Keywords are the result of a process called search engine optimization or SEO.
If you still haven't found out what it means SEO, you should know that it means search engine optimization. It represents a process of improving the visibility of websites or web pages. This ranking is done within the search results of certain search engines.
But what are keywords and why are they so important for SEO?
What are keywords?
The main goal of SEO is to rank your website or page as high as possible in search engine results for the words and phrases your potential customers are searching for. These words and phrases are the keywords.
There are many factors that help your site's ability to rank well, but keywords help search engines understand what each page on your site is about. This allows them to display the appropriate pages for certain searches and make sure they're providing users with the information they really want to find.
This means that one of the main goals of SEO is to identify the keywords that potential customers use when searching for your products or services, and then you can use them in the right areas of your website.
How do keywords help in promoting SEO?
Keywords are words or phrases used in your web content that help people find your website through search engines like Google. Optimizing your website with SEO keywords can help you attract more users and traffic to your website, resulting in more potential customers.
Types of keywords
There are 2 main types of SEO keywords you need to know about: short-tail and long-tail.
1. Short Tail (Short keywords)
Short keywords are words that are made up of only one or two words.
In the graph above, for example, "dog" is a short keyword.
These keywords tend to have extremely high search volume, meaning more people are searching for them each month. This is great if you want to get your business in front of as many people as possible.
Unfortunately, short keywords also have a lot of competition, which means it will be difficult to rank well for them. This is even trickier, especially if you've just built a website and are pitting it against companies that have been optimizing their sites for years.
Therefore, short-tail keywords are not really the preferred option for SEO, at least for companies that are just starting out and want to optimize their websites. For companies that have been using SEO for a while, in comparison, they can target short-tail keywords without any problem.
2. Long Tail (Long keywords)
Long tail keywords, on the other hand, can range from three to as many as 10 words, and sometimes even more. In the same example, "best breed of guard dog for families with children" is a long keyword.
These keywords tend to have lower search volume, but also much less competition. This means that even though fewer people are searching for them each month, you have a much better chance of reaching those people.
Additionally, these long-tail keywords tend to have a much clearer topic intent than short-tail keywords.
For example, if you were trying to rank for the term "dog," it would be nearly impossible to know what your visitors were searching for and provide that information. But if you want to attract visitors searching for "best guard dog breed for families with children," you'd know exactly what to talk about on that page.
Other types of keywords would be:
3. Short-term Fresh – are short or long words that show significant traffic or search in a well-defined period of the year.
They are present especially when there are major events or viral news about certain topics or people.
For these words, the increase in search volume and traffic only happens during certain periods.
Examples of short-term fresh keywords: Halloween, Christmas, etc.
4. Long-term Evergreen – they are words on the basis of which complex articles and guides of an extensive or long-lasting character can be made (they do not lose their relevance over time).
Examples of evergreen keywords: how to lose weight, how to create a website, how to cook pasta, etc.
5. Product defining – are keywords that very clearly describe the product or service being sold.
These refer to the words used in searches that a person carries out for a specific product, service or data, regardless of whether it is desired to purchase or just obtain information.
6. Customer definition – they are keywords that help you think a little like your potential customers, to understand their typology and the information they want, related to a specific niche.
7. Geo-targeting – are keywords that are used to attract potential customers located in a specific geographic area.
For example, such a keyword, in our case, is: online marketing agency Constanța.
8. LSI or Latent Semantic Indexing are those keywords or those terms that are conceptually related to the main keyword and that search engines use to better understand the content of a web page.
For example, if you publish an article about pancakes, search engines will also look for words like: flour, sugar-free, vegan, chocolate, etc.
9. Intent Targeting – These words are divided into 3 categories of keywords of interest:
– navigational
- informational
– transactional/commercial.
How to choose the right keywords to drive traffic to your website
Now that you know exactly what SEO keywords are and how many types there are, it's time to choose the right keywords for SEO. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools to help you find the best keywords, as well as reliable approaches you can use.
1. Use keyword research tools
Keyword research, or keyword analysis, is an essential process from the SEO point of view.
This involves identifying the words and phrases that people enter into search engines in their attempt to find a solution to their needs.
First, doing this keyword analysis will help you understand what the level of demand is for certain keywords.
Second, you'll get clues about what it's like to compete for those terms in organic results, which gives you a clear direction for your optimization efforts.
However, keyword research is not just about the volume of searches for a specific keyword.
In this case, we are also talking about exploring all the options people use to search for an idea or topic.
As such, keyword analysis is not only an important element of the SEO process, but also a major element of content marketing.
Keyword selection should never involve guesswork, and there are a variety of online tools you can use to research the best possible options for your business.
If you run pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns with Google Ads, Google Keyword Planner is one of the best options because it pulls data directly from Google Ads. It provides accurate information about the search volume and competition levels of each keyword.
It also suggests keywords based on content already on your site, which is a useful starting point for keyword research.
