No Love From Google's Spiders
Image by HubSpot via Flickr

The latest web site traffic info with regard to search engine optimisation seems to suggest that Google now gives less credence to longtail keywords. It’s not clear what that means though. The users of its search engine will still type in longer search terms and phrases. It seems unlikely that Google will intentionally shoot itself in the foot over that.

But that is what they are reported to have said and it’s too early to tell if there is any real data to back it up. If you’re using tactics then it maybe best to focus more on two and three word phrases.

However it would probably still be a good idea for search engine optimisation purposes to include a longtail keyword here and there. It’s generally not best to use them more than a few times in your articles anyway so you wouldn’t really lose anything by including a few. Even if it’s only read as text it can’t hurt and if not then it will surely help to increase your web site traffic.

You might find it effective to use a short and one longtail keyword in your headline if you can. That way you’ll still pick up web site traffic from the short one. Then use them in the article body as well. Longtail keywords really only need to be used at about 1% – 2% so even in a 400 – 500 word article 4 – 5 times would be more than enough though maybe playing it safe with  2 – 3 times would be better.

For the shorter keywords it’s recommended to use a 6% ratio as your maximum. You can go up to 7% but then you have to be really careful not to over do and get labelled as a spammer. If everything you write has a keyword density of 4% – 6% you’ll be doing very nicely with your .

Remember that you don’t have to stick to one keyword. You can use several. So that means you could have a keyword density of 4% – 5% on a few high traffic low competition keywords. But it’s important to also remember that duplicate words within your keywords will also be flagged and could cause you problems if they show up too often.

For instance if your search engine optimisation campaign targets two separate keywords like online marketing and internet marketing the spiders will also read marketing on its own. That means it’ll be showing up at around 8% – 10% and that’s too much. Once you reach 10% or above for any keyword instance you can get flagged for spam, also known as keyword stuffing. So it’s best to be careful with the words you use and try to separate similar ones to use in different articles.

Finally just because Google may have moved away from longtail keywords doesn’t mean other search engines have as well. They all use different algorithms. Although Google is the probably your biggest source it’s not the only source. Sometimes people tend to forget that. There’s still Yahoo and Bing to name but two, plus many more that will likely still list you for longtails. This may seem like a catch 22 but as long as you focus your on quality content with good, profitable and relevant keywords you’ll always do ok and continue to build your in a search engine friendly way.

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