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Long tail Keywords - How many??

by Costarica61
16 replies
Hi Guys

Quick question- With long tail keywords in say a 2000+ word post. Would you place say the same 4 LT keywords 3 or 4 times in the copy or have say 10 separate LT Keywords once each in the copy?

Thanks in advance.

Costa
#keywords #long #tail
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  • Profile picture of the author splork
    Put the main keyword in your heading. Add it to the first paragraph. Sprinkle it through the copy where it makes reading sense. Put it in the ending paragraph. If you can add the few secondary (long-tail) keywords through the article then do it.

    Take those other 10 keywords and write 10 more SEO articles. Use the main (long-tail) keyword as above. Sprinkle the others where it makes sense. Link between the pages.

    That's what I would do.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    There is no set number of times it needs to be in the text or any sort of ratio. It needs to be in there at least once but can certainly be in there more than once, provided it is natural. It should definitely be in the title tag, as well. Perhaps more important is making sure that LSI words are part of the text. See what phrases Google thinks are relevant by entering the phrase into a search, scroll to the bottom of the page and seeing what Google says are "related searches", making note especially of words that are in bold.
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    • Profile picture of the author Costarica61
      So we should try to put the main keyword /phrase and a LT KW in the title tag?
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  • Profile picture of the author Sleekinfosolutions
    Hi,
    In 2000+ words content, you can use 4-5 long tail keywords. make sure your keywords much be added in the first paragraph, body, and last paragraph and other as per need.
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    • Profile picture of the author Costarica61
      But is that 4 or 5 different KW's once? Or 1 KW 4 or 5 times?
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  • Profile picture of the author kilgore
    Our technique is a little different:

    We write for human beings not for search engines.

    As a result, we barely give keywords any thought at all -- and when we do, it's again, thinking how the keywords might affect our users' experience. For instance, are there certain terms that readers expect to see or that they need to have explained? OK, then I definitely need to have those words in the article. We also add tags to the end of our article, which is essentially a list of keywords, in order to help users find and navigate within our content. But as far as trying to add long tail keywords to get additional Google clicks -- we just don't do it.

    The absolute best thing you can do to have your website rank on search engines is to have your website be useful. And the good news is that the absolute best thing you can do for your readers is to have your website be useful. But it's also unfortunately true that adding superfluous keywords or other search engine hacks very often detracts from the readability -- and usefulness -- of your content.

    So we'd rather spend our time and money tweaking our content (and creating new content) to make it better and better for our audience rather than trying to game the system by trying to get the "correct" amount of keywords in our posts or whatever else SEO "gurus" might suggest. This isn't to say to ignore all SEO best practices, but your real focus should be on the people who read your websites. After all it's real people, not machines, who carry credit cards...
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    • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
      Originally Posted by kilgore View Post

      Our technique is a little different:

      We write for human beings not for search engines.

      As a result, we barely give keywords any thought at all -- and when we do, it's again, thinking how the keywords might affect our users' experience. For instance, are there certain terms that readers expect to see or that they need to have explained? OK, then I definitely need to have those words in the article. We also add tags to the end of our article, which is essentially a list of keywords, in order to help users find and navigate within our content. But as far as trying to add long tail keywords to get additional Google clicks -- we just don't do it.

      The absolute best thing you can do to have your website rank on search engines is to have your website be useful. And the good news is that the absolute best thing you can do for your readers is to have your website be useful. But it's also unfortunately true that adding superfluous keywords or other search engine hacks very often detracts from the readability -- and usefulness -- of your content.

      So we'd rather spend our time and money tweaking our content (and creating new content) to make it better and better for our audience rather than trying to game the system by trying to get the "correct" amount of keywords in our posts or whatever else SEO "gurus" might suggest. This isn't to say to ignore all SEO best practices, but your real focus should be on the people who read your websites. After all it's real people, not machines, who carry credit cards...
      Not exactly the same, but we create our content first and foremost for people. Later, we'll look at the various articles that have been written, see what targeted phrases they best match and tweak the copy ever so slightly to better optimize the articles around those phrases.
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      • Profile picture of the author kilgore
        Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

        Not exactly the same, but [B]we create our content first and foremost for people/B]. Later, we'll look at the various articles that have been written, see what targeted phrases they best match and tweak the copy ever so slightly to better optimize the articles around those phrases.
        As you say, not exactly the same, but I'd argue really close. And as I said, it's not like we ignore SEO completely. What matters (for both of us) is that our focus is on our (human) audience. If you're going back and making slight changes to your copy to be better optimized for search engines, so much the better -- but I'm guessing that the reason you only make slight tweaks to your copy is because by doing so you're not detracting from your readers' experience.

        That said, for someone new to the world of online business, my advice would be to spend about an hour or two reading about best SEO practices -- then don't even worry about it. New entrepreneurs need to focus 99% of their thoughts and energies on their customers. Search engines are not customers and so -- at the initial stages of creating a business -- they're a distraction from what really matters.

