Long Tail Keywords Discussion - Need Help!
How Can We Possibly Be Confused?
I was in chat yesterday, and there was a lively discussion regarding long tail key words. Just how many blogs and how much "training" has been written about long tail keywords at Wealthy Affiliate? OMG... Put it into the search bar and weep. How could there possibly be any confusion about the concept?!
Well, There IS Confusion!
Anyone can write training here at WA, and everyone can write their blog here at WA. That's both a blessing and a curse.
It's a blessing, because we can share what we've learned, to the benefit of everyone! It's awesome!
It's a curse, because anyone can write something, to be taken as the God's honest truth, and still be completely wrong. How do you know if what you are reading is true, mostly true, or just flat out wrong? There are a lot of people, myself included, that have opinions about how something works, based upon our own experiences. Our experiences may or may not represent the whole of something or the full truth of something.
It's Not Just Me
If I have this question, the mathematical odds say that MANY have this same question. Another person in chat yesterday, had the same quesion. That was two of us online, at the same time, out of all of the thousands of members. That means that the question is legitimate.
Back To Long Tail Search Words
This is complex, so please understand the context before commenting.
Let's say that you found a great search word; a nice long tail search word, that comes up with a respectable QSR. Great... Now I have to find an example in Jaaxy. Be back in a minute....
(Jeopardy theme song plays)
I'm back. I used a word from my own list. My long tail search word is:
"how to make a web page responsive"
Here's the way it came back in Jaaxy:
The Training
In the Online Entrepreneur Certification, Level 2, Lesson 3, it shows this:
Kyle adds words to the long tail key word, for his title.
What I Want To Know
When does adding words to the title of your post, change the keyword? Does it matter at all? When does it make it better? When does it demote it?
Back To My Example
My long tail keyword again, was: "how to make a web page responsive"
What if I changed it to: "how to make a web page responsive using a great tool"
Is that now a new long tail keyword? Let's look what happens in Jaaxy.
Well, that has low traffic numbers, and is not a very good key word, is it.
Again: What I Want To Know:
- If I add words to my original long tail keyword, what does the Google algorithm concentrate on? The original key word, buried in the title? The entire title?
- When does a long tail keyword morph into a longer tail keyword, and is the original disregarded?
- What specifically do you need to do to make sure that your original, good, long tail, keyword, gets chosen by Google, instead of a longer, lesser quality, keyword?
Another Example
What about posts in a series. I know that Google likes posts in a series, because there is a lot of linking back and forth between pages. Tutorial sites, like my own, may take one idea, and break it down into three or more posts.
For continuity, I want to make sure that my readers know that the posts are part of a series, just by looking at a title.
If I have my post's titles structured as: (assuming my post title is a long tail key word)
- "Post Title - Part 1"
- "Post Title - Part 2"
- "Post Title - Part 3"
- "Post Title - Part 4"
What happens with this? (PLEASE do not make suggestions for other title structures. That's not what I'm interested in. I want to know how Google sees THIS example.)
Not To Offend, Or Belabor The Point
Just try to find this information anywhere on line. Just what would you put in to the search bar? The number of results of people writing about this topic are staggering, but I never see it get THIS in depth. I'll cry if I have to read one more post about how to find the right long tail key word, that still doesn't cover this critical information. There are also a lot of people who will boast about doing this for years, and yet, their opinions are still just opinions, and they could still be incorrect.
Please Comment
If you have a comment that speaks directly to the examples, I look forward to reading what you have to say!
If you have similar questions, put them in the comments. Maybe we can wrangle this out and get some definitions that last until the next time Google updates its algorithm, lol.
