As a business owner or manager in today’s marketplace, you have probably heard about keyword optimization. But what does that mean? Because we are unable to read the minds of the millions of internet users in the word, keyword research plays a huge role in how your company can be competitive in a sea of search results. Keyword results can be broken down into three basic categories, and here they are.

Short tail keywords.

Short tail keywords is a search that consists of only one or two keywords. This is easily the largest category for keywords since most people choose to enter vague one to two word searches. Because of this, it is extremely difficult and expensive to rise to the top of these results. Many large corporations spend lots of resources and money to dominate these common searches. If you are a smaller company it may not be beneficial to venture into this realm unless you specialize in an area that may be included in a single word inquiry. Even then, it would be more practical to optimize your searches towards more specific searches. For example if you are a company that sells collector baseball cards, you’d have more luck with “baseball cards” than “baseball” alone. 

Middle tail keywords

Middle tail keywords consist of 3 or 4 words and are more specific but have a lower search volume than short tail keywords. To continue the example from the last point, instead of using “baseball cards” a middle tail would be more like “resale collector baseball cards”. Although this new phrase will be searched less than the more simple two word search, it is more focused and thus can more likely bring customers straight to you. 

Long tail keywords

As you may have already guessed, these searches consist of 4 keywords or more and are quite specific. This may mean the person is searching a very specific blog post or something they have read or seen before. Although these are very low volume searches, they lead to very specific results. If you are able to identify some of these more specific inquiries that might lead people to your website or business, you can optimize the efficiency of your keywords. 

Now knowing about these three categories is all well and good, but if you have no idea what potential customers are searching for, then there is no point. This is where keyword research comes in. One way to get a clue on what your keywords should be focusing on is by evaluating your reviews. ReviewPush is able to track common phrases and words in your reviews and sort them based on if they were positive or negative. By analyzing the experience of your past and current customers, you can refine your keywords. By utilizing these tools and research you can make your business climb to the top of the search results.

Lee McNiel