I’ve always believed that a keyword string (especially long-tail) needs to be exact. This often results in awkward language in written content because a 3-5 word keyword doesn’t always sound natural. However, in recent months, I’ve been using Semrush more and noticed that we still rank for long-tail keywords even when the string in our content isn’t exact. The general collection of words is close together, with some conjunctions in between.
What’s the best approach to ensure that if you can’t write the exact string, it’s close enough for Google to identify and rank it?