Keyword research is one of the most important and rewarding activity Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You will get tons of sources on the internet on keyword research, but here, I will try to decode the concept in the simplest forms. When a user types a query in Google search or Bing search or any other search engine, the search engine records all those queries and store them in their databases. The search engine then analyses these queries and based on their internal search algorithms and several other technologies, the search engine redefines and refines their search results. These queries are called keywords. Some users type short queries whereas some users type long queries.
What are Long tail keywords in SEO?
If a user is searching for PCOD, then she may type a plethora of queries. The queries or keywords can be something like these:
PCOD
PCOD symptoms
What is PCOD
Can PCOD cause infertility
What are the side effects of PCOD?
2003 consensus on diagnostic criteria and long term health risk related to PCOD
There are some short queries and some relatively long queries. It has been seen that 30% of the searches are short keywords. These keywords are common and popular. The remaining 70% are long tail keywords. The last example is a true example of long tail keywords. Such searches are rare but unique. When assessed in totality, these searches comprise the majority of global demand for information through internet searches.
Use Long Tail Keywords Smartly And Not Blindly
Keyword research is important because it helps you understand what are the demands of the target customers. Based on the research findings, marketers can adjust their website content so that their pages appear in the first page of search engine result or rank higher than before. The biggest mistake, an outreach expert or growler hacker makes, is chasing blindly after long tail keywords without knowing the underlying technology.
The main of keyword research is to know your target readers, customers, etc. It is like being a defective and keeping track of what user wants and searches. Based on your research, you have to understand your user’s intent also helps you study how the demand increases or decreases with respect to seasons, occasions, climate, locations, etc. But now there is a rot practice where SEO consultants try to incorporate long tail keyword phrases in the blog or in the website. While this may be helpful initially, but in the long run, it won’t be beneficial. This is because Google has re-written the SEO algorithms in 2013, with Hummingbird.
Although Google has never released any official documentation of hummingbird, but it has changed the way we used to perceive Search Engine Optimization.
