How many of you are taking advantage of Google's relatively new Search Based Keyword tool, or SK Tool for short? Google has been releasing a lot of tools over the last year which webmasters can take advantage of to boost traffic to their websites and the best thing about them is that they are free.

The Google SK Tool basically allows you to find specific keywords based upon what people are actually entering into the search engine search field. Why is this powerful? This is powerful because the results you are seeing are exactly what people are searching for and you can leverage these results to build very specifically targeted traffic to your niche affiliate website.

There are many ways you can use the tool to your advantage but one of those ways is by using the SK Tool to find long tail keywords. A long tail keyword is basically a keyword which is longer than what you would usually see, for example the keyword "Vacuum Cleaner" is very loosely focused but if you add a word or two to that keyword and turn it into "Dyson Upright Vacuum Cleaner" then that keyword becomes more tightly focused and is known as a long tail keyword. Generally your shorter keywords will have many more searches per month in the search engines than nearly all of the long tailed ones. If fact when you would generally aim for a monthly search volume of around 2,000 or more with a normal keyword you would be aiming for around a quarter of this value with some long tailed keywords. Okay, so why bother targeting them then?

A) Long tail keywords nearly always have very little or no decent competition/strong competition associated with them

B) Long tail keywords are often more tightly focused to your niche, which is true with the above example of "Vacuum Cleaner" and "Dyson Upright Vacuum Cleaner"

So with the above example if you tried to optimize a page for the keyword Vacuum Cleaner you are going to get visitors who may all be looking for something completely different in the area of Vacuum Cleaners. Whereas if you optimize your page for Dyson Upright Vacuum Cleaner then you know that the customer is searching for that item and you are more likely to get a click through on an affiliate link if you are promoting a product on that page. So by optimizing a page for a long tailed keyword it is possible to actually convert a higher percentage of the traffic you manage to get to your website into sales and affiliate commissions.

By visiting www.Google.com/sktool you can enter your search term into the search field and be returned with a series of results which can include long tailed search phrases directly related to your original search term, these are phrases which people are actually typing into the search engines. Of course there are other tools you can use, both free and paid, but the Google Search Based Keyword Tool is just another way of finding those hard to find keyword phrases. Often what you will find is that many of the keyword tools out there which you have to pay for won't be that good at actually finding the long tail phrases which is why the Google SK Tool is so good in that respect.

In conclusion it is often better to go after rankings with long tailed keywords because they are easier to rank in the search engines because of the lack of competition. As an addition they are often more targeted to your niche and so the visitors you receive as a result are more likely to stay on your site for a great period of time.

So how many of you use long tailed keyword phrases in your niche affiliate sites or blogs to achieve better SE rankings and a higher, more targeted volume of traffic?

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