        Later, if/when the entrepreneur has a viable business model he or she can focus on tweaks and optimizations such as the one you're describing. But I think it makes very little sense to spend a lot of time optimizing your content only to find that the content you think your customers want isn't really what they're looking for.
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        • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
          Originally Posted by kilgore View Post

          As you say, not exactly the same, but I'd argue really close. And as I said, it's not like we ignore SEO completely. What matters (for both of us) is that our focus is on our (human) audience. If you're going back and making slight changes to your copy to be better optimized for search engines, so much the better -- but I'm guessing that the reason you only make slight tweaks to your copy is because by doing so you're not detracting from your readers' experience.

          That said, for someone new to the world of online business, my advice would be to spend about an hour or two reading about best SEO practices -- then don't even worry about it. New entrepreneurs need to focus 99% of their thoughts and energies on their customers. Search engines are not customers and so -- at the initial stages of creating a business -- they're a distraction from what really matters.

          Later, if/when the entrepreneur has a viable business model he or she can focus on tweaks and optimizations such as the one you're describing. But I think it makes very little sense to spend a lot of time optimizing your content only to find that the content you think your customers want isn't really what they're looking for.
          Definitely really close, if not pretty much the same. We instruct people to do keyword research at the beginning in order to determine what the best phrases are that they have a chance of ranking for (more than anything, this is to instill confidence that there are a lot of searches for relatively easy to rank for phrases). Then, when they actually build the website, to put that list away and not even think about it.

          We tell them to build the best website they can for people, have straightforward navigation, fantastic product descriptions and helpful buyer's guides. Build the site with the goal of making it the very best and most informative website in your niche.

          When you are done with building the best site you can for the people who will be using it, go back and look at your keyword phrase list. Find the pages that are already finished that best match the phrases on your list and tweak the pages, one at a time, for each of those phrases (usually focusing on one KW phrase per page but sometimes 2-3 if they are synonymous). Quite often, you'll find that very little needs to be tweaked at all because you naturally sprinkled in the keyword phrase and LSI phrases without even thinking about it.

          To me, it's far harder to write well when I am thinking about what words I need to be using. It's much easier to change a word or two, add a sentence here and there, afterward. Do it that way, and you'll make both search engines and real people happy.

          Oh, and yes, we don't even worry about SEO until we've determined that the niche is as viable as we thought it would be. After 2-3 months of paid advertising, we can quickly see if the niche is worth spending the time on SEO.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jamell
    long tail and high search volume keywords should flow naturally.Use your discretion.Read your content back to yourself after finishing your post. make sure that it sounds natural and not robotic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Princess Balestra
    When Bruce Lee said gonna kick you in the tits so hard you won't know what happened, he was only modelin' way crazy loon pants, I guess.
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  • Profile picture of the author junaid ali qureshi
    Well in that case you can also formulate how many times you can use keywords. The term i called as Keyword Density, By simply searching this term you can get to know how many times you can used keywords. But normally it is advisable to use 3 to 4 times or max 5 times in 2000 or plus content.
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    • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
      Originally Posted by junaid ali qureshi View Post

      Well in that case you can also formulate how many times you can use keywords. The term i called as Keyword Density, By simply searching this term you can get to know how many times you can used keywords. But normally it is advisable to use 3 to 4 times or max 5 times in 2000 or plus content.
      Wrong, wrong, wrong! Keyword density is a concept that worked a decade ago. Search engines are MUCH better than they used to be and the number or percentage of times you use a phrase has nothing at all to do with how well you will rank for it.

      Nowadays, you are much more apt to get your site penalized by employing keyword density strategies. Use it in the title tag, a variation in a header or two if appropriate and at least once in the copy.
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      • Profile picture of the author naviown
        Originally Posted by dave_hermansen View Post

        Wrong, wrong, wrong! Keyword density is a concept that worked a decade ago. Search engines are MUCH better than they used to be and the number or percentage of times you use a phrase has nothing at all to do with how well you will rank for it.

        Nowadays, you are much more apt to get your site penalized by employing keyword density strategies. Use it in the title tag, a variation in a header or two if appropriate and at least once in the copy.
        Agreed, spamming keywords just to get keyword density is a no-no
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  • Profile picture of the author jefrin adams
    Put the Target keyword in the first paragraph, split the secondary keyword in the content , where the keyword matches the sentence .
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  • Profile picture of the author Joh2nicholas
    Try implementing synonyms (various words with the same meaning). Search engines recognize that words like "bat" are homonyms; they are words that have multiple meanings. Google prides itself on relevancy, so they want to be able to differentiate someone searching for a baseball "bat" vs. a flying vampire "bat." For this reason, there's a database index of Google synonyms to help it differentiate between word meanings. Google knows that if a site is talking about "clubs" and "bats," they are probably talking about sports equipment and not flying mammals.

    Because synonyms help Google stay relevant, they tend to reward sites that implement them.
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