Ranking for long tailed keyword vs shorter keyword phrase?
-
I have a webpage http://freightmonster.com/free-freight-quote that currently ranks 19th in the Google SERP's for the keyword free freight quote. The keyword gets 59 exact match searches a month. Competition is high for this keyword.
The keyword freight quote gets 8625 exact match searches a month and my home page http://freightmonster.com/ ranks 26th in the Google SERP for it. Competition is high for this keyword.
Would I be better off creating another page http://freightmonster.com/freight-quote and doing a better job of on SEO optimization for it in the hopes of getting on page one, or given the fact that freight quote is such a highly competitive term should I just go after other long tailed keywords in my market like flatbed trucking freight quote, heavy haul trucking freight quote, RGN freight quote, etc?
We have just started on SEO for organic keywords after spending over $500,000 on PPC in the last 5 years, which in our market niche is the norm.
Thank you in advance!
-
Just go for the long tails with the main keyword in them. This way you hit both in one swoop, because as you build the long tails it will build up your links and content stemming from the main keyword.
I have been doing this with one of my sites and the more long tailed content I create and the farther I move up the results for the long tails I have also seen a slow but very steady increase in rankings for my main keywords.
-
Our company was in a similar situation and we started optimizing for the longer-tails. Since they do convert better and can rapidly get on the first page, it benefited us greatly. IMHO, it was a much better use of resources than optimizing for competitive keyword(s).
-
Getting from page 3 to page 1 is a serious undertaking in a competitive niche. Personally, I would go for the more specific keywords you listed. I would also expect those to convert better, since people get more specific as they get more serious about buying.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How do we find keyword opportunities - but not just against 3 competitors...
Hello everyone! How can I find out what might be a keyword opportunity against a competitor but make sure it's still a realistic opportunity in SERPS generally?* After all, we are not just competing with 2 or 3 competitors. We are competing against everyone! Perhaps there is a part of the keyword research process that helps? I can't help but think there's a wasted effort to just beat a couple of competitors unless you can rank well generally - especially if it's a competitive sector. (*I'm not in the position of making lots of pages as part of a long-tail keyword/ content strategy so I need to focus on just a few and make them count) Thanks in advance. Mp
Competitive Research | | mark_seomoz10 -
Domain Name Keyword Change
Hello. I have a question. I currently have a client who is exploring the option of changing his domain name to one which includes a key word and his company name. Currently he is using a domain name which does not include a keyword and does not include his company name. I understand that with proper redirects we can keep a significant amount of the juice behind it and we aren't so concerned about the domain name change. However my clients only concern is this. His company and new domain have the words Best Buy in it. He is concerned about the words best buy being in the domain name as it would be directly competing with the electronics giants. Should this even be a concern? He isn't in the electronics business and the remaining of the domain would include a keyword which directly relates to his business. Any input would be appreciated.
Competitive Research | | Imagination0 -
Can deceptive ads help sites to rank? Pogosticking effect involved...
Hello,
Competitive Research | | fablau
I have a question for you. I have noticed that many music sites that appear in the first top results for keywords our users search for, include all the same ads that deceive people by inviting them to "Download" or get the "Full Album" of what people may be search for. Look at the following websites that are often displayed at the first spots for keywords like "Christmas Sheet Music" (just an example): [....] They all have, most of the times, the same ads. Look at the following screenshots taken from the sites above (the ads are at the top of the page): http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/storage/google/Shot1.jpg
http://www.virtualsheetmusic.com/storage/google/Shot2.jpg Those deceptive ads could engage users more than legitimate websites not showing those ads or not showing ads at all, making Google think that people are more engaged on those website showing those deceptive ads. If it is quality that Google is looking for, shouldn't they do something to avoid having sites ranking well just because of some deceptive ads that take users into action, but without any useful result? I am eager to know your ideas on this issue. Thanks! Fab.0 -
What's causing this site to rank better than another?
As I work on getting a grasp for what causes sites to rank better than others, I'm a bit stumped with two of our competitors. When you search Google for "essay editing" you get these results: 1. Ivyeyesediting.com 2. papercheck.com 3. gradesaver.com 4. scribendi.com 5. essayedge.com When you put these in OSE, it seems crazy that Ivyeyes is anywhere near the top. For example, essayedge creams these guys on EVERY single category. As a new SEO here, what am I missing. This makes absolutely no sense to me. Not only that, it's pretty discouraging seeing essayedge so far down the SERPS with what appears to be some really great numbers. Can anyone shed some light on this?
Competitive Research | | Kibin0 -
How did this little site rank #2?
Keyword: "adoption agency" Site: http://www.opendooradoption.org These guys are ranked #2 for this very competitive term in all US regions. They're beating Bethany (and my company) who are orders of magnitude larger in both company size and link profile. Their domain authority is 40, and they have less than 200 links pointing to them with "adoption agency" in the anchor according to OSE. Their on-site is pretty much nonexistent. Does anyone have any theories as to how they accomplished this?
Competitive Research | | AdoptionHelp0 -
Does it makes any difference if i use 's' at the end of keyword.
In terms of ranking and other stuff, how does adding 's' at the end of a keyword works ? For example - 'Custom Cases' in place of 'Custom Case' I am getting different results as well for both. Please advice....
Competitive Research | | viniyog0 -
8500+ seomoz errors and still rank one for high traffic keywords
I plugged a competitor into the campaign manager that is ranking #1 for many target keywords like "sprinkler parts" (18k broad, 720 exact) and "sprinklers"(550k broad, 4400 exact) and #2 for "sprinkler"(1mil broad, 8100 exact). This site has over 8500 errors on SEOmoz - I have spent a good deal of time fixing errors on all of our client websites and have gotten them down to 0 errors. I am just wondering if I have been wasting my time and if the errors that SEOmoz reports on even make a difference. How can a site rank for such high traffic keywords when it has 4k duplicate content and 4k duplicate page title errors? The site has 75 linking root domains according to opensiteexplorer. any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
Competitive Research | | Splashme-1391910 -
Keyword difficulty tool - bit confused here!!
Hi, Got a question about the keyword difficulty tool, I'm new to seomoz so might be a silly question but here goes. Q: It takes the top 10 results from Google under a certain search query, the results displayed gives a rough breakdown of what power the page on the search results has along with the root domain. It looks like it rewards the best out of the bunch for each section with a tick, so 1 tick per column for the best performer. Now I would have thought if one of the websites in the top 10 had all 4 ticks it would rank at the top of the list but this is not the case. What else would come into play to make others which have no ticks rank higher then one which has all. Sorry if this sounds really confusing.
Competitive Research | | activitysuper0