Brief Research: Google SERPs of Long-Tail Keywords with Abbreviations

Today, I was looking over some SEO-related keywords and stumbled upon an interesting long-tail keyword: 𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘚𝘌𝘖 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. According to SemRush, it has around 500 searches in the US and is very difficult to compete for (img.1).

When I searched in Google for it, the first 5-6 results were as follows:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide
https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo
https://www.mtu.edu/umc/services/websites/seo/
https://www.wordstream.com/seo
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/seo
https://www.semrush.com/blog/seo-for-new-website/
(img. 2).

Now, the interesting part – none of the mentioned pages contain the exact match of ‘𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘚𝘌𝘖 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯’.

I decided to conduct a second search in Google for the exact match of “𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘚𝘌𝘖 𝘰𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯” (using quotes) and the SERPs were more aligned with what I was expecting (refer to img.3).

I started reflecting and had a few ideas that didn’t provide me with a satisfying answer…
For instance, external or internal links with an exact term match could have been a factor … but it doesn’t seem realistic to be the reason for all of the results…
And in one moment something occurred to me – I decided to test another long-tail keyword including an abbreviation: 𝘚𝘔𝘔 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 and “𝘚𝘔𝘔 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨” (refer to img.4 and img.5).
Please do not judge me too harshly about the choice – even though redundant – it still has its volume – 1.9K for the USA.

The conclusion I reached for myself would be:

Do not try to optimize for long keywords that include abbreviations as Google tries to find the intent behind the search and ‘opens’ the abbreviation, presenting results that may not exactly include your terms.

Marin Popov – SEO Consultant with over 15 years of experience in the digital marketing industry. SEO Expert with exceptional analytical skills for interpreting data and making strategic decisions. Proven track record of delivering exceptional results for clients across diverse industries.