Have you ever read an article on SEO that wouldn’t consist of the word “keyword”? It sound’s impossible to me and I hope you have the same opinion. keyword is the very scale of measurement for on-page SEO. Long tail vs short tail keyword is something that everybody wants to perform their keyword research.
The major question every SEO guy asks is “Which keyword should I use?”
The title “Long tail vs short tail keyword” is already giving you the answer. In case you haven’t noticed it, we will break down the suspense in a bit.
Knowing the appropriate option on either long tail vs short tail keyword will save a lot of your time and resource with only a little effort.
SEO is done on keywords. A keyword is only the factor powerful enough to assure your top position. And remember you shouldn’t let your competitors touch your prized keyword.
In the 21st century, Keyword is all we have in on-page SEO, to rank better. On the basis of their nature, there are different types of keywords. But categorizing the keywords on the basis of length can be very interesting.
Here’s a brief overview of how this content looks like:
- What is a Short tail keyword?
- What is a Long tail keyword?
- Why length based Classification?
- 5 Parameters in Keywords
- Graph
- Conclusion
What is a Short tail keyword?
As mentioned earlier, keywords defined on the genre of length gives rise to a new breed. The short tail keyword is one of the breeds.
A keyword that is composed of the two words at maximum can be called short tail keyword.
What is a Long tail keyword?
Long tail keyword is another player in this arena and believe me, it has what it takes to be a potential one.
A keyword that is composed of more than three words is known as long tail keyword.
What are we trying to achieve from this classification of keywords based on length?
Consider the word “Laptop” and the scope it is covering. It can match any keyword that contains the word laptop on the database. The match can be exact or broad.
Now try adding the word “dell” on the laptop keyword. The results are now narrowed i.e only dell laptops results are shown excluding other brands of laptop.
Have you noticed that adding a word to the keyword is filtering the results from the database? A virtual funnel is created here.
The longer the keyword, the lesser will be the results.
But wait, Is that good or bad?
It depends on your need and your purpose in running the campaign.
What you want is all that matters, right?
But here’s the glitch, the use of long tail keyword separates your potential customers from the rest. It’s like separating the honey from the bees.
Long tail vs Short tail keyword, Which one wins?
Let’s evaluate the verdict based on the five terms:
- Search volume
- Competition
- Scope
- Cost
- Conversion.
Finding the exact volume could be hard. I prefer Ubersuggest and Semrush for free use. Note that search volume is directly proportional to the rest, except for the conversion. In other words higher the search volume, higher rest values will be.
In SEO, the first attendee occupies the short tail keyword and makes its competitor hard to tackle on that particular keyword. They barely leave a weak spot. The short tail keyword indicates the generic terms hence, the search volume is high, the competition will surely be fierce, the scope will be wider and the cost will be high too. The user will have the advantage of wider results.
Whereas the longtail keywords indicate concrete findings. people with clear perceptions are always low hence the volume will be low, the competition will be low as well because of low volume. The scope will be narrower, Cost will be low .
Feeling delighted already. But wait that’s not it.
We already know that the competition is relatively lower in longtail keywords. But the Conversion rate is pretty high too. It is due to the fact that the user visiting your page knows, what they need.
If you find the above explanation hard to understand then the below example will surely make you clear.
You can clearly see that the search volume of long tail keyword is way less than short tail keyword. But the volume of “long tail vs short tail keywords” keyword is enough to use as primary keyword.
That’s exactly why I am here.
Here’s the graph indicating the above facts.
Conclusion:
Long tail keyword is the clear winner from the above graph. Working on something that will ensure conversion and offers high ROI is surely the best practice. Writing content might be a little tougher on longtail keyword but the results will definitely be worth the pain. Going head to head with your competitor on short tail keyword will delay your results. However, keep working on short tail keyword as your secondary project could be wiser.
