In the past, we’ve told you all about short-tail and long-tail keywords. But what about those medium-length keywords that fall in between the two?
This blog post will explain what medium-tail keywords are and how they can fit in with your overall content marketing strategy.
What is a medium-tail keyword?
Also referred to as ‘chunky keywords’, medium-tail keywords are moderately competitive key terms consisting of two to three words, for example, ‘leisure centres manchester’.
Medium-tail keywords are great because they are more specific than short-tail keywords, meaning they’re less competitive… but they still have more search volume than long-tail keywords.
Google is pretty hot when it comes to figuring out what users are searching for online, to the point where it now groups different long-tail keywords together as the same thing. This is because it understands the intent of the search; no matter how you word your long-tail query, Google will work out what you mean and show you similar, or the same, search results.
How to find medium-tail keywords
Keyword research is made a lot easier if you use the right tools. A while back, we wrote a blog post on some of the best free keyword research tools out there. But as a guide, here’s a list of our favourites for finding medium-tail keywords:
- Google Keyword Planner (FREE) – useful for seeing not only the search volume of a term, but also for finding out how competitive it is.
- Keywords Everywhere (FREE) – used in conjunction with other tools, Keywords Everywhere is really handy if you want to know the search volume of a term, and can even be used on e-commerce site searches such as Amazon or Etsy.
- Ahrefs (PAID) – this tool gives you detailed reports on a number of important factors, such as ranking keywords on any given page and competitor comparison.
- SEMRush (PAID) – again, this one is good if you want to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing; for example, you can use it to check which of your competitors are ranking for a specific keyword.
How to rank for medium-tail keywords
Medium-tail keywords might be the perfect sweet spot between long-tail and short-tail keywords, but it still takes a lot of work to get pages targeting these terms to rank well. Your content needs to be of a high quality, and you’ll need inbound links if you want search engines to really pay attention to what you’ve created.
Focusing on just one medium-tail keyword will allow you to put all of your time and effort into that one piece of content, rather than spreading yourself across multiple pieces targeting different keywords, as you might with long-tail keywords. This should, in turn, make that single piece of content more effective. Plus, there’s nothing to stop you catching traffic for long-tail keywords in that piece of content anyway; just make sure your main focus is on the medium-tail keyword.
The importance of keyword research
Keyword research is one of the most valuable and high-return aspects of the digital marketing game, making it a very important piece of the puzzle. Ranking for the right keywords can be the difference between users seeing your content or missing it, so it’s important to do substantial research if you want your pages and posts to rank highly.
Researching keyword demand for your industry will help you to learn about your customers and find out which terms to target with SEO, so that you reach the relevant audience for your brand.
When it comes to keyword research, it’s best to leave no stone unturned therefore, as well as medium-tail, you should consider all other types of keywords too.
Need a helping hand when it comes to keyword research? Unsure where to start with that killer content strategy? Don’t worry, we can help you with everything! Give us a call today to get the ball rolling.