Long-tail keywords usually have more clearly defined intent. If someone is searching for 'dog,' you don't know if they want a list of dog breeds, information about dog food, a place to buy a dog collar or just a site with cute photos of dogs. On top of that strong competition, singular keywords can be infuriatingly vague. For example, you may want your boutique clothing store to rank for 'clothes,' but it's going to be tough to rank above websites like Amazon, H&M, and Nordstrom. However, they usually have extremely tough competition. Targeting and ranking for singular keywords might appear to be your ultimate goal as they often have a temptingly high search volume, meaning, more people are searching for them.

Keywords can be broad and far-reaching (these are usually called 'head keywords' or “seed keywords”), or they can be a more specific combination of several terms - these are often called 'long-tail keywords.' You can learn more about understanding and listening to your customers with the Moz Keyword Research Certification. You can do this by talking to your customers, frequenting forums and community groups, and doing your own keyword research with a tool like Keyword Explorer. To create content that ranks well organically and drives visitors to your site, you need to understand the needs of those visitors - the language they use and the type of content they seek. Keywords are as much about your audience as they are about your content because you might describe what you offer in a slightly different way than how your audience actually searches for it. If you own a golf shop, for example, you might want to rank for 'new clubs' - but if you're not careful, you might end up attracting traffic that's interested in finding a new place to dance after dark. Your goal in ranking on search engines is to drive organic traffic to your site from the SERPs, and the keywords you choose to target (meaning, among other things, the ones you choose to include in your content) will determine what kind of traffic you get. Keywords are important because they are the linchpin between what people are searching for and the content you are providing to fill that need.

Check site keywords