When it comes to On-Page SEO, Keyword research is unquestionably essential. While it is important to do keyword research well before drafting content, the concern “whether to use short-tail keywords or long tail” is quite common.

To let search engines detect the content of your web page, you need to use relevant keywords in various parts of the content such as the title, headings, slug, alt text, and several times within the content.

If you are unsure which keywords (Long vs. Short Tail) can benefit you more, read ahead, and you wouldn’t need to look up to any other resource.

What are short tail keywords?

 

Keywords that are not longer than three words are termed short-tail keywords—for example, Italian cuisine, Oxford University.

What are long-tail keywords?

 

Keywords that are over three words long are known as long-tail keywords—for example, Italian cuisine restaurant near me, Oxford University Admission 2021.
 
Long Tail Vs. Short Tail Keywords

 

Here’s a crystal-clear distinction between short-tail and long-tail keywords:

Nature

 

Short tail keywords are primarily general. Example: Italian food. On the other hand, long-tail keywords as specific. Example: Italian food under $10.
 
With that said, long-tail keywords can determine a user’s search intent. However, the same is uncertain with short-tail keywords.

Cost

 

Short tail keywords are costlier to rank as the demand is high. In comparison, it is inexpensive to rank long-tail keywords due to its low demand.

Conversion

 

The chance of conversion (making money) is high with long-tail keywords, as those are specific to the user’s search intent. The same is the opposite in the case of short-tail keywords.

Volume

 

The search volume for short-tail keywords is high. Therefore ranking for them can lead you to high traffic. However, it is the opposite in the case of long-tail keywords.

Competition

 

Short tail keywords are highly competitive, and thus ranking for them requires high Domain Authority, among other factors.
Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, are easier to rank for even with low Domain Authority.

 

Are long tail keywords better?

 

Long-tail keywords are a game-changer if your website or business is new. By ranking for long-tail keywords, you may get lesser traffic as the search volume is generally low. However, since they are pretty specific, the chances of conversion are high.
 
For websites with high domain authority, it is easier to rank for short-tail keywords. But, even if you drive a lot of traffic, it would be generic, and most of them may return unsatisfied as they may be looking for something specific that your article may not talk about.

For example, if you rank for the keyword “domain” for an article with the cheapest domains for sale, and you rank high for it and drive huge traffic. But if users intend to understand what ‘domain’ means, the search for “domain,” they may return unsatisfied.

So, if you rank for a long-tail keyword like “buy cheap .com domain,” you might get less traffic but a high conversion rate.
 
Endnote

 

Both long tail and short tail keywords have their advantages and disadvantages. Ultimately, you need to decide which one to use, depending upon your objective and domain authority.

 

The rollout of Google’s page experience update was completed today, Google confirmed. However, a week will pass before Google reps say the changes to the Google News app have been completed. On mobile search, this includes updates to the Top Stories carousel.

Announcement

“The page experience prelaunch includes updates to the mobile carousel for Top Stories”, it was stated that the rollout was complete now. Google announced on Twitter that it has begun rolling out changes to its News app.

No major changes occurred in the rankings

As a reminder, you probably didn’t notice substantial ranking changes as a result of this release. According to Google, the update has been rolling out slowly, and the company initially warned websites not to expect drastic changes: “While this update highlights pages with great user experiences, page experience is just one of many factors we consider. As such, sites should generally not expect dramatic changes,” said Google.

Contrast with a core update

Page experience updates do not share the same signal with core updates, such as web vitals. There is no relation between them and no influence between them. Just yesterday, a core update for June 2021 was released. Usually, a Google Search ranking fluctuation is felt more often than a page experience update.

What we should care

Most users have awaited the last update for more than a year. Now it has been rolled out. Those changes will not be as significant as those caused by the June core update, so you should not confuse them with those from this update.

End of August rollout

By the end of August, Google plans to complete the full rollout of this ranking change. This set will include all the critical web vital metrics, including the LCP, CLS, and FID.

With increasing access to the internet, the consumers’ demand for high-speed loading websites is also increasing. Hence, speed is one of the most critical factors for ranking today.

When it comes to speed and user experience, AMP and Core Web Vitals are two terms that are often confused for their benefits.

To know whether you need AMP or Core Web Vitals or both, you need to know what they offer.

