Keyword Selection - Long Tail or not long tail keyword

[alexgray]

Hi Friends,

We have a keyword "plus size clothing" but we used this as "plus size clothing 2012" to Cover the both keywords "Plus size clothing" and "Plus size clothing 2012"

My question is, are we still focusing on "plus size clothing"  when use "plus size clothing 2012" instead of the main keyword.?

What strategy do yo suggest that when to use long tail and when to not.

(when I talk to use a long tail than it means use it prominently on the page as main keyword should be used.)

[SaforwebDesign]

Hi alexgray

Long tail keywords are very useful. Usually, they often rank better than short keywords, and are a good option to start ranking.

2021 doesn´t seem an useful keyword, because Google rank firstly recently creation. So it isn't necessary that keyword. I'll use a city name better.

To avoid duplicate content, you must create new content for each new keyphrase, or indicate with canonical wich one is the most important landing.

I hope it can help you.

[AlanMosley]

The short answer is yes, you are optimizing for both, but as Safor suggests, 2012 is not the best keyword, i would do as safor suggests and use city name instead

[alexgray]

@Safor web Design You are right that long tail keywords are often rank better than the short one and good option to start ranking.

But in which situation we should go for main keyword (short one) instead of long tail, because long tail keywords are easy to optimize but not as fruitful as short one.

What you say?

@Alan yes 2012 is not seem good with this keywords but used with many other keywords, I used 2012 here for example.

(I repeat my question In Economics language )

Is there any Opportunity cost between the Long tail and Short keywords?

[SaforwebDesign]

Short keyphrases are more difficult to rank because a lot of bussiness are ranking with them: Ej: "Rent Car" is more difficult to rank than "Rent Car NY" because at the 2º option, you compete "only" at NY City, but at 1º option, you compete with every city, town...

So, if you choose long tail terms, you can get firsts ranking positions easily, increase the traffic to your site, and maybe in few months, if you increase your PR/AR... you can compete for short keyphrases with big sites for shorters keyphrases.

P.D: Sorry about my english is a little rusty

[anthonytjm]

+1 what safor web design said. When using a long tail keyword, you covering a multitude of short keyword phrases that you could eventually end up ranking well for.

Long tail keyword phrase Ex: Plus size clothing New York City

Shorter keyword phrase ex: Plus size clothing, plus size clothing New York, Clothing New York, City Clothing, Plus size city clothing, plus clothing, size clothing, clothing

Obviously, some of the short keyword phrases may not have much ranking power like size clothing, but nevertheless, look at all the possibilities you can have for ranking off just one long tail keyword phrase?

I think its win win situation.

[katemorris]

Don't create a page per key term please. Only create pages per intention. In your case, does the page you want to rank [plus sized clothing "xxxx"] match the intent of the searcher for that term? And is the same page as relevant for [plus sized clothing]. Are you the best answer for both terms? Is that page the best answer for both terms?

I don't want to sound negative but I highly doubt that. If you sell plus sized clothing on the national level, your homepage is probably the best page. If you are going for new styles in 2012, that should be a different page with just those styles. If you are a store or collection of stores in Boston, then [Boston plus sized clothing] is more your term.

Now after all of that, do know that typically using a broader term in addition to some modifiers is perfectly fine if it makes sense for the page. Don't take that too far, don't key word stuff your title tags or content. Know your keywords, use them, but don't abuse them. Talk to people, don't market to them.