When it comes to keywords, it is hard to know what terms to pick when you are deciding what content to optimize. The words that have a higher monthly volume are often harder to rank for, but why bother optimizing your website if there is a low monthly volume? Part of how you can make these decisions is knowing the difference between long and short-tail keywords.

Here are the basic differences between the keyword types.

Long-Tail

• Targeted
• Often answers a question
• Low Volume
• Low Competition

Short-Tail

Typically, short-tail keywords will be tough to rank for if you are a small or even large business. Examples of these broad keywords would be ‘steak houses’ or ‘accounting services.’ You will most likely need to take out an ad to come up high on page one for these keywords. Another way you could rank for these types of keywords is if you add a local modifier. Instead of just ‘steak houses,’ you might rank for ‘steak houses near me’ or ‘steak houses Columbus, Ohio.’

Long-Tail

Long-tail keywords are often answers to questions such as, ‘What is the best brush for a Goldendoodle?” or “How you do tile a floor?” These are questions that usually don’t have a high search volume, but if you have a good or unique answer to a question, write an answer! Answer questions that could help you find the right customers by helping them. Researching some long-tail keywords for your industry can also help you find great FAQ’s to put on your website that you may not have thought of. Placing those types of Q & A on your website is good for SEO, but you could also help your customers get their questions answered.

At Woodchuck Arts, we are using SEMRush for SEO and it has many keyword research options that allow us to offer our clients great data for a great price! Contact if you are interested in getting some keyword research for your business.:)