We’ve all heard the term “keywords,” but if you’re unfamiliar with SEO, you may not understand what it means or why it’s so crucial.
In this section, you will know what they are, how are they used and how they work, how to make a great Keyword List and so much more! Keywords will help you drive more traffic, target your audiences, rank high on search engines, make your audiences receptive and make the searchers know that they are in the right place for their needs or wants.
You are one step away from producing a great Keyword list to benefit your business at its maximum capability!
What Are Keywords?
Keywords are concepts and themes that describe the subject matter of your content. If you sum up the content of your page and everything in it, the one thing it is about, that word is your keyword.
So, for example, if you have a phone case business, when your sump up what your pages are about which is obviously going to be “phone cases” since that is what your business is all about, then that is one of your many potential keywords!
In the world of SEO (which will be explained later), Keywords are the word(s) and phrase(s) that searchers use to put into search engines for them to get the answers they need for their questions also called the query.
Then, Google makes use of that data to decide which material is aligned and relevant to a specific search query and how the website should rank in terms of searches. That determines how well a web page performs in searches.
This is what Keywords are and their role. They are the bridge between the content you produce on your website and the needs of the searchers!
Types Of Keyword Intent
Searchers always have different INTENT when searching on Google. Every searcher has a different goal in mind from one and Google pays attention to it. A keyword can have tons of intent depending on the words used. Find out the types of intent that searchers may have while searching on Google.
Commercial – This intent is when the searchers have an interest in a certain product or service. We can think of this as the searcher thinking about buying, downloading, or subscribing. So the intent of the searcher is to know more about the “planned” action. An example of commercial intent search is “Nike Air Jordan price”. Keep in mind that commercial intent is the intent where the searcher is still in the stage of thinking about performing an action such as doing a purchase, etc.
These are examples of a commercial search :
- Netflix Subscription Reviews
- Apple Headset Colors
- Coffee Machine Price
Transactional – This one is the intent where the searcher is absolutely sure that they will perform the actions at this very moment. An example of a transactional search is “Buy Nike Air Jordan”. At this point, the searcher is just ready to make their payment to get their hands on the products they want to buy!
- Subscribe on Netflix
- Second-Hand Tesla For Sale
- Coffee Shop Near Me
Informational – In the informational intent, the searcher is simply looking for an answer to their question. For example, the search query is “How to clean Nike Air Jordan properly”. Then the intent of the searcher is just to know information about how to clean the shoes. Contents aligned with this query may be a process, step-by-step guide, and such.
- How to subscribe to Netflix premium
- How many hours do I need to charge Apple Headset
- How long to charge a Tesla fully
Navigational – When searchers are trying to find specific websites this is the type of intent they have when researching. For example “Nike Online”. This means that the searcher is particularly looking for the Nike website, may it be to check the new releases or just look at sales and etc. But these types of searches are straight-up looking for websites and pages of a particular business.
- Shein
- Starbucks in Bakersfield
- Casetify
Local queries – This search query is very popular with searchers that are looking for something locally. For example, “carpenters near me”. The search engine will provide content of course local businesses that offer the services the searcher is looking for.
There you go! The 4 types of keyword intent that searchers have in mind when they search. Later as you read on you will know why they are extremely important. Next up, learn the types of keywords.
Types Of Keywords
Branded keywords
Branded keywords are those that contain a particular brand name.
- H&M Coat
- Apple Student Discount
- Nike Running Shoes
Geo-targeted keywords
Geographical location is a component of geo-targeted keywords.
- Cellphone repair shop in Manila
- Coffeeshop in Copenhagen
- New York Hair Salon
Negative keywords
In your Google Ads campaign, you don’t want to employ any negative keywords.
A negative keyword sometimes referred to as a negative match, is a search term that won’t cause your ad to appear. In other words, users looking for that specific word or phrase combination won’t see your adverts.
Alternatives to traditional “positive” keywords exist for negative keywords. They require a perfect match.
Negative keywords are not immediately associated with the same query by Google as positive keywords are.
As a result, you must include the word’s synonyms, singular or plural forms, misspellings, and other variations when adding a negative keyword to a campaign.
How Do Keywords Work?
You might be wondering how these keywords work for the benefit of the searchers and your website. It’s pretty simple. Keywords are the words and phrases used by searchers which they type and enter into search engines to find the information they’re looking for. Your website will appear in the search results if the user’s search terms coincide with the keywords on your website.
For example, you have a webshop ( a webshop is a type of website that allows people to make a transaction or purchase completely online) and you sell let’s say clothes in it. Now, you have products such as a denim jackets for example. Now, there is content in your webshop of course about this product. Images, descriptions, videos, title page, and others. So when you narrow down what that section of your webshop is about ( which is about the denim jacket product ) the keywords there for your specific section is “Men’s Denim Jacket”.
