Short queries brought the clicks, long queries converted twice as well

Name: Short queries brought the clicks, long queries converted twice as well
Creator: RankHonestly
License: https://rankhonestly.com/terms

Everyone says target the long tail, and nobody shows what the long tail is actually worth against the head.

Queries of one or two words produced 45.5% of all clicks at 2.79% CTR. Queries of seven words or more produced 5.8% of clicks, at 6.34% CTR and a better average position. The long tail converts better per impression and is a small share of the total.

By query length

Words in the query	Queries	Clicks	Share of clicks	CTR	Average position
1 to 2	112	33,729	45.5%	2.79%	7.79
3 to 4	486	28,513	38.4%	4.48%	8.03
5 to 6	278	7,588	10.2%	5.38%	7.15
7 or more	124	4,330	5.8%	6.34%	6.89

The strange column is CTR

It rises steadily as queries get longer, and so does position. Longer queries are more specific, fewer sites answer them properly, and the person typing them knows what they want. That is the case for the long tail, and it is real.

And the case against relying on it

Nearly half the clicks came from one and two word queries that the same advice tells you to ignore. The honest strategy is not either: win the specific phrasings while you have no authority, and expect the head terms to arrive later, as a consequence rather than a target.

Cite this

Mailarpawar, P. (2026). Short queries brought the clicks, long queries converted twice as well. RankHonestly. Measured on 267 days of Google Search Console data. https://rankhonestly.com/case-study/long-tail-converts-better

These figures are free to quote, republish and chart, with a link back.

Use the numbers

The whole record

This page is one table out of it. The book is all of it, for $19 once. What is in the book, or read Chapter 4, free to read.