Long Tail Keywords

[simmonsmike7]

What do you think qualifies as a long tail keyword?

Is it...

- More then 3-4 words in the phrase

- Less then X amount of searches

- You feel it's not a popular search term

Please give some details on your process for determining what qualifies as long tail and what doesn't?

*** EDIT ***

My question was in reference to long tail keywords that are ** EASY TO RANK FOR **

I didn't mean it in an intellectual sense of what the word means...

I meant like the longer style keywords people use to rank in google because they are easier to rank for...

Any advise on this topic is much appreciated

Thanks.

Really stuck on this one...

Thank You

[VinnyBock]

- More then 3-4 words in the phrase

The amount of searches tells you how good the phrase is...

[Andyhenry]

None of the above......


Long Tail isn't a generic term which you can decide based on the number of words in the phrase - it's about marketing and micro-niches.

Long tail refers to the long tail of diminishing market size if you were to draw a curve showing size of market against time.

The reason it's now being so focused on is that with the ability to present an almost infinite number of things to people (due to the internet rather than needing stock on shelves and physical space), so we're able to address those smaller and smaller groups of people who's desired choice would never have been worth stocking on a shelf.

Therefore..... (to get back to the point) long tail is about addressing more and more obscure sections of your niche.

The number of words is nothing to do with it - it's all about getting more and more specific about what they want.

I.e - diamond studded collar - is a long tail segment of the "high end dog collars" niche. The fact that it has 3 words and the bigger niche has 4 has nothing to do with their relationship to the long tail - but in this case the long tail phrase has less words in it.

The long tail is about what people want - not some search engine related concept.

Andy

[sanjid112]

longtail keyword is about targeting more specific keyword, so the answer is none of the above. It is about targeting specific market.

[simmonsmike7]

My question was in reference to long tail keywords that are ** EASY TO RANK FOR **

I didn't mean it in an intellectual sense of what the word means...

I meant like the longer style keywords people use to rank in google because they are easier to rank for...

Any advise on this topic is much appreciated

Thanks.

[Andyhenry]

You already know the answer to that - it depends on the competition......

You're looking for an answer which is totally subjective.

The answer to a question like this will always be - it depends...

But to ignore the actual meaning of the term is crazy because focusing on keyword phrases is all about searches and competition - so the number of words has no relation to how easy it is to rank for them - it all depends on the competition. If it's a niche like health - you may need to get to 5 or 6 words in a phrase before you find very few people competing.

I'm sure you already know this.....

Andy

[dburk]

Hi simmonsmike7,

I have to agree with Andy, what would be classified as a long tail keyword has nothing to do with how many words are in the keyword phrase, but with the frequency of a keyword search in relation to other keywords within your niche.

Often, longer phrases are more likely to be in the long tail but there are many exceptions. It helps us to communicate better is we use common definitions for our industry terms. The long tail is a term that describes keywords with a low search frequency relative to the to the most popular keywords.

For a more detailed explanation see this link:

The Long Tail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[askloz]

well, words with 3 or more are classed as long tailed keywords.

no matter how you look into it, entering 3 or more phrases in the search engine tells us that you're looking for info or want to buy something. most commonly known as "Low Hanging fruit".

Originally Posted by Andyhenry

None of the above......


Long Tail isn't a generic term which you can decide based on the number of words in the phrase - it's about marketing and micro-niches.

Long tail refers to the long tail of diminishing market size if you were to draw a curve showing size of market against time.

The reason it's now being so focused on is that with the ability to present an almost infinite number of things to people (due to the internet rather than needing stock on shelves and physical space), so we're able to address those smaller and smaller groups of people who's desired choice would never have been worth stocking on a shelf.

Therefore..... (to get back to the point) long tail is about addressing more and more obscure sections of your niche.

The number of words is nothing to do with it - it's all about getting more and more specific about what they want.

I.e - diamond studded collar - is a long tail segment of the "high end dog collars" niche. The fact that it has 3 words and the bigger niche has 4 has nothing to do with their relationship to the long tail - but in this case the long tail phrase has less words in it.

The long tail is about what people want - not some search engine related concept.

Andy