Long, Medium, and Short Tail Keywords
Long, medium, and short tail keywords are used to describe the length of each keyword phrase. One
or two words in a keyword phrase is considered to be short tail keywords. i.e.
furniture store. Three to four words are considered to be medium tail
keywords. i.e. New York furniture store. Five or more words are considered to be long tail keywords.
Active Versus Passive
When should you use active keywords instead of passives? It has everything to do with the competition of each keyword phrase. I am going to break down the keyword phrases into rough categorization ranging from ultra low to ultra high competition. Since determining the keyword competition accurately is much more difficult than what most people think it is, we'll need to use a general rule of thumb. Trust me! It is much more involved than simply running a report using Market Samurai or getting the search volume from Google search. To determine the correct competition, you'll need to spend at least 30 minutes comparing various metrics for each keyword phrase and its competitors.
Ultra Low Competition:
These are highly easy to rank keywords. The keywords tend to be long tail or include a town name from a small market. You can often rank these keywords simply by optimizing on-page properly without any backlinks. Please be aware that not all long tail keywords will fall into this category automatically. If the keywords are from highly competitive field such as law or real estate, the keywords will often require backlinks. We recommend you use passive status for these keywords.
Example Keyword Phrase:
best custom sofa pricing in Hollywood City
What is the best way to buy a used Sealy bed?
Cheapest furniture store in Pomona city
Low Competition:
These are relatively easy to rank keywords. Although you can rank most of them by using proper on-page optimization only, we recommend using links to solidify the ranking position. They also generally tend to be long tail keywords. We recommend you use passive status for these keywords.
Example Keyword Phrase:
sofa store in Hollywood City
cheap Sealy bed store
best furniture price in Pomona
Medium Competition:
These
keywords take some time to rank. It can take about a month to 4 months to see a significant progress. Depending on the market size, using proper on-page optimization only may or may not rank your site. Using an active keyword is recommended. These keywords generally tend to be medium
tail keywords.
Example Keyword Phrase:
New York SEO training
furniture shop Dallas
plumber Orange County
High Competition:
These
keywords can take a long time to rank. It can take about a month to 6 months
to see some progress. Using
proper on-page optimization only to rank is not recommended. If your budget allows, using multiple
active keywords to target the same keyword is recommended. These keywords generally tend to be short
tail keywords. Depending on the market, medium to long tail keywords may fit into this category.
Example Keyword Phrase:
London web design
hotel SEO
Los Angeles cosmetic surgeon
Ultra High Competition:
These
keywords are considered to be unrankable unless your site has super site authority such as expedia.com. You may never see any rank improvement despite how hard you try. It is amazing to see how some people believe you can rank them if you wait long enough. These people clearly do not understand how SEO works. SEO is all about how well your page is optimized against your COMPETITION. I would not waste time going after these keywords period. These keywords generally tend to be short
tail keywords.
Example Keyword Phrase:
furniture
search engine optimization
travel
web design
Local Listings/Google Plus
If your keyword is promoting a local business, we highly recommend you add a business citation to our system in addition to submitting to business directories. Whatever edge you can gain by having Google see NAP name, address, phone in various places is a good thing. Be sure to match the information you submitted to Google plus exactly. If you have used 1800 Century Park Ave., add it as you see it. Do not use 1800 Century Park Avenue.
Examples:
Case 1: Ultra Low to Low Competition
Note: If you have proper on-page SEO done, one passive should be fine.
Keyword passive, sofa store in Hollywood City
thematic keyword 1: furniture store
thematic keyword 2: furniture company
thematic keyword 3: sofa store
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/about.htm
Case 2: Medium Competition
Note: Please add 3 additional passives to support the
main keyword by creating anchor tag clout. Notice how we are using
multiple variants for the thematic keywords. We recommend you leave the keyword as active status for at least 4 months. Keep switching from active to passive is not recommended during the initial 4 months period.
Keyword active, furniture store Dallas
thematic keyword 1: furniture store
thematic keyword 2: furniture company
thematic keyword 3: custom furniture
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/about.htm
Keyword passive 1, Dallas furniture store
thematic keyword 1: furniture stores
thematic keyword 2: furniture shop
thematic keyword 3: sofa showroom
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/about.htm
Keyword passive 2, best furniture store in Dallas
thematic keyword 1: furniture expert
thematic keyword 2: custom furniture company
thematic keyword 3: bedroom set
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/contact.htm
Keyword passive 3, best furniture pricing in Dallas
thematic keyword 1: custom furniture
thematic keyword 2: furniture design
thematic keyword 3: livingroom furniture
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/shop.htm
Case 3: High Competition
Note:
Please add 2 additional actives and 6 additional passives to support the main keyword by
creating anchor tag clout. Notice how we are concentrating on the same URLs to provide extra link juice. You should leave the keywords as actives for a long time.
Keyword active 1, London furniture
thematic keyword 1: furniture
thematic keyword 2: furniture company
thematic keyword 3: custom furniture
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/about.htm
Keyword active 2, London furniture
thematic keyword 1: furniture store
thematic keyword 2: furniture design
thematic keyword 3: custom furniture design
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/about.htm
Keyword active 3, furniture London
thematic keyword 1: furniture expert
thematic keyword 2: furniture consulting
thematic keyword 3: custom furniture store
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/about.htm
Keyword passive 1, London furniture store
thematic keyword 1: furniture stores
thematic keyword 2: furniture shop
thematic keyword 3: sofa showroom
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/about.htm
Keyword passive 2, best furniture store in London
thematic keyword 1: furniture expert
thematic keyword 2: custom furniture company
thematic keyword 3: bedroom set
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/about.htm
Keyword passive 3, best furniture pricing in London
thematic keyword 1: custom furniture
thematic keyword 2: furniture design
thematic keyword 3: livingroom furniture
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/about.htm
Keyword passive 4, London furniture showroom
thematic keyword 1: furniture shopping
thematic keyword 2: furniture shopper
thematic keyword 3: custom sofa showroom
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/about.htm
Keyword passive 5, affordable furniture in London
thematic keyword 1: best furniture expert
thematic keyword 2: custom furniture designer
thematic keyword 3: cheap bedroom set
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/about.htm
Keyword passive 6, best furniture showroom in London
thematic keyword 1: custom sofa furniture
thematic keyword 2: furniture design company
thematic keyword 3: livingroom furniture design
URL1: http://www.yourstore.com/
URL2: http://www.yourstore.com/about.htm
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