Long Tail Keywords: Turn a Keyword Into a Key Phrase
We’ve all heard a LOT of different things about keywords, but what we may not have heard about recently is the idea of the long tail keyword, or a chain of words, even a chain of keywords, that form their own keyword.
For instance, “blog” and “money” might be keywords, but a long tail keyword would take these two keywords and make a new keyword out of them like “make money blogging” or “money making blog”. Even “money blog” might be a possibility.
Using long tail keywords essentially allows you to do two things. One, it gives you more keywords per post. “Make money blogging”, for example, not only has itself as a keyword but also “make”, “make money”, “blog”, and “blogging”. Two, it allows you to target your posts more specifically. People who search for “make money” will find everything from jobs to lottery tickets, but people who want to “make money blogging” are more likely to find YOU.
So for more traffic, and more targeted traffic, consider the long tail.
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#1 by wood beads on December 21, 2009 - 4:21 am
This is interesting! I agree, longtail keywords target more readers. I started using longtail keywords weeks ago with "Beginners Blogging Guide"
Not that popular I know, I still need some time to get my blog ranking for that keyword. (currently number 9 though :D)
#2 by Metal Briefcase on December 21, 2009 - 8:29 am
Good advice Paul. Unless your blog or website is well established with a ton of backlinks, you simply will not get good rankings for short phrases. Usually the shorter the phrase, the more competitive it is. So to actually get some free search engine traffic, it makes sense to instead target longer phrases that are less competitive. It is much more beneficial to be #1 for 'make money blogging' than it is to be #84 for 'make money'. So take into consideration which rankings you can actually achieve.
#3 by Fatin Pauzi on December 21, 2009 - 5:33 pm
I always practice long tail keyword in my writing and when optimizing SEO. It does give a great result.
#4 by keyword tool on December 21, 2009 - 6:59 pm
There are some that say the long tail is dead. I still think it's the best place for someone to start out and it's something the big guys should pay attention to as well.
#5 by blank blueray on December 22, 2009 - 1:26 am
Great informative post! Thanks for the details. I’ll need to bookmark this and come back to study it.
#6 by essay writers on December 22, 2009 - 7:14 pm
thanks for the information Paul. this makes sense. I used to make short keywords but reading your post give me the idea to try and practice making long keywords instead. thanks!
#7 by mimar on December 23, 2009 - 10:40 pm
I’ll need to bookmark this and come back to study it.
#8 by glutamine on December 25, 2009 - 5:09 pm
It will be alot easier getting listed in the top of the search engines for longtail keywords than single word keywords. When you are starting off you are more likely to get results for longtail keywords. After awhile if you have been using seo methods you will probably start showing up for single words.
#9 by sweat on December 25, 2009 - 5:10 pm
You must think it is all about competition. For any particular keyword phrase there are only 30 places for the first three pages on the search engine listing for any demographic area. If you got one backlink today and it is enough maybe tomorrow it won't because there are new people coming in more eager than you to get that first page listing.
#10 by Dwayne on December 26, 2009 - 3:16 pm
Long tail keywords are definitely easier to rank for as they have lower competition and they are less competed on. Using a well built keyword strategy based on long tail can boost your business up considerably. Due to they are harder to figure out, there are a lot of tools on the internet as you know, that can be of great help.
I myself use the iSpionage keyword tool that works very well with long tail keywords, and which i sincerely recommend, generating a large list of keywords, mostly long tail and SEO data i can use to choose the proper ones. It is a great method to increase your traffic really.
#11 by Marriage counselling on December 29, 2009 - 8:38 am
Hi there - we LOVE your blog and agree with a lot of what is being said. Being from Sydney Australia it's refreshing to hear views from others around the world and to know we are not alone in thinking about this. Keep up the good work!
Regards Associated Counselling Psychologists Sydney
#12 by teknoloji haberleri on January 2, 2010 - 2:17 am
I always practice long tail keyword in my writing and when optimizing SEO.
#13 by Higins on January 7, 2010 - 1:49 am
Nice post, it gives me some inpirations, and welcome to visit mine
#14 by Program on January 7, 2010 - 10:32 am
Key words different areas of difference in the foreground if different considerations arising more effective results