Long Tail KW's paradox

[archkre]

Hi there: I was following a video on Long Tail KW's, and there is something I don't get.
Example:
Step 1: "Lower Back Pain Excercises" has12100 searches avg last month and (intitle & "") competition:1030; more than 5 Adword ads and Spyfu between $0.50 to $1.47.

Step 2: I went to Yahoo for a longer tail and found "Chronic Lower Back Pain Excercises"

Step 3: Repeat Step 1(with longer tail KW) and this time the search amount is lower and the rest is "Not enough data".

Paradox: the longer the KW, the lower search and competition amounts!
(Why do we look for longer tails KW ,then?)
Thank you

[Liquidgraph]

There's no paradox at all.

If you can catch head-traffic easily, by all means do so -- that's the most lucrative market. If, however, you're having trouble ranking for a keyword like "car insurance", you'll have to settle for ranking for a phrase like: "free car insurance quotes online".

Bottom line: long-tail is good in that it's low competition. Ideally you want max traffic with minimum competition. Try to get away with the shortest long-tail you can.

[ehicks727]

Originally Posted by archkre

Paradox: the longer the KW, the lower search and competition amounts!
(Why do we look for longer tails KW ,then?)
Thank you

Long-tail traffic is more targeted, and more likely to buy what you're selling.

For instance, say you're selling "Learn how to play Bass Guitar" DVDs. If you get certain amounts of traffic for the keyword phrase "bass guitar", how many people do you think are buying what you're selling? They could be searching to buy an actual bass guitar, not a book how to learn.

On the other hand, if you get long-tail traffic for "learn how to play bass guitar" then your traffic is more targeted and you might have more conversions.

Even further, if you get long-tail traffic for "learn how to play left-handed bass guitar" you'll probably have even higher conversion rates.

[Philomina]

I find it easier to rank in Google with long tail keywords
and have a better chance of getting to the 1st page.

Once in a while you can find some nuggets with a decent
volume of traffic.But most of the time the traffic is low.

Nevertheless the competition is also low and with a bit of nifty SEO
I can most of the time get into the 1st page and siphon some of that
low traffic.

Hope this helps.

[dburk]

Hi archkre,

It wasn't clear to me if you were asking about long-tail keywords for PPC or SEO purposes. The other replies you have received are spot on for SEO.

If you were asking in regard to PPC, then I would say that long-tail keywords will earn better quality scores send you more relevant traffic that converts at a higher rate, has less competition and therefore a much lower CPC.

Since the traffic volume is lower for long-tail keywords, you will need more of them, but that is usually not a problem. 2 clicks a day, each from a thousand long-tails, gives you 2000 clicks per day. All at a much lower cost and better targeted than 2000 clicks from a general industry term.