Just wondering if the longtail keyword I target will give me good results from the short tail keywords contained within. For example if I check a keyword tool and find that 'Clipper Canoes' has 30,000 monthly searches, 'Used Clipper Canoes' has 10,000 monthly searches and 'Buy Used Clipper Canoes' has 3,000 monthly searches. If I target the keyword 'Buy Used Clipper Canoes' in my title, posts, anchor text in links etc. then I should get good search engine results for that longtail keyword. But what if someone searches for 'Used Clipper Canoes' or just 'Clipper Canoes'? Will my search engine ranking for those terms be the same as if I had just targeted those specific keywords in my title/posts/link anchor text?
I don't think that when you focus on the longtail keyword, you will have the same results are when you would have focused on the short tail. Because it is not the same thing. If your site is selling clipper canoes and you have categories as used clipper canoes and new clipper canoes and yellow clipper canoes, etc. And you would focus on all these longtail keywords, you will most likely get a good ranking under 'clipper canoes'. The search 'clipper canoes' means: all kinds of clipper canoes. When focusing on 'used clipper canoes' google understands that you sell only second hand ones and this is not very important under an generic search for clipper canoes. When choosing your keywords, you will have to find out what is most relevant for you. I understand that you are trying to get traffic to your site, but more important is targeted traffic. There is not much point in getting visitors that are not interested in used clipper canoes, because you won't sell to them. This answer is not only logic, I do have some proof too. I have been optimizing for 'charcoal portraits from photo' for a while now. It works pretty well and I got good rankings. However, the number of searches is very small. And I would also like to rank well under 'charcoal portraits'. But not to be found in the first 500.....
long tail keywords are exact phrases that are used when short tail keywords didn't give proper results or with lack of information
I use long tail keywords and I've been ranking well for them on Google's first page. I haven't noticed that I've been ranking for the shorter keywords yet although a training video I watched said that over time, you may be able to rank for the shorter keywords with your long tail.