Keyword Research – Short, Medium and Long Tail Keywords In Simple Words

Keywords are the ABCs of SEO. In the post, we will be talking about what are short, medium and long-tail keywords, which is more important and why.

Put yourself in the average internet user’s shoes. When you are searching for something on Google, what are your expectations? Most of the time, we want the answers and we want them quick. With the fast pacing lifestyles and decreasing patience (no offense, I’m one of them too), we want to type the least and get the exact solution to our problem.

Common SEO terms you should know

• Alt Tag – It is a description of the picture you add to it which isn’t displayed for the readers. This is meant for the search engines so that they can identify what the picture is about.
• Internal Link – A link from one page to another of the same website. Internal linking helps in decreasing the bounce rate as the user will spend more time on your site.
• Indexed Pages – The pages which have been acknowledged and stored by search engines.
• Metadata – It tells the search engine what your website is about.
• Meta Description – It is a summary of your post in less than 160 characters. Below the title of your post, this is what the user will see in search results. This means the meta description has to be short and concise to perform well.
• Sitemap – A document created by a webmaster that stores the information about all the pages on a website. This makes it easier for the search engine to index them.
• Backlink – A link placed on a site that sends the reader to your site. Good number of backlinks helps in increasing the authority of your site.
• Authority – It is the amount of trust a site is given for a search query. This authority comes from the related incoming links to the page from other trusted sites.
• Bounce Rate – Percentage of users that leave the site immediately without clicking on any element.
• Keyword Density – The percentage of words on a page which are the same keyword is known as keyword density. Too high density can harm your site.

Introduction to keyword research and the importance

Keyword research is the prep you must do before beginning to work on your content. If you don’t have a loyal social media following then ranking in top results is your only bet to get traffic.

Researching keyword demand for your industry will help you to learn about your customers and find out which terms to target with SEO so that you reach the relevant audience for your brand.

Finding out the appropriate keywords will also help you in learning about your readers or customers. It will also help in ranking your content higher in the search results and in turn, get more visitors.

There are 3 types of keywords which you can focus on are short, medium and long-tail keywords. The best practice is to work on medium-tail keywords.

Why so? We’ll discuss that later in this post. First, let me give you a brief idea of what are keywords in SEO.

Also Read: John Mueller, a Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Answers The Burning Questions About SEO

What is a keyword?

Keywords in your content make it easier for people to find your site through search engine results. The more relevant your keywords are to their searches, the more people are going to find your post.

Your content should be formatted in such a way that it encloses all the relevant keywords and phrases which can bring in potential readers.

By implementing a well-though keyword strategy, you can make it easier for people to find you on the web which is overflowing with content.

Also Read: Google’s March 2019 Update Hits Websites Hard

Keyword Difficulty and Keyword Volume

The two terms are closely linked to each other.

Keyword volume denotes how popular that keyword is in searches. Keyword difficulty tells you how difficult it will be to rank for the keyword.

More profitable the keyword more will be the competition and harder to rank in it.

Why you should focus on Medium-Tail Keywords in your Keyword Research

There are three types of keywords or three-lengths of keywords: short-tail, medium-tail, and long-tail.

Short-tail keywords consist of only one or two words and are very competitive. Both keyword volume and difficulty are high.

Long-tail keywords are more like phrases comprising of 3-4 words. Both keyword volume and difficulty are low.

Medium-tail keywords, as the name, suggests lying in between short and long ones. Both keyword volume and difficulty are medium.

It is a great combination for keyword research because if you try hard, you can rank in these keywords and the audience would be profitable as well.

While in the case of long-tail keywords, though ranking is comparatively the easiest, the results might not be that profitable.

The best way to go is, focus on quality over quantity. It is better to have lesser traffic which has higher ROI then higher traffic with lower ROI.

In other words, not every medium tail keyword will be beneficial. You have to find just the right terms that will sell your products and services.

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