How much 'play' is there in a longtail keyword?

[wetlazer]

I am sure this is a basic concept. So please forgive my ignorance. How much 'play' is there in a longtail keyword?

For example, let us say adwords gives the phrase 'How to dance The Twist.' If I changed my phrase to 'Learn how to dance The Twist.' Or 'How to dance The Twist quickly.'

What does this do to the longtail keyword? Is the phrase the same or is it a different phrase? If you use a comma, or a period does this make a difference?

Is there a tip, technique, trick which would be helpful?

Thank you.

[Nationsubmit]

Longtail keywords are now very important, for one you do not want to overthink or overuse your main keyword, so having longer tailed keywords is a good choice.

To your question, it doesnt have to be "exact" googles system is smart and if people search for a longer phrase it will still show up even if the comma or one or two smaller words do not match.

Now in the case that a page that you made targets that keyword showing up is a different story and other factors will be in place to determine if you show up in google for it.

[Peter Nikolow]

No - it's different phrases. You should evaluate them all. Keyword planner didn't show all variants for keywords and you should generate more variants for keywords using tools as SEOggestor or Ubersuggest to catch more longtail phrases.