Then the point-of-view of the searcher, the keywords are the words or phrases they type in search engines. So when a searcher is looking for a denim jacket for men, of course, they will enter “Men’s Denim Jacket”. And since your webshop section for denim jackets for men has that keyword because that is what sums up that section, then it is more likely to show up on top of the searches.
When the keywords used are the same, you will appear. Imagine it as if you offer your hands for shaking and when the keywords match, the customers shake your hand!
What Are Long-tail Keywords And Why Are They Important?
They are often mistaken as one or two words only, and that should be it. Most bidders would want to rank in more general keywords because they have higher search volumes, but one of the cons is that in general keywords, the higher the search volumes the higher the level of competition.
Low individual search volume search terms are known as long-tail keywords. One- and two-word phrases can be long-tail keywords, despite the fact that longer, more precise keywords typically have lower search numbers. Long-tail keywords are the ones that are more than three to four words that searchers use for searching on the internet.
Here is an example, you have a business and you sell handmade accessories. Obviously, you would want to rank for keywords such as “bracelets” or “accessories” since it has a tempting amount of search volume. But it would be hard to rank higher than Pandora and Pura Vida on Google with that.
According to Wordstream, the keyword “bracelet” has 368,000 searchers a month! With a top-of-page bid (low range) of $0.61 and a top-of-page bid (high range) of $2.12. Imagine the competitor and the price of the bidding.
But long-tail keywords such as “handmade charm bracelet” has a whooping 90 monthly searches and have a $0.00 bid price.
Let me ask you a question. Would you rather rank high on general keywords with high search volume and traffic that is most likely not going to convert? Or rank high on long-tail keywords, with low search volume but which are focused on the INTENT of the searchers and will most likely have the searchers convert.
Why is it that traffic from the general keywords is most likely to not convert? In the example earlier, the keyword is “bracelet” There are undeniably a lot of searchers that use this word, but even if you rank high there is not a huge possibility of conversion there.
The searchers might be looking for Pandora or Cartier, even when they get to your site they will just most likely leave. Or even when you rank high, they might just scroll past you. But in long-tail keywords, searchers are more specific and the intent is to make action as soon as possible. On the types of intent, long-tail keyword searchers are on the Transactional phase already.
The thing is, long-tail keywords are literally long, very specific, and has one clear intent (which can be any of those 4 intents). So unlike the general keywords, the search volume will be relatively low. General keywords have multiple intents. The keyword “bracelet”, what does the searcher want?
Do they want to see a site full of bracelets?
Do they want to make DIY bracelets?
Are they searching for a bracelet on the internet?
Turns out volume isn’t always the best choice. Long-tail keywords are the way to go! Long-tail keywords have significantly lower competition and are simpler to target.
Going with the choice of the majority doesn’t always mean that it will give you maximum results. For example, if you have a webshop and you are selling shoes, now you would want your page for shoes to rank with the keywords “shoes”. The problem is, a lot of people can search for shoes and still scroll past your website because your website might not be serving the intent of the searchers.
Long-tail Keyword + Search Intent = Low Search Volume but Higher Conversion
Types of Long-tail Keywords
Supporting
Even though they are theoretically still classified as long-tail keywords, supporting long-tail keywords tackle broad themes and are more difficult to rank for. This is due to Google’s intelligence, which takes into account popular keywords for such terms and incorporates them into the ranks. This also implies the inverse: if you rank for the broad phrase, you’ll rank for the ancillary long-tail keywords as well.
Topical
Specific, topic-based words that are less competitive and simpler to rank for are known as topical long-tail keywords. These keywords are not built around a broad main term; rather, they are focused precisely on your product or issue.
EXAMPLE: Keyword ->”tips how to lose weight” -> Supporting = lose weight -> Topical = tips how to
lose weight – is harder to rank because there are a lot of competitors in this
tips how to – are easier to rank because there are few competitors in this
When combined they are called long-tail, because they become specific and have only one intent.
Where Can I Get Long-tail Keywords?
You might be wondering where to find them and how to make them. Here are tips on how to formulate them and where to find them.
Use “what” and “how” As Question Modifiers
Google users are increasingly posing inquiries as part of their searches. Make sure to include some long-tail questions that start with modifiers like “what,” “how,” “where,” etc. when coming up with long-tail questions that your target audience might ask.
When evaluating long-tail keywords in your preferred SEO tools, these words will undoubtedly frequently emerge as they reveal unique problems that individuals have.
Short-tail Keywords Should Include Qualifiers
Similarly, experiment with including keywords that are pertinent to your brand, offering, or content with qualifying terms. If you offer umbrellas, for instance, you might add modifiers like “green,” “cheap,” “travel-friendly,” or anything else you think is pertinent.
Try including localization information as well, such as “green cheap travel-friendly shampoo container Texas,” which is specific yet may be used by potential visitors to focus their search on their local area, increasing the likelihood that they will convert.
