Are long tail keywords better than one or two word keywords?

Recently, the Ahref blog did a study on the concentration of long tail keywords in 1.5 million searches done in USA. The results were astonishing. It found that almost 75 percent searches were using a long tail keyword.



You can read the study by Ahref here.

For those who do not know, a long tail keyword is a word having more than two words. For example, 'search engine optimization' is a three word keyword. 'Price of nokia 8 smartphone' is a four word keyword. 'How to raise a puppy at home' is a five or six work keyword, and so on.

According to the study, 22.4% searches were using a four word keyword and 24.3% searches were having a five-word keyword or more in the search query.

So, the question is:

Should we focus on using long tail keywords in content?

A short answer is Yes.
I was always in favor of using long-tail keywords after I ranked my apps through them. But this study by Ahref has solidified the belief even further.
Here is why we should use long tail keywords in content.

Example: How to use a Long Tail Keyword

Let me explain it with the help of an example.
Keyword: Arabic Mehndi designs and Patterns in India
I have taken this keyword because it has contextual info and synonyms.
Here, the long tail keyword is using around six words. This is not even a well-searched keyword and I know that. But if I use it in my text I will be targetting many short-tail keywords including:

- Arabic mehndi design
- Arabic mehndi India
- Indian Mehndi patters
- Indian mehndi designs
- Arabic Patterns of Mehndi

and many more...

Now if I rank on first page of all of these keywords, I will get traffic from all of them. This is true that I might not be able to get the most traffic from the first keyword but traffic from all other ones will suffice that.

The Long-tail keywords include contextual keywords as well as synonyms of the word that users type. Users search using many variations and google understands that. It redirects them to the single page that is properly optimized and has relevant content for that search.

How to find Long-tail keywords using a tool?

A long tail keyword can be found through google keyword planner or by using searches related to your keywords. You should see at the bottom of the search page for keywords. They will be found under the heading 'Searches related to...'

You can also use Keyword tool (keywordtool.io) for searching long tail keywords.

How many times should I use a long-tail keyword in content?

There is no hard and fast rule, but I personally believe a keyword should be used at least 3 times in a 300 word content. This means the concentration should be at least one percent.

Conclusion:

You should now focus on long tail keywords, especially after the recent fred google update. This allows google to learn more about a webpage and it ranks it accordingly.

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