What is AMP?

 

Officially announced in October 2015 by Google, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a framework designed to increase the loading speed of web pages on mobile. It does so by pre-loading content or limiting the amount of content to be loaded (depending upon its likeliness to be read by the user.)

AMP has some incredible benefits to offer, and they are as follows:

 

• AMP is designed with the core aim to reduce the time it takes to load pages.
• The bounce rate decreases due to high loading speed and enhanced user experience.
• No need to create an XML sitemap for AMP pages as Google automatically detects them.
• The webpages are accessible from all devices and adjusted to all browsers.
• The website SEO is enhanced as Google automatically optimizes the page with AMP.

 

What is Core Web Vitals?

 

Announced in May 2020, Core Web Vitals are a set of specific factors that determine the overall user experience of a web page. These factors are considered extremely important for Google rankings. Core Web Vitals consist of three specific measurements. 

Below are its three components:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

 

This measures the time that it takes for the largest piece of content to appear on the screen. It can either be an image or a block of text. The better the score, the faster it loads. A slow site can annoy the user and make them switch to a different site. 

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

 

CLS measures visual stability by detecting how stable the layout of the page is. It also involves how elements move around.

First Input Delay (FID)

 

FID refers to the time between a user interacts with a page, and the page takes to respond. It can also be thought of as responsiveness, but it doesn’t include scrolling or zooming.
 
Which is better, AMP or Web Core Vitals?

 

Core Web Vitals are committed to enhancing the overall user experience on the web. Whereas AMP is dedicated to making the loading instant for its users, thereby enhancing the experience.

While AMP cannot guarantee to rank, it can help the page better optimize for the Core Web Vitals. Hence, using AMP will make the job easier for you to score high on the Core Web Vitals.

AMP has its disadvantages, like stripping off user-friendly content. However, it would not disappear completely. In contrast, Code Web Vitals is continuing to be one of the top factors for ranking. It is not a technology that would fade away but instead a metric that would keep you updated with the latest requirements to enhance the user experience.

Since the attention span of people is reducing day by day, one thing is clear. The loading speed plays an essential role in deciding whether your target audience would stick to the webpage or move to other websites. This demand is here to stay.

 

No matter what industry you are from, SEO plays an essential role in getting your brand an organic reach. This is because Google keeps on updating its algorithm, which determines how your site would rank on the search engine.

So, here’s an actionable SEO checklist to rank your website in 2021:

 

1. Get one version indexed

 

For you, the below versions may be the same:
https://yourdomain.com
https://yourdomain.com
https://www.yourdomain.com
https://www.yourdomain.com

But, for Google, they aren’t!

Make sure Google indexes any one version of your website, and whatever query someone puts, it redirects to the primary version of your website. If it’s not, you can redirect it using 301 redirects.
 
2. Shift to HTTPS protocol

 

If you are still using HTTP, you should consider moving to HTTPS because back in 2014, Google announced it as a ranking factor. But why?

HTTPS protects data from leaking or getting hacked, thereby giving people assurance of their security.

 

3. Make it mobile-friendly

 

More than 50% of searches are using mobiles. Therefore, it is important to make sure your website is well-optimized for mobiles. You can check the mobile-friendliness of your website here.

 

4. Speed up!

 

Speed plays a vital role in ranking. Google prioritizes websites that have high speed. But why is it?

Today the attention span of people is almost negligible. If your site doesn’t load faster, people switch to other sites. Make sure your site doesn’t take over 3 seconds to load.

 

5. Delete unwanted pages

 

To increase your traffic on your important pages, it is essential to eliminate unwanted or irrelevant pages.

For example, if you have archive pages or categories, old and irrelevant posts, etc., consider deleting them. You should also remove thin content or that with less word limit.

 

6. Find and fix indexing problems

 

Check your Google index coverage for any indexing problems on your website. Fixing them would enable Google to access those pages. So, make sure there are no broken links.

 

7. Measure your organic traffic

 

Measure your organic traffic using Google Analytics to find out which pages are ranking, the common queries people search for, and how your organic traffic has been over time.

Even if you see a flatter or downward curve, do not get disheartened. Just make sure you work on it based on your demographics and keywords.

