Is "Long Tail Keyword" Dead?

[Rank wizard Ltd]

Before Rankbrain(or Hummingbird), the idea of ranking around Long Tail Keywords were pretty much popular. But since Google had stopped taking keyword density into account, the concept literally died.

So, theories like 'KGR Method' which were built around those formula's seem not to work anymore.

What do you think guys?

 

[javadth]

its alive man

but everything progressing

 

[gimmeluthvi]

As Inner page, long tail keyword is still profitable and bring decent traffic (at least for my country)

 

[PixelMathis]

True. The long tail has been hammered pretty hard by Google.

 

[supervitallica]

So, theories like 'KGR Method' which were built around those formula's seem not to work anymore.

As long as you answer the question better than the competition you will be okay. Note that the KGR is only targetting low competition keywords so you don't need any links for these.

Your assumptions are that it doesn't seem to work anymore for you. Did you do an experiment or did you guess?

 

[bojanpeic]

Not sure what made you think that. Perfect example is the site I started ranking around a month ago. I was ranking it for my 2 main keywords, and few days back I've noticed I'm ranking 1st for long tail keyword, that I never used in anchor actually. It's just in my meta description, and I'm standing rock 1st on Google.

 

[fasttrak]

Works very well for me. I write every article with LTK in mind, they always rank first, then once the page has stewed in Googles eyes, the real meaty KW's start to rank. This way, I make $'s sooner, rather than later for every article.

 

[thunderhd]

They work. But its not that easy anymore.

 

[Rank wizard Ltd]

As long as you answer the question better than the competition you will be okay. Note that the KGR is only targetting low competition keywords so you don't need any links for these.

Your assumptions are that it doesn't seem to work anymore for you. Did you do an experiment or did you guess?

Yeah, a few of my client's websites got me some proof.

As example-
If "Best soccer shoes" turns to be a KW with KGR, it means that in the SERP, there are significantly low results who has this EXACT MATCH term in H1.
But eventually when Google learned that Soccer is just the synonym of "Football", and "Cleat" is the synonym of "Shoe", it will rank pages with "Best Football Shoe", "Best Soccer Cleats" etc. as well.

And they are also supposed to strongly hold their position on SERP. But KGR simply avoids those keywords who doesn't have the Exact Match keywords in the title.

So, depending blindly on KGR method and building your sites around those KGR seems not to be okay anymore.

 

[BbHhWwVM]

Long tail KW with volume surely can't die.
So, research is the key.

 

[crissdinesh]

It's the only thing helps to get organic traffic. I tested and still experimenting on my site.

P.S: It should be a low competitive long tail keyword with good search volume.

 

[Holzr]

KGR is still going strong, long tails are still going strong. Yes, it's important to write more on topics vs long tails, BUT, it all depends on search intent.

You have to take KGR further and do manual checks. I wouldn't take a KGR that was a different way of saying a term or different order of words. The best KGR/LTK are ones like best soccer shoes for indoor turf (not a KGR but an example of what I'd look for). Or something like best x under $100. It has a clear search intent that doesn't really get answered by its parent term (e.g. best x).

 

[t2van]

We can't rank anywhere near our main keyword at the moment (still trying and doing it slowly) if it wasn't for long tail and exact match rankings we would be dead. All of our pages are created to rank specifically for our long term keywords and we sit 1-5 in google and 1 in bing/yahoo.

 

[supervitallica]

Yeah, a few of my client's websites got me some proof.

As example-
If "Best soccer shoes" turns to be a KW with KGR, it means that in the SERP, there are significantly low results who has this EXACT MATCH term in H1.
But eventually when Google learned that Soccer is just the synonym of "Football", and "Cleat" is the synonym of "Shoe", it will rank pages with "Best Football Shoe", "Best Soccer Cleats" etc. as well.

And they are also supposed to strongly hold their position on SERP. But KGR simply avoids those keywords who doesn't have the Exact Match keywords in the title.

So, depending blindly on KGR method and building your sites around those KGR seems not to be okay anymore.

Yes, you are right in that case. But you would have to check top 5 before making content. If you would have taken a look at the first results you would have seen that there are indeed results for football and cleat.

If you can compete with these pages, then go ahead. If you use the formula without analyzing the top 5 you are bound to run into these kinds of results. Always manually research the keyword. Never rely on some kind of ratio.

 

[PixelMathis]

P.S: It should be a low competitive long tail keyword with good search volume.

Those don't exist

 

[Vik Pathania]

Long tail still works. What matters most is how you are using the keywords? How relevant they are? How competitive they are?
You need to do analysis on the keywords you are using before you start using them practically.

Regarding your comment related to Best Soccer Shoe: I would like to add something, as you know Google uses AI and also provide results for synonymous. If you research then you will find people usually search more for the keyword Football than that of soccer. So, the point is for using the keywords you need to research more before starting using them.

Hope this makes sense.

 

[Ketkamphon]

Works very well for me.

 

[crissdinesh]

Those don't exist

Blind statement

 

[BuildMoreLinks]

not as easy as it used to be, its the major brands that are dominating the long tails now.

 

[Flacko]

It’s evolving