If you don't have any active Google Ads campaigns – or if you simply want to use something other than Google – you can choose from several other keyword research tools. While some are paid, there are free options you can use to find keywords for SEO.
Some examples of free tools include:
2. Choose to use long tail keywords more
As you identify possible keywords for your site, it's important to focus on long-tail keywords.
While you can select some shorter keywords (especially branded keywords like your company name) for your home page and other company-specific pages, identifying long-tail keywords should be your primary focus.
Using the same example above, entering "dog" and "best breed of guard dog" into the Keyword Planner shows that although "dog" is searched for over 1, 2 million times a month, it would be difficult to rank for that keyword because of the very high competition.
On the other hand, “Best Guard Dog Breed” is only searched 40 times a month, but the competition for that keyword is low. This means that if your business was an animal shelter, pet store, or pet care store, targeting this keyword would be a good choice.
After all, 40 searches per month may seem low – but that adds up to a potential 480 searches per year from people who could eventually become your customers.
3. Look for keywords with high volume and low competition
Certain industries are more competitive than others, and even long-tail keywords can be difficult to rank for. This is especially true if your company is in the legal, insurance, or online education industries.
However, no matter what kind of industry you're in, it's important to keep in mind how difficult it will be to rank for a particular keyword. If you have no chance of ranking for a particular phrase, then optimizing a page for it would be a poor use of your time.
Instead, focus your research on keywords that you have a chance of ranking for and getting traffic to your site.
How to use SEO keywords on your website
Once you've chosen your keywords, you'll need to use them throughout your site. As a general rule, it's best to focus on one keyword per page. This allows search engine crawlers to easily identify the main objective or topic of any given page and provide it as a result for relevant searches.
Start using SEO keywords on your website by entering them into the following:
- The URLs
First, you need to make sure that all your URLs are SEO friendly. If they are not, redo URL structure and add relevant keywords in the new URLs.
- Meta tags
Next, include keywords in meta tags such as title and title tags.
Each title tag should be exactly what it sounds like – a title for the page.
Heading tags are subheadings on a page, meant to divide the different sections or ideas on the page. They not only tell search engines what your page is about, but also make it easier for visitors to get to the information they want.
- The content
Read each page and make sure the target keyword is used naturally several times. If you add the keyword in irrelevant or meaningless places, it is considered keyword overload.
Overuse of keywords is against all major search engine rules and results in a penalty that prevents your site from appearing in search engine results.
Instead, use each page's keyword only where it makes sense – and if it doesn't make sense anywhere, then it's not the right keyword for that page. For best results, try to use the SEO keyword in your first paragraph or somewhere at the beginning.
- The pictures
Even though search engines can't "see" your images, they can "read" them.
That's why you want to optimize your images for your SEO keyword. You can add the keyword to your image filename as well as alt text. If you add your keyword to your alt text, make sure it's natural and makes sense.
For reference, your alt text should describe your image, literally.
An image of a bouquet of flowers, for example, could be given an alt text like "bouquet of flowers". If you insert or force your keyword into your alt text, it can hurt your SEO efforts, resulting in lower rankings, less traffic, and fewer sales from your site visitors.
How to use SEO keywords for content marketing
As you search for keywords related to your industry, products, and services, you'll come across many that point to specific topics that your target audience wants to learn more about, but that aren't covered in the existing pages on your website.
These keywords are extremely valuable to your content marketing strategy. If you're not familiar with content marketing, it involves creating and publishing original blog posts, article pages, videos, and other content that informs or delights your potential customers.
This strategy is especially valuable for long-tail keywords. After all, if someone searches for a certain phrase, they probably know exactly what information they're looking for. And if you want to get them and keep them on your site, you need to provide this information.
When you create original content that answers your potential customers' questions or solves a specific problem, you drive traffic to your website and increase your brand awareness. As long as the content you provide is genuinely useful, their first impression of your company will be an excellent one.
Even if these visitors aren't ready to make a purchase or contact you the first time they interact with your site, they will remember your site or brand, which means that the content you create can have a direct impact on your sales and revenue.
Frequent questions
- What are keywords?
Keywords are a collection of words and phrases inserted into the content of a web page. These have the role of informing search engines and customers about the content and quality of the information provided.
- What is keyword research?
Keyword analysis or keyword research represents a process of identifying the words and expressions that people enter on search engines. These keywords will then offer different solutions, answers, products or services.
Thus, those who carry out this analysis can find out which words are used most often and for which keywords a site / web page could rank best on search engines.
- How do we do keyword analysis?
Keyword analysis would be very difficult without the help of specialized programs and tools in this direction. We recommend you to use dedicated ones for a professional analysis.
- What does SEO mean?
Search engine optimization or Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process by which you can improve your content on the website, in order to have the highest possible visibility and presence and the best possible ranking in search engine results.
- How can you optimize your website?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is particularly dependent on the type of keywords you choose to use. So, to be able to optimize your site you need the best keywords. But you need to know exactly what kind of competition they have in order to rank as well as possible in search engine results.