Long-tail with few searches vs. Generic with many

[Beau_W]

Our business is a contract packager/manufacturer of products sold to very prominent brands who sell through retail. For example, we make the sunscreen under a brand’s name, which you might then find on the shelf in Target or CVS. As I’ve optimized our pages, I’ve attempted to go long-tail, which has been simply to add “…contract packaging” or a variation after the particular product. So, instead of trying to compete in “sunscreen”, which would pit me against big-box distributors and prominent brands and sellers of sunscreen, I’ve optimized for “sunscreen manufacturers.”

“Sunscreen” has 31K – 72K searches, with an 81 Difficulty and 67 Potential. “Sunscreen manufacturers” has a low 13 Difficulty and a decent 54 Potential, but only 51 – 100 searches. Some of my terms have only 0 – 10 searches, but I’ve been thinking that it’s better to compete for fewer but more qualified / buyer-intent searches and have generally lower Difficulty.

Can you please tell me if this is a smart strategy, or if I should instead try to compete in higher-volume terms but much greater Difficulty? Thanks a lot for everyone's help.

[JordanLowry]

Is there anyway you could try to do both and see which one yields greater results? That might be a better approach instead of limiting yourself.

[Beau_W]

Sorry I didn't say Thanks sooner! Yes, that's probably the best idea for now. I'll give that a try, and it's pretty easy with my long tail being essentially the KW + a modifier. Thanks, Jordan.

[JordanLowry]

Your welcome its all good no worries. I hope it works out let me know how it goes.