Why Longtail Keywords?

Zeus66 · 05-01-2009, 04:42 PM

Longtail keywords are proving to be very valuable to me in my niche site business. I have a site that's a few months old now. I sell the products from a vendor through a dealer agreement. They drop-ship the items with my business name on the label. I only pay $2 per shipment for this privilege, and the dealer price cuts are very steep. Basically, I can mark up the price to customers substantially + keep their price a bit lower than the competition + still make a nice profit per sale. Everybody wins.

Anyway, about 6 weeks ago I decided to go after a 3-word longtail keyword in this niche that was very specific to the products I sell. It was the manufacturer's name + the general name of the products. I used my favorite keyword research tool (Micro Niche Finder) and determined that this phrase had very little competition and was searched for a decent number of times per month (about 1600). Since what I sell is only this manufacturer's products in this particular industry, I figured the traffic would be ultra targeted and ready to buy. I was correct. I just made a sale today and the keyword the guy used to hit my page was this longtail one. I know because I asked him if he remembered what he searched for and he did.

So that's one big reason why you should target longtails in your marketing plan. If you plan it out a bit and choose the longtails that meet certain criteria - decent number of monthly searches + low competition + probably a 'buy now' phrase - you don't need a ton of traffic to make some sales.

There's another big reason to target longtails: search engine rankings. This keyword I've been talking about is currently #3 at Yahoo, #2 at MSN, and #12 at Google. And the site is only about 4 months old. The page with that keyword is only 6 weeks old. All I did to get those rankings was get about 20 links pointing to it. These were all social bookmarks + blog comments + some blog postings on blogs I own.

Here's a key point that I don't think many people are up to speed on when it comes to longtails and backlinks. NONE of the backlinks I've gotten were on related sites. Let that sink in a second. Not one of the links is on a site that has anything to do with this niche! What the links almost all have in common, however, is that the domains (not the URL the link is on, but the homepage URL) are higher PR. Almost all have domain PR's of 4 or 5, and a couple are higher last time I checked. I think this matters a lot with lower competition keywords. I have no other reason to think this particular longtail would rank so high across all the major search engines when it's only 6 weeks old if not for the higher PR sites the 20 or so links I've gotten sit on.

Hope this helps some of you who are struggling getting traffic that's ready to buy!

John

dvduval · 05-01-2009, 04:53 PM

Are you going for a large volume of long tail keywords?
Or are you just trying to find high quality phrases, and really work a few?

Zeus66 · 05-01-2009, 05:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvduval

Are you going for a large volume of long tail keywords?
Or are you just trying to find high quality phrases, and really work a few?

It depends on the niche. For this one, only a handful of longtails are worth going after. I have other niches where it'll be more of a numbers game and a long-term project. What makes it possible is the ease with which you can get high SE rankings with many longtails. I'd rather work on 10 phrases that I have a realistic shot at ranking high for in a few weeks vs. choosing one competitive phrase and having to work it for months to get up there. I can't handle that much delay. I've tried and I always peter out.

John

AlbertF · 05-01-2009, 07:09 PM

Long tail keywords are easier to get targeted traffic and easier to rank with.

Zeus66 · 05-02-2009, 12:59 AM

I'm enjoying the newbies posting replies as though I was asking a real question instead of being rhetorical and answering it myself in the OP. You might try reading the post instead of just opening, tossing out a short sentence, and submitting. You won't look foolish and you might learn something. That's how you become an "unnewbie" a lot faster.

phcarmaster · 05-02-2009, 06:54 AM

Long tail is much easier since you got less competition. I've been on an automotive website. We always do long term. Usually the pages with brand + model + part. This comes handy and we get more traffic using them.

Zeus66 · 05-02-2009, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by planetrock

Good information, do you use some kind of software for keyword research. I know all the basic ones like wordtracker and all that but I am trying to find where it will only turn out long tail results if you search for main keywords.

I use and love a tool called Micro Niche Finder. I talk about it in this blog post. You can find a lot of good longtail keywords with it very quickly. It will show you how many monthly searches are done, how much competition there is, and things like the average ad cost (so you can get an idea of how much the keyword pays if you use Adsense). Very useful. Huge time saver. You can type in a main keyword and it will dig down and show you related keywords, including longtails.

John

JNFerree · 05-02-2009, 04:57 PM

I also use Micro Niche Finder to find the low hanging fruit (aka) Longtail keywords. I recently signed on to get his 10x Niche Market recommendations. I've noticed James practices what he preaches (i.e.) the majority of the KWs are phrases that have decent traffic, but you know when the buyer uses that combination of KWs, they are very likely to be ready to buy vs. kick tires.

This is one of the main reason MNF is more useful that many of the other KW research tools I've bought and tried over the years.

Nice Blog review on the Product by the way!

intelinside · 05-02-2009, 07:40 PM

This is indeed a good information. The long tail keyword combination that you have mentioned maufacturer + prod names really shows the intent of the user coming to your site. Being in a less competitive niche you can make some good money out of it in some time.

Although you have got backlinks from unrelated sites but I would strongly suggest that you get baclinks from related sites as well to improve on your chances to get to the #1 spot in all major SEs.

mr.schutz · 05-02-2009, 07:59 PM

Another benefit of long tail keywords is that the visitors convert amazingly well to sales and ad clicks.

