Longtail keyword definition seems fuzzy?
-
So we all know about longtail keyword vs. short tail. However, it seems that the definition is a bit inconsistant. Some people say longtail keywords are keywords that get very low amounts of traffic, others that they are key phrases with 2 or more words. And others add to this that they have high conversion rate but describe specific features, product, service, model # etc.
In an ideal model I suppose all of these things would be true. As keyword length increases, traffic tends to decrease, keyword is more specific pointing at features, model#, specific product etc and therefore the conversion rate is a bit higher as well.
However, the data isn't a perfect curve. I will see keywords that get 18,000 searches but have 4 words. And then I will see single word key phrases that get <10 -20 searches a month. What am I to consider these? Its like they fit half the criteria. Any comments on this would be helpful and appreciated. I suppose the real question I am after is - it seems like the real definition of a long tail keyword cant be any of the above traits of a long tail keyword. How do you really define a long tail keyword in all circumstances (without it being this subjective idealized definition based on a perfect model) and where would the keyword circumstances (lots of words but high traffic, and low traffic but 1 word) fall in the graph? Center?
-
Its like how a Square is a Square but also Rhombus and a Rectangle. Long tail keywords can be any and all of those definitions depending on the moment, your goals and your needs.
In most cases I wouldn't consider a Low Traffic term a "Long Tail Keyword" simply because it has low traffic. But I would argue that Long Tail Keywords are likely to have lower traffic than their short tail counterparts. People are more likely to search using shorter terms and phrases but sometimes a 4+ word combination can be popular. But I would argue that a Long Tail Keyword/term/phrase is likely to be 3, 4, 5+ words long. Can those words be all extremely product specific? Sure. Do they need to be? No. Are they more specific than a one or two word short tail phrase? Yes.
One word with low traffic is probably just a bad keyword to be using. A 4 word phrase with high traffic could just be a popular long tail search. In some cases it will depend on your industry. Some phrases can have multiple meanings. Just because a 4 word phrase has good traffic doesn't mean you need to use it if the first 3 pages in the SERPs are all sites devoted to a completely different concept that happens to have the same phrasing.
-
For me longtail keywords are purely more finely focused keywords cascaded down from the big money/focus keywords whatever they may be. So it doesn't matter if they are model related or how any words etc, they are just one way or another the closest thing you can get to a finer granularity exact match the next level from the big volume main keyword. I think the target is selecting the ones with modest competition and a search volume.
-
I'm confused by what exactly you're looking for here, but to make my answer totally general I'll say this:
I think that a "long-tail keyword" is one that reads more like a sentence than a phrase. For example, if I'm searching for how to change a tire on my ford focus I could type in
"changing tire ford focus"
or
"how to fix a flat tire on a ford focus"
...The first might be short-tail in this scenario whereas the second would be longer. The second won't get as many searches, sure. But I might find that this drives in an extra click or two and all I had to do was sneak this sentence into my article. E.G. "A lot of people ask me how to fix a flat tire on a Ford Focus." or something...
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
-
Moz keyword rank checker
The Moz Keyword Ranker does not seem to work - it keeps buffering when I add a keyword, Anyone see the same thing?
Keyword Research | | SmartSimple0 -
How to use long-tail keywords in my blog posts?
I'm using wordpress for my blog and yoast plugin for seo. recently i read a tutorial about "long-tail keyword" usage. but i get confused when i want to use them in my blog posts. take this long-tail keyword: best gaming mouse and keyboard for ps4 Imaging i want to use this as my primary keyword(focus keyword) in my blog post. how should i use it in post title and other parts of my article? -should i use it in the exact same order in my title or post?
Keyword Research | | jessica45
-how to use it in yoast keyphrase input? should i use exact match of the focus keyphrase in the input? as you know Google is capable of recognizing the separate words from longer search terms, even if the words are not in the exact same order as the query. I searched many days but unfortunately i couldn't find anything about how to use keyword or long-tail keyword inside the article step by step.0 -
Keyword Planner - search volume for keywords seems to be off. Anyone else experiencing this problem?
Using Keyword planner, I am seeing search volume results which to me look somewhat odd. Anyone else experiencing this? How is this different to the keyword tool used before?
Keyword Research | | seo12120 -
Best Keyword Tool
WE are a small Internet marketing agency and of need of a new keyword tool. We were using Market Sumeria but they lost access to Google. What would you recommend? I'm not looking for a free service but a good service under $100 per month.
Keyword Research | | Doug_Hay0 -
Why will my site not rank for this keyword?
My site http://www.electric-heatingcompany.co.uk/ performs quite well for most of my keywords and gets ok traffic. But for "electric radiators" it just isn't ranking? I was thinking about redoing the landing page for it? Can anyone offer some insight as to what else I could do? Here is the current electric radiators page http://www.electric-heatingcompany.co.uk/index.php/electric-radiators-2/ Thanks, Laura
Keyword Research | | lauratagdigital0 -
Using city location in keywords?
Hi all, new to SEO MOZ and SEO in general. I'm trying to do some keyword research to choose keywords and keyphrases for on page SEO as well as an Adwords campaign for a real estate agency that focuses on luxury high rise condos and homes in the Dallas area. My question is, when choosing keywords do you need to include your location in the key phrase? For instance luxury real estate or dallas luxury real estate? Any input would be appreciated! Thanks!
Keyword Research | | strategit0 -
Are keywords rankings a zero sum game for our site?
We’ve made pages with resources for our customers. These pages have been well received and gotten us some good traffic. But these pages only target our main keywords tangentially. If we continue to build up pages like this -- that give us traffic from our customers, but don’t directly target our main keywords -- will our target keywords -- and the pages that focus on those keywords -- suffer? Is it a zero sum game for our web site? Does increasing rankings and pages for certain keywords mean that other keywords / pages decrease as a result?
Keyword Research | | boxcarpress0 -
Google Keyword Estimator
Hello Does the Google traffic estimator include the impact of instant? For example, if I type the phrase "London restaurant", instant may provide a list of search results for the phrase "London restaurant guide" prior to me confirming whether or not I just want to search using the phrase "London restaurant". Is this registered in any way as a search for the phrase "London restaurant guide" (i.e. does Instant impact upon the search volumes presented in the Google traffic estimator)? In addition, is there any up to date assessment on how reliable the revised traffic estimator is? The tool currently suggests that for a well known brand we are working for does not have any search volume (over a whole year) for the brand keyphrase when used in isolation (there is traffic for various combinations of the brand and a generic term). However, as one would expect, our analytics data is showing that there are in excess of 1 million annual visitors that use the brand keyphrase in isolation to access the website via natural search and nearly 1.5 million via PPC. Is anyone else getting these problems? Thanks in advance for any assistance. Rgds Neil
Keyword Research | | mccormackmorrison1