Are long-tailed keywords a myth?

9 replies
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I am currently using the Google adwords keyword tool, being convince more and more that Market Samurai is the way to go. But with the Google keyword tool I did a broad search for "how to become a young millionaire" and what came up was low competition and 170 global searches per month. Sounds like a pretty easy niche to break into no? When I do a Google search for that phrase however, the results are a little different. There are literally pages full of people who are ranking higher than me who only have one or two of those keywords or even 'related' keywords. Why is this?

It seems that if you use just one common keyword in your long-tailed keyword, you automatically bring on a large amount of competition that is only slightly relevant to what you're going for. What I'm trying to say is, if I were to try and rank for something like "make money trading uranium in rural Mexico", that would be considered extremely niche. I should literally have zero competition. But because I used the word 'money' I'd be flat out getting a first page ranking. I am referring to article marketing here, I use different methods for a blog or a website. I'm really having trouble getting my head around this so if someone could share their knowledge, that would be great! Do you really need to avoid competition to the point that you're deliberately not using a single common word?
#keywords #longtailed #myth
  • Profile picture of the author Ali Rangwala
    You mean you're trying to rank pages on article directories? Google doesn't look too favorably on those types of sites anymore, they won't rank naturally for long tail keywords like they used to a while back.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chaddy
    Not necessarily. I've got 3 websites right now that have somewhat long tailed key words. The very first word in all three of them are common words. Two of my sites are on page one of Google and one of them is the second one in the list. The site that isn't on the front page is new, as in I launched it 2 days ago, so I'm not surprised it's not on there.

    My point is just because you used a common word doesn't always mean it will affect your long tail keyword.

    Now I'm still very new at this myself, this is just what I noticed with my sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rod Cortez
    Originally Posted by erikmarknilsson View Post

    I am currently using the Google adwords keyword tool, being convince more and more that Market Samurai is the way to go. But with the Google keyword tool I did a broad search for "how to become a young millionaire" and what came up was low competition and 170 global searches per month. Sounds like a pretty easy niche to break into no? When I do a Google search for that phrase however, the results are a little different. There are literally pages full of people who are ranking higher than me who only have one or two of those keywords or even 'related' keywords. Why is this?

    It seems that if you use just one common keyword in your long-tailed keyword, you automatically bring on a large amount of competition that is only slightly relevant to what you're going for. What I'm trying to say is, if I were to try and rank for something like "make money trading uranium in rural Mexico", that would be considered extremely niche. I should literally have zero competition. But because I used the word 'money' I'd be flat out getting a first page ranking. I am referring to article marketing here, I use different methods for a blog or a website. I'm really having trouble getting my head around this so if someone could share their knowledge, that would be great! Do you really need to avoid competition to the point that you're deliberately not using a single common word?
    I probably shouldn't share this, but hey, here it goes. Several things came to mind in reading your post. First off, there are probably hundreds if not thousands of long-tail keywords in most markets and even niches and micro-niches. One keyword or keyword phrase isn't indicative of any one market.

    If you dissect "how to become a young millionaire" there are probably over 5,000 keywords with searches under 5,000 per month that can probably be linked to that one phrase. No, I'm not kidding or being sarcastic. Even if you want to focus on that youthful demographic, you're still targeting people who want to make money - lots of it. That's going to lead you to a TON of long-tailed keywords.

    Secondly, remember, just because Google shows 170 searches per month, it's not accurate. I've found what I call hidden keywords that never show up in Google's keyword tools yet, I get 500 to 3,000 searches on it per month from each of these keywords! And that's only one long-tail hidden keyword. You can find these yourself by understanding the jargon and buyer's keywords of your visitors (using tracking software and check your server logs).

    Lastly, if your goal is obtain traffic via article marketing, then you'll want to focus on syndication too. You don't just want your article to rank. You'll also want to put it on your website first, then change the title and keyword in your title and then submit it to places like EzineArticles.com, IdeaMarketers.com, and GoArticles.com.

    If you've got the patience and focus, building your own private blog network on different servers is a very effective strategy, but you need to understand basic SEO.

    Good luck,

    RoD
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  • Profile picture of the author gabibeowulf
    Just because it's a long tail keyword doesn't mean that it's easy.

    On the first page, Google will likely favor brands and authority websites more than newly launched websites or articles. It may even consider that sites that rank for "become a millionaire" will be very relevant to the query, so you're fighting more than the sites that specifically target this keyphrase.

    Just picking up long tail keywords and building a sniper site or write an article on EZA or the like, will not get the job done today, in light of all the recent Google algo changes.

    Gabriel
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  • Profile picture of the author thatkeywordguy
    Originally Posted by erikmarknilsson View Post

    What I'm trying to say is, if I were to try and rank for something like "make money trading uranium in rural Mexico", that would be considered extremely niche. I should literally have zero competition. But because I used the word 'money' I'd be flat out getting a first page ranking.
    Years ago lots of marketers were talking about this phrase:

    "Do Ants Scatch There Ass?"

    as an SEO experiment

    Google it - you can still read their posts.

    But basically, just because you optimize a page for a particular piece of long tail content, doesn't necessarily mean you'll rank for it.

    Recall that people have been typing in this phrase before your article came along. And Google can see that these people have probably usually been doing ok with the top 10 results Google was showing them -- before your article was created.

    And those existing articles of course have more age and trust then the one that you just wrote.

    So they'd often need to see more trust indicators before automatically ranking a website just because the title tag matched the long tail keyword phrase.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sarevok
    I think SEO rumors are often there and back again more frequently than bilbo baggins

    Translation: I think the only way to see for yourself, is to see for yourself..

    In other words, Google SEO tactics have changed so frequently this year, that anything's possible.

    IMO, longtail keywords are a thing of the past, (please don't taze me)
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  • Profile picture of the author nest28
    I was able to make a couple grand a month just off of long tail keywords, so yes they can be profitable, here's a thread where the owner of "Universe Today" http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...s-traffic.html where he explains how he make 20,000 month from adsense and gets over 2 million visitors monthly, most of the traffic he receives is from long tail phrases.

    Another great thread is my own, it's all about this topic, check out my sig.
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO Haven
    Why would it be a myth? Long-tail keywords are vital to making decent money online. As for Market Samurai, it's an awesome tool.
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  • Profile picture of the author nest28
    MS, is only able to find a small amount of long tail phrases, once you make a large site you will begin to see traffic coming from long tail phrase not seen in any keyword tool, some of your traffic will even come from these phrases ove and over, once this happens, make content based on those searches.
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