05-01-2009, 04:53 PM	#2
dvduval phpLD master War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Silicon Valley Posts: 3,119 Blog Entries: 3 Thanks: 49 Thanked 334 Times in 273 Posts Social Networking	Re: Why Longtail Keywords? Are you going for a large volume of long tail keywords? Or are you just trying to find high quality phrases, and really work a few?
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05-01-2009, 07:09 PM	#4
AlbertF Innovating Money Making Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: United States, California Posts: 254 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 1 Thanked 13 Times in 10 Posts Social Networking	Re: Why Longtail Keywords? Long tail keywords are easier to get targeted traffic and easier to rank with.
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05-02-2009, 12:59 AM	#5
Zeus66 John Schwartz War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Near Dallas, TX, USA Posts: 3,734 Thanks: 1,660 Thanked 3,336 Times in 1,179 Posts Social Networking	Re: Why Longtail Keywords? I'm enjoying the newbies posting replies as though I was asking a real question instead of being rhetorical and answering it myself in the OP. You might try reading the post instead of just opening, tossing out a short sentence, and submitting. You won't look foolish and you might learn something. That's how you become an "unnewbie" a lot faster.

05-02-2009, 06:54 AM	#6
phcarmaster Warrior Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 10 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Why Longtail Keywords? Long tail is much easier since you got less competition. I've been on an automotive website. We always do long term. Usually the pages with brand + model + part. This comes handy and we get more traffic using them.
	Rolling On Floor In Agony Waiting For Google To Update And Yahoo To Do Anything At All SEO Orange County Company

05-02-2009, 04:57 PM	#8
JNFerree FerreeMoney War Room Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 351 Thanks: 70 Thanked 52 Times in 44 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Why Longtail Keywords? I also use Micro Niche Finder to find the low hanging fruit (aka) Longtail keywords. I recently signed on to get his 10x Niche Market recommendations. I've noticed James practices what he preaches (i.e.) the majority of the KWs are phrases that have decent traffic, but you know when the buyer uses that combination of KWs, they are very likely to be ready to buy vs. kick tires. This is one of the main reason MNF is more useful that many of the other KW research tools I've bought and tried over the years. Nice Blog review on the Product by the way!
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05-01-2009, 04:42 PM	#1
Zeus66 John Schwartz War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Near Dallas, TX, USA Posts: 3,734 Thanks: 1,660 Thanked 3,336 Times in 1,179 Posts Social Networking	Why Longtail Keywords? Longtail keywords are proving to be very valuable to me in my niche site business. I have a site that's a few months old now. I sell the products from a vendor through a dealer agreement. They drop-ship the items with my business name on the label. I only pay $2 per shipment for this privilege, and the dealer price cuts are very steep. Basically, I can mark up the price to customers substantially + keep their price a bit lower than the competition + still make a nice profit per sale. Everybody wins. Anyway, about 6 weeks ago I decided to go after a 3-word longtail keyword in this niche that was very specific to the products I sell. It was the manufacturer's name + the general name of the products. I used my favorite keyword research tool (Micro Niche Finder) and determined that this phrase had very little competition and was searched for a decent number of times per month (about 1600). Since what I sell is only this manufacturer's products in this particular industry, I figured the traffic would be ultra targeted and ready to buy. I was correct. I just made a sale today and the keyword the guy used to hit my page was this longtail one. I know because I asked him if he remembered what he searched for and he did. So that's one big reason why you should target longtails in your marketing plan. If you plan it out a bit and choose the longtails that meet certain criteria - decent number of monthly searches + low competition + probably a 'buy now' phrase - you don't need a ton of traffic to make some sales. There's another big reason to target longtails: search engine rankings. This keyword I've been talking about is currently #3 at Yahoo, #2 at MSN, and #12 at Google. And the site is only about 4 months old. The page with that keyword is only 6 weeks old. All I did to get those rankings was get about 20 links pointing to it. These were all social bookmarks + blog comments + some blog postings on blogs I own. Here's a key point that I don't think many people are up to speed on when it comes to longtails and backlinks. NONE of the backlinks I've gotten were on related sites. Let that sink in a second. Not one of the links is on a site that has anything to do with this niche! What the links almost all have in common, however, is that the domains (not the URL the link is on, but the homepage URL) are higher PR. Almost all have domain PR's of 4 or 5, and a couple are higher last time I checked. I think this matters a lot with lower competition keywords. I have no other reason to think this particular longtail would rank so high across all the major search engines when it's only 6 weeks old if not for the higher PR sites the 20 or so links I've gotten sit on. Hope this helps some of you who are struggling getting traffic that's ready to buy! John

05-02-2009, 07:40 PM	#9
intelinside HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: London Posts: 345 Thanks: 16 Thanked 28 Times in 21 Posts	Re: Why Longtail Keywords? This is indeed a good information. The long tail keyword combination that you have mentioned maufacturer + prod names really shows the intent of the user coming to your site. Being in a less competitive niche you can make some good money out of it in some time. Although you have got backlinks from unrelated sites but I would strongly suggest that you get baclinks from related sites as well to improve on your chances to get to the #1 spot in all major SEs.

05-02-2009, 07:59 PM	#10
mr.schutz A Little bit of Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 160 Thanks: 21 Thanked 9 Times in 9 Posts	Re: Why Longtail Keywords? Another benefit of long tail keywords is that the visitors convert amazingly well to sales and ad clicks.