dragon wrapping around the words long tail keywords

You know how important keywords are for your website. However, you might not know how important "long tail keywords" are, and how they relate to search, and even more importantly, "voice search."

Any web developer who knows about SEO, knows this is an important distinction, since half of all searches are done on a mobile device.

Examples of keywords vs. long tail keywords vs. voice search.

Example 1

long_tail_keyword_chart_with_voice_searc_2023h

Since many voice searches are questions, posing your headlines or subheads as questions, allows you to have more "exact match" keyword phrases. However, with Google's artificial intelligence and "Rank Brain" algorithm, exact match keywords aren't as critical anymore, but they certainly don't hurt either.

Example 2:

chart comparing long tail keywords to voice search

The theory behind using long tail keywords is, there's usually less content on the web based around those long tail keywords. Generally, because less articles are written around long tail keywords, it means less competition. And if the competition isn’t that intense, it should be easier to rank above other websites, even if their content is wrapped about long tail keywords.

Long tail keywords are more specific and less competitive.

A web developer who specialize in SEO, differentiates between main keywords, and  long tail keywords, and uses both in your website.

As you can see, long tail keywords are more specific than the main keywords. The main keyword is a more of a general term, with one or two words, and lots of websites post content based around those words. A long tail keyword is more specific, and usually, less websites are creating content around those phrases.

See how Google's Keyword Tool shows the number of searches, and competition for the plastic surgery phrases cited above:

screen shot of search results for plastic surgery long tail keywords

You can see:

  • There's 320 searches a month for "plastic surgery," but also more competition.
  • The phrase "plastic and reconstructive surgery" has only 10 searches a month, but low competition.
  • While the term "men's body sculpting" also has 10 searches a month, but with NO competition.

So writing about "plastic and reconstructive surgery" and "men's body sculpting surgery" increases the chances of your website showing up well in search results. It's worth showing up on page one in Google's search results for those two phrases, instead of page 2 or 3 for the main keyword "plastic surgery."

Not that you couldn't shoot to do both. Picking the right combinations of keywords that have Medium and Low competition is a bit of both art and science.

If you'd like to learn more about how having the right mix of keywords can help your website, drop us an email, or give us a call at 614.341.9700.