Don’t Cut The Long Tail Short!

What if I could give you a solid piece of advice that not only has made me a lot of money, but will do the same for you? In this post I want to first describe what a long tail is and how it’s different from a short tail keyword.  Next, I want to explain why long tails are used by some affiliate marketers and the advantages to using long tail keywords.  Lastly, I’ll be talking about why you should NOT write off long tail’s when you are doing keyword research for a niche and how they can play an important role in your affiliate campaigns!

This post was inspired by Chad from CDFNetworks.  Chad wrote a post about the good and bad of using longtail keywords and I decided that I wanted to do a post along the same lines.  Even though he touched on both the good and the bad, this post will be one sided, I’ll only be talking about the benefits of using long tail keywords. I’ll be talking about some of the reasons Chad gave, and also expanding a little on those reasons and then adding my two cents on the issue of long tails.  Make sure to check out his post about removing long tail keywords.

What is a Long Tail Keyword?

A long tail keyword is simply a keyword that is made up of multiple words.  An example of a short tail keyword would be download ringtones, while an example of a long tail keyword would be download mp3 verizon ringtones.

Exactly how many words are required in order for a keyword to become a long tail keyword is really based on opinion.  I don’t believe there is actually anywhere on the internet that says this makes this a long tail and this makes this a short tail.  Basically if it’s short it’s a short tail and if it’s long it’s a long tail!  I know…Rocket Science stuff here!!!

What are the benefits of long tail keywords?

There are two big benefits to long tail keywords.  The first being that normally long tail keywords convert at a higher rate than short tails.  This is largely do to the fact that most long tail keywords are very specific as to what the user wants.  Now obviously the long tail keyword has to be related to your niche and product or service in order to produce the best results.

The second thing that makes long tail keywords valuable is the fact that you can bid on these keywords and obtain the top positions for a lot less than what you’re spending on short tail keywords!

Obviously better conversions yet you pay less for the clicks sounds great and a marketer would be stupid not to use them then…..right???

Actually, you’d be surprised at how many affiliate marketers don’t spend time and energy on long tail keywords.  “Why?” you ask.  Because there is one huge disadvantage to long tail keywords…and 99% of you already know that this is….lack of volume (traffic).  A long tail keyword might receive 100 searches a month or it might receive 1 search a month.  Obviously it depends on the keyword, but a long tail keyword will never be able to match the volume of a short tail keyword and that’s expected…..

So should I write long tail keywords off?

This is what I really wanted to talk about in this post…

As I said, believe it or not, a ton of affiliates write off long tail keywords and decide that their time would be better spent focusing on the short tail keywords only.  Why?

This is just my opinion and from what I’ve hard over the years during consultations with people, but the reason that seems to pop up the most is that it’s easy for people to launch a campaign with a thousand keywords than it is to launch one with tens of thousands of keywords.

When you are focusing on long tail keywords because there is a lack of volume, you make up for that lack of traffic by having a ton of long tail keywords.  Now this does of course mean more ad groups and ads, however, I really believe it’s worth your time…especially for new affiliates!

You need to remember one thing here.  Most of the big affiliates are probably bidding on the same short tail keywords that you are!  Now do you really think as a new affiliate you’re going to be able to take them on head on with your limited knowledge?  Of course not!  However, as I said earlier, a lot of affiliates don’t mess with the long tails and this leaves them wide open for you!

As you start to convert on the long tails, you are then able to slowly bring in the short tails and eventually you’ll find a happy medium with the two and have a campaign that kicks butt!  So please, please don’t write off long tail keywords.  They will and always will play an important part in your affiliate campaigns if you use them right!

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