Blogging Bites #39

​COACHING · RESOURCES · PAST TIPS · INSTAGRAM​

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Hey, Reader!

I was checking the mobile ranking for my classic chocolate chip cookies recipe the other day and out of curiosity, I first Googled chocolate chip cookies. What Google fed me was new to me!

Right up top were sponsored products that I can buy locally. I had to scroll quite a bit before I saw an actual recipe!

So then I added classic to it, and guess what?

It showed cookie recipes immediately at the top (there's mine at #4)!

And the same thing happened when I searched snickerdoodle cookies (generic) vs snickerdoodle cookies with brown butter (long-tail).

I expect that the sponsored products and generative AI will decrease the estimated traffic and increase the competitiveness for the generic keywords quite a bit!

What I took away from this is that long-tail keywords (AKA more specific, narrowed-down keywords) are super important for many reasons, including:

1. They're generally lower volume and lower competition, making them easier to rank for.
2. They can help your post rank for a greater variety of keywords.
3. Less chance of sponsored products and generative AI taking over recipe spots!

Google's been testing a lot of new things lately so who knows what it'll look like a month from now, but it seems that using long-tail keywords is a timeless strategy!

What are your thoughts? Have you noticed the same things in search, or anything different?

Happy blogging!
-Kayla