Keywords Research - Whether to go for Short Tail or Long Tail Keywords?

Keyword Research is considered to be initial stage of Optimization process; it involves research of probable keywords used to make a search for any particular product or services.  Let us first of all decide what the definition of word “Keyword” is.  Keyword can be a single word, group of words or a phrase used by users to make a search in various search Engine to satisfy their requirements.  Keywords can be further divided into two phase, Short tail keywords and Long Tail keywords.

Short Tail keywords are such which involves a combination of two or at a time only one word involved to make a search. Normally such keywords are believed to be highly competitive and even numbers of search volume for such keywords are too high. Long Tail keywords are such which involves combination of three or more words used to make a Search. Such keywords are not that competitive compared to Short tail keywords, Yes it is believed that the volume of such keywords used to make search is relatively low but they are considered to be more specific in nature and such keywords can easily be converted into sale. Let us check the example of the same:

1) An Example of a Short Tail Keywords: Web Development, Web Design, Software Development, SEO – All these keywords are considered to be highly competitive similarly search volumes for such keywords are too high. But it is not wise to go for such keywords in the initial stage as it involves plenty of exercise and resource to be used to join the race and even then it involves considerable time to at least appear in first page.

2) Let check an example of Long Tail Keywords: Web development India, Web development company India, Web design company India, Offshore software development India, SEO Company India. – All this keywords can be considered to be less competitive than short tail keywords. Normally limited numbers of searches are recorded for such keywords but they are more specific in nature as the visitors are clear what they are looking for. Such as the those who search with the term Web development may have made search with an intention to learn what it meant by the term web development or either he wants to outsource his web development requirement to only USA based Vendor then even though we rank for those keyword but all will be in vain as we are definitely going to receive traffic from it but it will not lead to conversion of business. This will increase the bounce rate of the website. Apart from that if anyone is making a search with the keyword web Development India then he is specific in his needs, he wants to hire web development resources from India. In such situation those visits can be easily converted into sale as he finds what he requires.

But here again I want to admit that each types of business is different from other, so is the wants. So might be a situation while such leads aroused from short tail keywords can be very well converted into sale through Quality of Service or Cost factors.