When trying to rank your website on a search engine, the focus is on a keyword. Without this, it is likely to fail.

Modern search engine calculations (algorithms) focus on topics, not individual keywords. You do not need to use all possible keyword variations on your web pages (eg “cheap travel insurance”, “cheaper travel insurance”, “cheap travel insurance”, etc.).

It is much more important that the content is related to a particular topic (‘cheap travel insurance’, ‘travel’, ‘I need travel insurance’, etc.). Long-tail keywords (typically more than 2 words in the search string) are becoming more common. Why? Well, some might say that Google is not as good a search engine as it seems at first glance. Yes, it has market share but its searches are somewhat sporadic and meaningless in some competitive sectors.

To alleviate (or at least try to alleviate) this problem, longer sentences seem easier to return better results on the engine. Similarly, viewers using services like Yahoo! Responses are encouraged to use “where can you …?” And what it is ..?’ style phrases, this has been translated on google and other engines.

If you want a taste of the pudding, just look at the search suggestions at the bottom of Google’s listings. Most are longer than 2 words, suggesting this is due to viewers’ search patterns,

There will be a level of experimentation in this. There are many tools that can help you find the right balance. Web CEO Raven, SEMRush, IBP, are just a few of the countless out there. Of course, Google has its own tools, but most of them are inextricably linked to Google AdWords and aren’t really focused on organic search positions, but they can point you in the right direction.

Most of these tools will also offer competitor analysis and provide you with an understanding of your competitors’ approach in this area. You should be able to see what traffic certain key phrases will bring to your business and assess whether you should spend time developing authority on them.

Search patterns change forever, but what doesn’t change is the need for relevance in the results. One can feel extremely upset if you search for a particular product or service only to be bombarded with irrelevant results.

Focus online is everything. Understand your viewer, analyze your competitor, and experiment with longer tail keyphrases from time to time and watch the delivery (or not) this provides using your analytics tools, and you should be moving in the right direction in the rankings.

Of course, if you don’t have time to do this kind of research yourself, you may need to a company that provides SEO services to get the job done for you.

Whichever path you choose: Key phrases bring vanity, topic-driven searches with site delivery, sanity. Choose the type you prefer. Happy searching!