Recently I managed to appear no.4 in a major keyword which I had targetted for many years only to find out that this keyword was not as popular as it once was. Are users searching differently when compared to a couple of years ago? my only conclusion has been yes and that people are not performing generalised searches but specific keyword searches as the average net users knowledge of search engines has increased. The now know that searching for more detailed phrases will bring them the exact results that they want instead of generalised keywords like recipes, lyrics, cheats etc... Time to get back to the drawing board and target those now...is that the best approach? thanks
2 to 3 words per keywords are best and make it more specific because more specific will give your more targeted visitors.
I think I know what you mean. Lyrics for example. I remember I used to search for stuff like "metallica lyrics" while now I find myself usually searching for a phrase from the chorus of a song. People change, search engines change, just gotta go with the flow
You can try google analaytics for checking what keywords people are using for your site. Then you can optimize on it.
Yea thats exactly what I mean. People are understanding search engines better now and understand that searching for e.g. ' Grand Theft Auto 4 All Weapons Cheats' will return results which ARE NOW much more accurate than in the past. Where as in the past many people searched for 'Cheats' As for the comments with simply ' the smaller the better' I think your now wrong. I have proof in my sector (cheats) that the market has changed, users who once searched for short phrases are now more commonly searching for more specific longer phrases. Statistically you will be correct for an individual term that 'smaller is better' but collectively I believe the longer terms searched for outwiegh the single smaller terms related to the market.
long tail keywords means using long phrase such as "sony camera <model no> used in uk" instead of using just cameras etc. Use keywords in such phrases instead of just using single word keywords which are highly competitive. Also long tail keywords is today's trend. Small keywords are also very competitive so getting rank for them is tough than for specific long tail keywords.
regular internet surfers dont think as we do... we think: "wedding dress" regular surfer searches "pink wedding dress store in west london..." etc etc so, i believe that we have to trace small keywords (2-3 words) but also the expressions that regular surfers (not webmasters) want to get in those searches...
Fantastic views and enjoyed reading them. My vote goes to use of specific keywords irrespective of long tail or short tail keywords, since I believe keyword framing mostly depends on the nature of products and services and sometimes region specific too.