 0 to 100.
That makes Trends good for comparing two phrasings or spotting seasonality, but weaker for tiny long-tail phrases. Google notes that searches made by very few people show as “0” and that noise is most noticeable on low-interest queries. A blank result for a very specific phrase does not prove nobody searches it, so compare broader versions instead.
Keyword Planner: search estimates with a Google Ads account
Google’s help page describes Keyword Planner as a tool for researching keywords for Search campaigns. It suggests keywords related to your business and estimates how often they are searched and what they cost to target. You reach it from the Tools menu in a Google Ads account, and the page says you need to complete account setup by entering billing information to use basic features such as keyword ideas.
The page does not say whether the tool itself is free or whether you must spend on ads to keep using it, so we cannot confirm either. Check what your own account shows before relying on it. You can start with keywords or with a website, then filter the ideas.
How to judge intent
A phrase is only worth a page if you can satisfy what the searcher wants. Before writing, search the phrase and read the results as a reader would. Ask what kind of pages appear: step-by-step guides, product pages, comparisons or definitions? That tells you the format people expect. For a deeper look at commercial phrases, see our guide to buyer intent keywords.
| Wording clue | Likely need | Page type to consider |
|---|---|---|
| “how to”, “steps”, “tutorial” | Learn a process | Step-by-step guide |
| “best”, “vs”, “alternatives” | Compare options | Comparison or roundup |
| “pricing”, “buy”, “near me” | Ready to act | Product, service or location page |
| “what is”, “meaning” | Understand a concept | Explainer or glossary entry |
One page or several?
Once you have a list, group it. A simple test: if the same page could fully satisfy two phrases, they belong together. If the searcher would need a different answer, format or action, they deserve separate pages.
- Same page: close rewordings, such as “find long tail keywords” and “how to find long-tail keywords”. Use one as the main topic and cover the other naturally, perhaps in a subheading.
- Separate pages: phrases with different intent (a tutorial versus a comparison) or a topic deep enough to deserve its own full article.
Also check your existing content first. Our beginner guide on researching organic keywords covers building the initial list; once you have it, map each phrase to an existing page before creating anything new.
Avoid thin near-duplicate pages
The temptation with long-tail lists is to publish one page per phrase. Google’s spam policies warn against this pattern in two ways. Scaled content abuse is described as many pages generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings rather than helping users, including producing many pages that make little sense to a reader but contain search keywords. Doorway abuse is described as pages or sites created to rank for specific, similar search queries, and Google’s examples include creating near-duplicate pages that sit closer to search results than a clear, browsable site hierarchy, and pages for multiple cities or regions that all funnel users to one page.
Google’s helpful content guidance also lists covering many topics in the hope that some will rank as a warning sign. The practical lesson: a page should exist because a reader needs it, not because a phrase exists. Before publishing a new page, ask:
- Would this page teach something the existing page does not?
- If I swapped the keyword for its sibling, would the page still read the same? If yes, merge them.
Key takeaways
- Start with the Search Console Performance report; use “Queries” with a regex filter to surface question-style and longer queries.
- Autocomplete shows phrasing based on real searches, but it varies by language and location and is not a volume measure.
- Google Trends gives relative, sampled interest from 0 to 100 and is weak for very small phrases.
- Keyword Planner needs a Google Ads account with billing information; whether it is free is not confirmed by the help page we read.
- Group phrases by intent: one page where one answer serves both, separate pages only where the need differs.
FAQ
What counts as a long-tail keyword?
There is no official Google definition. In practice it means a longer, more specific phrase, often a full question, that signals a clearer need than a one- or two-word term.
Can I use regex filters in Search Console on any property?
The Performance report offers “Custom (regex)” under the Queries filter. Google documents the syntax as RE2.
Is Google Trends data the same as search volume?
No. Google describes Trends as a sample, scaled from 0 to 100 as a share of all searches for the chosen place and time. It shows relative interest rather than counts.
How many long-tail pages is too many?
There is no safe number. The test is whether each page serves a distinct need. Many near-identical pages built to catch similar queries match the examples in Google’s doorway and scaled content policies.
Sources
- Performance report (Search), Search Console Help
- Advanced filtering and comparison, Search Console Help
- Autocomplete in Google Search, Google Search Help
- How Google autocomplete predictions work, The Keyword (Google blog)
- FAQ about Google Trends data, Trends Help
- About Keyword Planner, Google Ads Help
- Spam policies for Google web search, Search Central
- Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content, Search Central