If your name is Kyle, and you own a certain site about affiliate marketing, you can take over the whole post! LOL
Recent Comments
18
You certainly bring up some good points. I'm no expert in long tail keywords or keywords in general but, I personally believe that people tend to over complicate them. They are, after all simply words that other people are likely to use when looking for information. What the affiliate marketer is trying to do is to create those words in their titles and articles so that when someone Googles them, you're site is likely to come up near the top of the search results. By adding more words to the title you are simply increasing the search result possibilities. Jaaxy is a fantastic tool that helps you to find out which of those keywords or strings, are likely to get the best results. At the same time it narrows down the field for you, so that you can come up with a title that has reasonable search results, but little competition. Jim
Having 10 sisters a wife, 2 daughters, 8 granddaughters, and a couple of great granddaughters as well has having been a manager in a bank branch with 9 women , man-splaining comes in handy. Jim
I like to explain things in a less technical fashion. It's part of my nature and I don't intend on changing it. It's never meant to be insulting to anyone.
"Having 10 sisters a wife, 2 daughters, 8 granddaughters, and a couple of great granddaughters as well has having been a manager in a bank branch with 9 women , man-splaining comes in handy."
I'm sure you are building quite the legacy, of which you have no knowledge. It's good to be the king!
Maybe you are reading something in my comments that I don't see. Fortunately for me all my family love me. All the girls have been taught to be strong and to understand that there's nothing they can't accomplish. I have no idea what you have gone through in your life , maybe you have been hurt at some time, possibly by a male. I'm sorry if that's the case. I know today is all about 'Political Correctness' and equality but I am who I am. I don't consider myself a king and I certainly never mean to insult anyone. I have made a lot of friends at WA. Thousands in fact, you're the first person that seems to have issues with me. As for my knowledge, well I have experienced much in my life, learned much and suffered much. When you reach that level , let me know.
I obviously know how to use Jaaxy, and I am obviously an experienced person when it comes to in technical matters, if I'm able to word my post as I did. I ASKED for very specific information in the comments. You ignored my experience, my technical knowledge, and my request for specific information, and commented on things that I already know. That is the very definition of mansplaining.
When I called you out on it, you doubled down, and insinuated that mansplaining is necessary because of all the women in your life, making it appear that you were just making a cute comment.
I'm an older woman. I've been in the corporate world. I've LIVED the #metoo movement my entire life.
"well I have experienced much in my life, learned much and suffered much. When you reach that level , let me know."
Oh boo hoo. I'm at that level and then some. It's called life. Like the saying goes.... Ginger Rodgers did everything that Fred Astaire did, but did it backwards and in high heals.
You'll undoubtedly add some sort of "I never meant...." trite comment about this, but won't offer any kind of apology that indicates actual understanding. If so, consider yourself ignored.
It's obvious to me that you are very good at sarcasm. Congratulations. I have no intention of giving you an apology for anything. Especially when I have done nothing wrong. I'm tired of your childish behaviour and will now delete you. I guess there's a first time for everything. Jim
OK, here goes - adding words to your title doesn't change the fact that your initial keyword is included - it doesn't change your choice - all it does is add additional keywords that you will also be considered and ranked for.
I made a diagram, attached.
If I am understanding you correctly, all of the possible permutations of a search string, containing adjoining words, are crawled by Google.
Google will return search results on any of those permutations, be they good, bad, or whatever. As long as your long tail keyword is somewhere in the title, search results will come back for anyone that searches for that particular long tail keyword.
Did I get that correct?
Absolutely correct - remember that 'stop words' are not included (a, and, the, etc.) I posted a listing of stop words on my blog.
See more comments
Before you get too caught up in how Google views long-tail keywords, try using them yourself in an incognito window.
I googled "how to make a web page responsive" (without the quotes) and got the result shown in the attached image. Real people seldom use quotes when they search and they usually omit the so-called "stop words".
The results shown by Google have the relevant words from the search query in bold. But Google uses artificial intelligence to understand what your post is about and ranks it, not on the keywords, but on the relevance to the search query.
Your keywords are the search terms people are using. They don't necessarily have to be in the title or the first paragraph or even lumped together anywhere in the text. Your target is the search term. You are writing for people who want to make their website responsive or their web page or webpage (as one word).
If your post is going to be about a WordPress website I would add the word "WordPress" into the mix: "how to make a wordpress website responsive". Check that as a keyword in Jaaxy and then in an incognito window.