Long tail keywords or short tail keywords

[skyvia]

when I m analyzing keywords for my site, which is the best- long tail keywords or short tail keywords?
Thanks for your help !

[kaiserthesage]

Both. You can actually target shorttail keywords through building links with longtails. You can read my research about it here:

Anchor Text Link Strategy

[medi50cus]

Great article you got there, kaiserthesage. Just bookmarked it for future reference.

[atlandbiz-com]

Anyone know how many long tail keywords should use in one page?

[jushuaburnham]

Truth about Long Tail Keywords:

- Can easily rank in search engines
- Will not have too much competition
- Will not be present in keyword database because search volume is very minimal
- Can boost conversion (however it depends on various factors, we shall see this in later part of our article)

[heafran]

Using Long Tail Keywords can be highly beneficial for you for its targets the exact or specific keyword .. Another benefit of long tail keywords is that the visitors convert amazingly well to sales and ad clicks.
i want to share this one too..

"You may be wondering why anybody would want to target hundreds or thousands of keywords which bring only small traffic. Well the answer is simply that there is less competition so you can rank on the first page of Google for long tail keywords far easier than ranking for short tail keywords. Yes, they don’t bring a lot of traffic separately but if you target lots of long tail keywords you can get lots of easy traffic. Not everybody is capable of ranking highly for highly competitive keywords but anybody can rank for long tail keywords. "

[iloveseo]

I think you should use both type of keywords.

[logoonlinepros1]

Short tail keyword require more time to get your site on top of SERP result while in long tail keyword there are no more searches and has less competition.

[superSEO2011]

Originally Posted by kaiserthesage

Both. You can actually target shorttail keywords through building links with longtails. You can read my research about it here:

Anchor Text Link Strategy

Mate - I love your site!

Thanks bud

[kaiserthesage]

Originally Posted by superSEO2011

Mate - I love your site!

Thanks bud

Thanks man! Glad you've enjoyed it

[jhonsean]

I'll go for long tail keywords for low competition and have the opportunity to rank well in search engine.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by logoonlinepros1

Short tail keyword require more time to get your site on top of SERP result while in long tail keyword there are no more searches and has less competition.

Originally Posted by kaiserthesage

Both. You can actually target shorttail keywords through building links with longtails. You can read my research about it here:

Anchor Text Link Strategy

Hi logoonlinepros,

You guys seem to be using the term "short tail" incorrectly. The term "long tail" is a term used in statistical analysis to describe the long tail of a power law graph as applied to marketing. In some cases there is no long tail, and that is where the term "short tail" is properly used.

You guys seem to be using the term "shorttail" when referring to the "head" of the graph. The proper term is "head keywords" or simply "primary" or "main" keywords as is most often used.

This is often misunderstood by the lay person because they mistakenly think that the terms "long tail" or "short tail" refer to the length or number of words in a keyword phrase. These terms, however, refer to the frequency of occurrence (searches, visits or purchases) and have nothing to due with the length or number of words.

I only mention this because some folks are looking for reliable and accurate information on this forum and I hope to encourage a common and accurate use of terminology.

@kaiserthesage,

I think your post about anchor text is somewhat misinformed. I believe it incorrect to assert that Google is looking at how "natural" your link promotion is done to determine whether or not it is spam. They are much more granular in their approach. They can tell which links are spam and which are meritorious on an individual basis.

There is no need for search engines to look at your overall promotional profile except to speed the process of devaluing your spam. The problem with using a "natural" looking pattern for your spam is that it only serves to buy you a few extra days in most cases before you spam is devalued anyway. Most serious spammers realize this and therefore go with the mass all out spamming approach. At least until they realize they are, in effect, on a treadmill which stops working soon after they stop spamming. They are not really building anything that lasts and severely limit the overall growth of their business. I think that is why we see so many spammers reform after a year or two.

[kaiserthesage]

It's not really a spam technique, it's just a strategy in which you'll be targeting to "rank" for the other keyword variations as well as the main keyword at the same time. You can never say it's spam when you don't know what methodologies were used to acquire those anchor text links

[dburk]

Originally Posted by kaiserthesage

It's not really a spam technique, it's just a strategy in which you'll be targeting to "rank" for the other keyword variations as well as the main keyword at the same time. You can never say it's spam when you don't know what methodologies were used to acquire those anchor text links

Sorry, I must have not made my point clearly enough. I meant to say that you needn't worry about "looking" natural if you aren't spamming. What would be the point of worrying about how natural your links look if they aren't spam? Google doesn't devalue meritorious links unless they are on a page with spam.

