Editorial Staff
Search result pages are crowded nowadays with everyone trying to be on the first spot.
This means that if your target keyword is too generic, you’ll going to enter a competition game with the other webmasters.
This is why, we’re going to cover an important topic in this module: long tail keyword and short tail keyword, and how you’re going to use them in entering the SERP competition.
Short Tail Keyword
First, let’s get to know what is short tail keyword is.
Short tail keywords are generic and short length keywords that target a broad audience.
It also known as seed keyword.
They’re typically one or two words long.
Here’s some of the example of short tail keyword:
- dog food
- pet
- tomatoes
- food recipe
Since it consist of short length keyword, it can trigger broader audience that are searching for a term.
For example, if you using short tail keyword “pet”, it means that you’re targeting a broad audience that are searching for pet related topic.
It can trigger the result for people that are searching for “pet food”, “pet types”, “pet friendly” and etc.
Long Tail Keyword
In the other hand, long tail keywords are more specific and consist longer words that target narrow audience.
They’re typically more than three words length.
Here’s some of the example of long tail keyword:
- dog food that can boost immunity
- safest pet for newbie
- tomato benefits for skin
- spaghettis carbonara recipe at home
Since it consist of lengthier words, it will trigger a narrower audience that are searching of more specific topic.
Short Tail Keyword vs Long Tail Keyword
You might think that it is better to use keyword that target as much audience as we can, in this case, short tail keyword.
Hold on for a second. Try to think about how many other websites like yours that are targeting this generic “pet” keyword?
There could be thousands or millions of them!
And how likely you can compete against them?
With that to say, short tail keywords will get you lots of traffic and in the same time though competition. Meanwhile, long tail keyword will get you narrower traffic but lower competition.
When to Use Short Tail Keyword? and When to Use Long Tail Keyword?
While short tail keyword and long tail keyword has equal pros and cons in our perspective, you should be able to decide when to choose either of them or even combine both of them.
Here are some guidelines to help you decide which one to use:
1. Determine Your Site Goals
The main goal of a website are traffic and conversions. However, don’t confuse that they are the same!
A high traffic doesn’t mean you’ll get a high conversions. For example, you might received a lot of traffic, but most of them are not relevant to the products your site is selling. And hence, no conversion!
So, if you’re running a blog content site with no products selling, a short tail keyword will suit your site better. This is because, the main income sources of blog content sites are coming from advertisement or sponsored link. Hence, the more traffic you have, the more valuable your site is.
In the other hand, if you’re running an online store or an online course, long tail keyword will be better since long tail keyword will generate you more relevant traffic that are most likely searching for that specific term.
2. Consider Your Site Authority
When your site is generally new with low authority in the SERP, you won’t able to compete on short tail keyword.
Chance is, your site will be outranked by those giant authority sites.
Hence, you should first aim long tail keyword when your sites still new to gain some narrow traffic. Only then, when your site start to build some authority, you can go for broader keywords.
Combining Short Tail Keyword and Long Tail Keyword
It is not necessarily that you need to choose either one of them.
In fact, you can use both short tail and long tail keyword as part of your SEO strategy.
You will learn this further on the next module!
