The more specific you get with the keywords you put in your online content, the more focused your customers.

Google and other popular search engines use keywords placed in certain places of your content to identify and understand what you have posted. These places include the headline/title, the subtitles/paragraph headlines, the first 100 words of your content, and the last 100 words.

Your post also will be rewarded its length, whether or not it includes relevant photos or graphics, and the number of times your keywords appear. Too many is bad. Not enough is also bad. But just the right amount can give you a higher ranking on the  Search Engine Results Page for your specific keywords.

Long-Tail vs Short-Tail

One key concept in Search Engine Optimization has to do with how specific your keywords are. As the name implies, short-tail keywords are short, to the point, and don’t include a lot of description. For example, “car repair shops” is a short-tail keyword the owner of an auto garage might use to attract online customers.

Long-tail keywords are longer, more descriptive, and specific. They can include specific details such as location, specialties, and other pertinent information that can narrow down the search for customers. For example, that same garage owner might post “foreign car repair in St. Louis” if he wanted to attract a certain type of customer (“foreign car” owners in need of repair) in a specific geographic area (“St. Louis”).

Target Specific Customers

Long-tail keywords are helpful in attracting a narrower field of customers. Web users who type in car repair shops are likely to get millions, if not billions, or responses from garages all over the world servicing every type of vehicle. But “foreign car repair in St. Louis” will narrow down the results to a specific type of garage within a limited geographic area.

Identify the long-tail keywords that best describe your business and place in the appropriate places within your content and you can instantly get more results from prospective customers looking for exactly what your business offers.