[kaiserthesage]

Originally Posted by dburk

Sorry, I must have not made my point clearly enough. I meant to say that you needn't worry about "looking" natural if you aren't spamming. What would be the point of worrying about how natural your links look if they aren't spam? Google doesn't devalue meritorious links unless they are on a page with spam.

You have a point there. But naturalizing the link profile is just a part, we can never really say how the big G reacts with each link acquisition, but the main point is, as long as the linking pages as well as the link that's linking the two are highly relevant, then I don't think crawlers will devalue the link even if it's on a page with spam.

Making the link landscape of a site to look as natural as it can be is simply manipulating the search engines for results, of course they can detect those kind of cheapshots, however, search engines are allowing us to, they're even attracting us - apparently - to manipulate results, but not to spam (there's a huge difference between the 2).

[Psykryph]

Great article, kaiserthesage. thanks a lot. sometimes I forget to vary up my keywords enough.

[maryparker]

Whether you can achieve high rankings for competitive keywords or not, long tail keywords could be highly beneficial for you. Long tail keywords is that the visitors convert amazingly well to sales and ad clicks. The visitors searching for long tail keywords know exactly what they want and hopefully you can provide it to them.

[Shirlyn]

I think before setting up with long tail or short keywords you just have to check your website niche and traffic for the same keyword and after that you can target the keyword to make a reputed image over search engine to deploy services.

[Billy Rey]

both but you will have to keep in mind that you need to tweak your landing page to get the best conversion whatever way you decide to monetize it.

You will convert better with long tails BUT long term business will be based on your short tail.

Focus on long tails now since your site is new. Conquer the short tails next.

If you have the knowledge and time to jump to targeting the short tails, then obviously, that would be better. More traffic is always better (please nobody argue with this. You know traffic without conversion is just wasted bandwidth )

[socialbookmark]

Ranking high for Long tail keywords with less attempt is possible but for short tail keywords, you should try more and also you get more traffic too. It depends on the quality and power of your website. Surely if you can rank high for short tail keywords, its better and makes more traffic for you.

[ahmadferi]

lucky you get maximum results and not too great difficulty trying to use long tail keywords

[Egrove Systems]

Hi, Short tail keywords having more competition If we are hosting the new web site mean it will take more time to get result, Long tail keywords are less competition, In that case people won't give much more importance to long tail keyword, So make sure if you are using long tail keyword specify the region.

[dburk]

Originally Posted by socialbookmark

Ranking high for Long tail keywords with less attempt is possible but for short tail keywords, you should try more and also you get more traffic too. It depends on the quality and power of your website. Surely if you can rank high for short tail keywords, its better and makes more traffic for you.

Originally Posted by Egrove Systems

Hi, Short tail keywords having more competition If we are hosting the new web site mean it will take more time to get result, Long tail keywords are less competition, In that case people won't give much more importance to long tail keyword, So make sure if you are using long tail keyword specify the region.

Again with the improper terminology?

It's called "head keywords", "main keywords" or "primary keywords". "Short tail" keywords means almost exactly the same as "long tail". The usage of "short" simply signifies that there are relatively few of them while "long tail" indicates there are many.

Do you guys say "heads or tails" when flipping a coin? Or do you say "short tails or long tails?"

The "long tail", "short tail" terminology is common in marketing analytics, and you guys sound a little silly when you use these terms incorrectly. Imagine someone saying:

"He combed the hair on his short tail [head]."
"Her performance was short tail [head] and shoulders above the rest."
"He charged short tail [head] first into the issue."

That is kind of how you guys sound to anyone who knows what those terms actually mean.

[Logo Design]

both are good for your website but when users search anything then users types only short keywords not long keywords.Now you think

[englandrm]

Longtail keywords often have a lot less competition, so they are great for short term ranking results, but will continue to provide traffic for the long term. (do your keyword research for search volumes and competition analysis)

Shorttail keywords often have a lot more searches, a lot more competition, and should be targeted for long term SEO plans. The ranking takes longer and will require more work, but once ranked it will pay off.

[nicheblogs]

long tail keywords with very low competition are the most profitable.

[John F Kennedy]

You should most definitely be using both.

If you can get good rankings for short, your home and dry, but long tail will almost certainly put money in your pocket a lot quicker.

But using Long and short tail in your articles will help improve your rankings for short much quicker than targeting it alone.