Are You Writing for the Long Tail or are You Stuck with the Short Tail?
Posted on | January 7, 2008 | 30 Comments
As I have been skimming over many old ezine articles from the past few years. One thing stood out more than anything. Back around 2000 the discussion of long copy vs short copy was the big debate. Now it’s 2008 and the debate, although similar has changed.
As a someone writing for SEO purposes I liked long copy over short for one simple reason. They had more text to get indexed. I could hit a much wider Long Tail with Long Copy over Short Copy.
Now as I look back at my work form the past two years, I notice that I have neglected to follow my original motives and began writing shorter and shorter copy. This has also hindered my focus from SEO and made social media more important than ever.
Even this post has very few keyword phrases, this will hinder the results of Long Tail keyword phrases from being found in the search engines. I still like keyword stuffing when ever possible, as long as it looks natural.
I should be writing more posts like this very cool post over on SEO Space, Top 100 Marketing Buzzwords for 2008. They are able to add many great keyword phrases to their post and make it fit very well.
Time to get out my login and passwords for WordTracker and Wordze…
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30 Responses to “Are You Writing for the Long Tail or are You Stuck with the Short Tail?”
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January 8th, 2008 @ 9:21 am
I have recently started blogging if for no other reason than I recommend it to others who want to rank their sites. Initially, my blogging was done for others and their business web sites. You have to start somewhere. Then I noticed something.
Long Tail!
Now I had seen long tail before but never created it myself. Long tail definitely notches up the priority on blogging. It is also very motivational for the small business owner who thinks blogging is a waste of time and doesn’t see a need for it.
January 10th, 2008 @ 4:13 pm
I’m still being a hard head going after the short tail, but I’m changing my ways.
January 11th, 2008 @ 7:50 am
I know someone who writes so little but makes a couple of thousand from adsense..
i write long ones on some of my blog but i get peanuts!
January 11th, 2008 @ 11:46 am
I always recommend my clients to start off with long tailed key terms while awaiting for competitive keywords results. One simple reason : It is easier to optimize and it can bring you significant amount of traffic while not wasting your time waiting for competitive keywords to show results.
January 11th, 2008 @ 3:35 pm
Mark – Am I reading this right. No. 99 Low hanging fruit?
Did I miss something??
Nice piece
Charlie
January 11th, 2008 @ 6:05 pm
@ Charlie
Correct, I have lost focus on the low hanging fruit for sometime now.
The article by SEO Space is exactly what anyone wishing to target low hanging fruit should be doing. Do not be afraid to use these lists as they are perfect examples of how to incorporate large amounts of text into your sites content.
January 12th, 2008 @ 9:14 pm
I have always done long copy writing for my blogs and sites. Many times I have inteded to do a quick piece for a site, but once the writing starts I end up creating something much longer than I intended. In the long run this has been great for me, as all of the sites I represent seem to have lots of text indexed.
January 14th, 2008 @ 9:41 pm
The long tail rules for me.
January 18th, 2008 @ 2:19 pm
definitely the long tail
January 23rd, 2008 @ 4:01 pm
I write short.
January 24th, 2008 @ 5:12 am
It depends on what the post is really, however I do find that long tail posts tend to rank higher in the SERPS than their short tail counterparts.
January 30th, 2008 @ 3:15 pm
I have gotten lazy and have been going short. I should probably make an effort in 2008 to write longer copy. But I know that by this time next year, I’ll be making the same decision again!
Thanks for at least making me thing about it, longtail is typically more effective for me, I just tend to fall away from it as time goes on.
February 7th, 2008 @ 4:16 am
[...] Are You Writing for the Long Tail or are You Stuck with the Short Tail Even this post has very few keyword phrases, this will hinder the results of Long Tail keyword phrases from being found in the search engines. [...]
March 6th, 2008 @ 9:27 pm
I try to do a little of both, so I am not sure which actually works the best for me. I guess I am afraid to commit to one or the other. Thanks for posting the link.
May 14th, 2008 @ 10:28 am
The long tail is definitly a good portion to go after, the key to remember is that you can get the long tail without necessarily optimizing for it. Usually long tail terms are on page terms if the search volume is low enough, yet you must have alot of content to grab a wide variety of long tail terms to make up for the lack of search volume.
June 5th, 2008 @ 5:14 pm
Writing less copy converts better then writing long copy, or that is will business to business websites that we create. Yet SEO demands a lot of content for long tail words or any keywords. Its a continuous battle.
June 5th, 2008 @ 5:16 pm
So how do you determine the long tail keywords to use.
June 8th, 2008 @ 3:59 pm
I find that focusing on long-tail phrases, especially geo-targeted when appropriate is a great strategy in on page copy. I try to include as many relavant terms and long-tail phrases in my content to maximize the amount of organic rankings each page can pull. Seems to work well as a strategy.
June 11th, 2008 @ 5:21 pm
I love to read short articles like this one, but i just love it, when i am doing a long post on my own sites
I really like to hit the longtail keywords. It gives me a very good conversion rate.
June 22nd, 2008 @ 5:10 am
We usually use the short tail to define the entire site and then we use the articles for the long tail. Articles can consist of 100’s of words, but not the sales pitch.
June 24th, 2008 @ 9:36 pm
Long Tail is the only way for the small guy to make it nowdays. There is waaaay to much competition. Gotta purchase domains and go after words like bass fishing in nc after 12 , not that bad but you get what im saying i guess.
Unless you have a decent amount of time and money to invest. You really don’t have a choice.
June 25th, 2008 @ 1:49 am
Long tail keywords are the best way to get a foothold and build your business by claiming small victories on your path to total web domination!
June 28th, 2008 @ 8:50 am
It is really good stuff. I appreciate what thee are doing..
July 5th, 2008 @ 7:12 am
I prefer long tail, but for some small sites I also use short tail.
July 15th, 2008 @ 9:52 am
I think you have to show clients some small wins to begin with, and long-tail keywords help initially.
Plus, it never ceases to amaze me just how many different long-tail keyword phrases are ’searched’, even in hugely competitive areas like car insurance.
If you can demonstrate high rankings for any competitive one/two phrase keywords it shows real competence.
November 1st, 2008 @ 7:09 pm
I find it difficult to write short articles on my blogs – but I don’t write often enough
December 2nd, 2008 @ 1:07 am
Well, I agree long copy can be useful. I also think that search engines, for indexing, like it better, as my PR is higher on pages with longer copy than those that are not. I dunno, I think a combination of both is the best route. One, because of time. Two, because it’s just practical to have both types. Thanks.
February 17th, 2009 @ 5:47 am
Just love to read all your great and interesting comments. Cheers
February 22nd, 2009 @ 1:21 pm
I always recommend my clients to start off with long tailed key terms while awaiting for competitive keywords results. One simple reason : It is easier to optimize and it can bring you significant amount of traffic while not wasting your time waiting for competitive keywords to show results.
Thanks for this great info!!!
March 31st, 2009 @ 7:57 am
I like the long tail..Hehe