Exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, can be a great way to achieve strong long-term performance in your portfolio without much ongoing effort from you. Whether or not you invest in individual stocks, high-quality index funds can form a solid backbone to your nest egg and help give you peace of mind during turbulent markets.

Two excellent low-cost index fund ETFs are the Vanguard S 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) and the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF (NYSEMKT: VYM). While it's tough to make a good argument that either ETF is a bad choice, there are some key differences between them.

The Vanguard S 500 ETF is a bet on large American businesses. As the name implies, this fund invests in the 500 companies that make up the S 500 benchmark index, and it aims to match the performance of the index over time. And with a bare minimum annual expense of 0.03% of fund assets, the long-term performance should be extremely close to that of the actual index.

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Source Fool.com