Which Keywords – Long OR Short?

In the previous post, I had a short introduction on short tail and long tail keywords. I differentiated the two kinds. Now the big question is this: which kind is better to use for your blog?

I have to be honest with you – there is no clear cut answer to this question. It would be so easy to just pick one and justify my choice. However, the fact of the matter is that both kinds of keywords have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Let’s look at short tail keywords first. They are the more general keywords, remember? The biggest advantage when using short tail keywords is that they are the words most used by people when conducting searches on Google and other search engines. This means that the volume of traffic generated by short tail keywords is immense! Now, all would have been well and good except for the fact that the competition when it comes to short tail keywords is just as intense. This means that you might not be able to get that much traffic using these keywords.

Now on to long tail keywords. These are the more specific keywords. The biggest advantage is that the competition is not so tough. Not many people focus on long tail keywords, that’s why. This means that you can actually get higher rankings for these keywords and that can translate to more traffic. However, the disadvantage is that you might not get that much traffic anyway because not too many people use long tail keywords to do their searches.

The bottom line? I think that it would be a good idea to use a good mix of long tail and short tail keywords. Also remember that you are not supposed to be focusing on keywords alone anyway.

Photo courtesy of mushon

By Sparky in Blogs, Google, Google Rank, Keywords

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