 

8. Improve your on-page SEO

 

On-Page SEO is extremely important for any web page to show up in the results. Make sure you include your keyword in the following:

The title
Slug
Alt text 
Within the first 100 words
At least 2-3 times in the body of content

Also, use LSI Keywords and add five internal and five external links to build authority.

 

9. Set up keyword rank tracking

 

You can use SEO Analyzers like SEMrush to determine what keywords you are ranking for. You can also manually check your rankings for any particular keyword. It would enable you to improve your rankings further, based on the report.

 

10. Build your backlinks

 

Backlinks are one of the most important factors in Off-page SEO, which determines your website and page authority. Analyze your Edu backlinks using Ahrefs or any similar SEO tool and find out the influencers in your niche to engage with them. 

 

11. Spy on your competitors

 

To rank high, you must know what your competitors are doing. What is that they are ranking high for? Where are you lacking? How can you improve your content to rank higher than your competitors? Analyze their performance and get inspired. But, you shouldn’t copy the content, only seek inspiration.

 

12. Improve your content

 

You need to analyze the average time a person spends on your web page. Then, to increase the time and ranking, make sure you do a competitor study and make your content ten times better.

For this, make your sentences and paragraphs short, keep the structure neat and add more visual-based content like images and videos.

 

13. Optimize for UX signals

 

UX signals are the behavioral patterns that Google uses to affect your page rankings. It is based upon the user experience of your page, which is determined by the average time spent, bounce rate, and click-through rate.

Optimize your content in a way that people spend more time reading it and switching to other pages of your website, engaging with it and sharing it.

 

14. Have a flat structure

 

Make sure your website has a flat structure and is not deep. The flatter it is, the easier it becomes for Google to crawl it. This means it shouldn’t take over three clicks from any page of your website to get to the home page.

Moreover, pages closer to the home page are considered more important and are at a greater chance of getting crawled and ranked.

 

15. Target featured snippet

 

Being featured in the snippet can get you loads of organic traffic. To increase your chances of getting featured, do the following:

Use a lot of H2 and H3 tags
Add FAQs or short answers for commonly asked questions
Link back to credible sources (High DA)
Keep your site secure (HTTPS) 
Make sure your site is mobile-optimized

 

16. Work on internal linking

 

Internal linking is one of the most underrated SEO factors. Internal links don’t just add authority to your pages but also get you organic traffic on your interlinked pages.

You must focus on adding up to 5 internal links in your content. But, make sure all the added links are relevant to the content (same niche).

This would help you, especially for your pages that are getting high organic reach.

 

17. Use a site audit tool

 

Use an SEO tool like SEObility or SEMrush for auditing your website and finding out the technical aspects that require your attention. The audit report would allow you to make the necessary changes on a timely basis.

So, this was our 17-steps SEO checklist 2021, which you must consider incorporating to make your site stand out. 

 

Backlinks play an inevitable role in Google’s search engine results page (SERP). Backlinks are important because they signal Google that your website has relevant, useful, and shareable content, because of which other websites have linked it. Thus, helping it rank faster and higher. 

But, what does the term “Link Velocity” mean?

Link velocity is the speed at which backlinks are added to your website over some time. So basically, one can measure it by calculating the number of backlinks built over a month. 

So, does high link velocity guarantee high ranking?

NO!

Link velocity focuses upon the number (Quantity) of links built. In contrast, Google focuses more upon the nature (Quality) of links built. So, if you have good quality links or those built using White Hat SEO, then you need not worry even if your link velocity is low.

Your focus should be on building high-quality and relevant links to your content instead of focusing on building more and more links.

But indeed, link velocity should not be overlooked. Having a high link velocity with high-quality links is like the cherry on the cake. 

Now, the real question is, how to build backlinks using White Hat SEO?

When it comes to building links using White Hat SEO, reciprocal links stand as the most commonly used method.

According to Ahrefs, 73.6% of domains have reciprocal links, which means that some of the sites they link to link back to them. Moreover, 43.7% of the top-ranking sites include some reciprocal links.

Reciprocal links allow you to get some websites linking to you while you do the same for them for mutual benefits.

In addition, you can naturally get backlinks built by focusing on producing high-quality content that people would love to share and give you credits by linking your website. For that, you can also reach out to influencers in a similar niche and connect with them.