(Theoretical example): Let’s say I do some good SEO and keyword improvements on a long-tail keyword phrase like Long Sleeve Men’s Shirts and get a search engine ranking boost for that phrase. Will that also give a ranking boost to a shorter KW phrase within it — in this case, Men’s Shirts? I know many of us have opinions on this, but does anyone know of any credible research on the effect that the rising rank of long-tail keywords has on shorter keywords contained within the longer phrase, or at least on the same page as the longer KW phrase?
Hey Jim, Short answer is yes. Here's why...Google doesn't rank "keywords" it ranks "entities and attributes". This is why when you look into your GSC data you'll never see a page ranking for random words or a string of random words. Even when they are used many times throughout the article. What you will see, is that you're ranking for an entity and variations of the entity with attributes attached. In your example Long Sleeve Men's Shirts, there are attributes and an entity. Shirts being the entity and Long Sleeve and Men's being attributes. Just like cheap, comfortable, large, red, blue, loose fitting are all attributes that can be attached to the entity Shirts. Many make the mistake of over optimizing a query by not using attributes with it. Focusing on longtail combinations can allow your page to rank for hundreds if not thousands of additional queries. For example lets say your topic is Cheap Men's Shirts and your main query. I would interchange these attributes to the entity while staying on-topic, discount, less expensive, affordable, low priced, etc. All synonyms or LSI words for Cheap. Attributes are also what gives a query it's search intent, ex. Buy, How to, Near Me 99.9% of people don't understand what Great Content is when they reference it. It's all about the Snytax, Entities and Attributes. Not whether it has correct grammar/punctuation and made great points/observations in paragragh 2 and 4, although that would help UX. This link goes into further detail about how Google's Knowledge Graph is built using Entities to make Search smarter. Great SERP's are achieved through Entities/attributes/syntax not keywords. Hope this makes sense.
As a Blogger, I can tell you that the ranking of long-tail keywords often contributes to the ranking of the shorter keywords within them. When your website ranks well for a long-tail keyword, search engines start associating your site with those terms, and this association can boost the ranking of shorter keywords within that phrase. However, competition, relevance, and the quality of your content also play vital roles in how these shorter keywords rank. Therefore, even if you're successful with long-tail keywords, it's still essential to focus on providing value with high-quality, relevant content.