Utilize the Ahrefs Keywords Explorer
This approach doesn’t include any tiresome manual labor. Simply use the search volume filter in Keywords Explorer to get hundreds of long-tail keywords by searching for any word that describes your specialty. It comes in their free feature too, all you need to do is sign up.
Check the Keywords that Your Rivals are Utilizing
Your competitors are a fantastic source of long-tail keywords. You can examine what long-tail keywords they are ranking for using Ahrefs’ Site Explorer (it’s also on the free features).
Simply enter the URL of a competitor’s website into Site Explorer to check which long-tail keywords are driving traffic to their site in the Organic keywords report.
By doing so with 5–10 of your rivals’ websites, you can gather enough long-tail keyword suggestions to keep you busy for several months.
Keywords For SEO ( Search Engine Optimization )
SEO has been mentioned above, but what is it and what is its relevance to keywords?
The power of search engine optimization (SEO) when done right, includes making a page’s rank in search engines high.
It is the implementation of techniques for acquiring traffic through paid, unpaid, editorial, or organic search results in search engines. It aims to rank your page high on search results. Do not forget that the more individuals will visit a website the bigger chance it appears on a high ranking.
So how is it connected to Keywords? Keyword search is an SEO Technique. Since keywords are also factors that are considered by Google in ranking on search engines, this means that Keywords are under SEO. Therefore, SEO and Keywords are amazing tandem for ranking high on search engines!
How to Choose Keywords for SEO:
- Informational terms – “how to”, “why does” or “what is”
- Low-competition keywords – Businesses can begin to see results more quickly by targeting low-competition keywords, while simultaneously trying to avoid high-competition terms whenever possible. Low competition keywords, in their most basic sense, are those that rank quickly and frequently with little to no domain authority or link development.
- Those keywords have a lot of customer intent but little search volume. – Long-tail keywords
- Keywords your target market employs when they aren’t specifically looking for what you sell
- Key phrases where your team could add value specifically through a blog post
You do not want to optimize keywords that searchers do not actually use. The core of SEO is keywords. If you don’t understand what people are looking for and what they want to see, you can’t properly generate or optimize content for search engines.
Keywords For PPC ( Pay Per Click )
With PPC, you may pay Google to include your website in the list of results for a particular keyword.
On the Google Ads platform, you can select the keywords you want to bid on. Google will then show your advertisement in the search results. Google will charge you each time someone clicks on the advertisement and visits your website.
Paid results are distinguished from organic (non-paid) results by being labeled as advertising.
In bidding, you have to choose the right keywords so you do not waste your money. Bidding the right keywords that will drive traffic and conversion on your website is basically the goal of PPC.
Now it’s on you to choose the right words to bid. What should you consider in choosing your keywords for PPC?
- Keywords with a comparatively narrow focus on buying – For example, “Buy Fortnite V bucks”
- Keywords people use to find your specific product – Such as “Vegan Chocolate Cake” or “Keto Cupcakes”
- Branded terms with your name or the name of a rival – This would be a smart move so that when searchers search for your rivals, you might appear and get chosen instead.
You do not want to bid on keywords that will just drive you traffic that will not convert, you need to be wise with your PPC so no money will go to waste.
Keywords For Content
You need to produce content that is in line with intent if you want to have the best chance of ranking for your keywords in Google. To put it another way, avoid attempting to rank your homepage for a term that people use to find blog content and vice versa.
For example, if the intent is Informational, your content should be providing information that the searcher needs. If the intent is Transactional your content must have clear CTAs( call-to-action) that should allow the searcher to complete a transaction or complete a purchase.
Keywords also tell you what are the popular things that you may use for making content. For example, the highest search volume keyword for your industry of business is “makeup look” since you own a small cosmetic company. Now, since you have your keywords, do content using those!
Make video content using your products and use the keyword on TikTok. You can put let’s say put “Halloween Make Up Look using MG Cosmetics” or “Back To School Makeup Look Using MG Cosmetics”. You may also post the final look on Instagram and enter the same on the caption and put hashtags like #Back2SchoolMakeUpLook or #HalloweenMakeUpLook on the caption as well. Do not forget that you can also put your story on Facebook and Snapchat and all your other social media accounts!
Now, you have content that is according to the most popular keywords people search for! Through keywords, you will know what is popular and what people look for the most and use them as inspirations for your content.
Why Do I Need Keywords?
You must comprehend the demands of those visitors, including the language they use and the kinds of information they are looking for, in order to produce content that ranks highly organically and attracts visits to your website.
You can not give people what they need if you do not know what it is. For example, you are selling electronic materials and want to rank on the keyword “Electronics” since it has a high search volume. Now, you might attract traffic that is just searching for electronic shops near them. Rank higher using long-tail keywords, boast more targetted intent and match how real people search.
That is why keywords are important. You do not want to attract lots of wrong traffic, you do not want to rank high for the searchers that are not looking for you. That is why keywords, keyword research, and keyword list are extremely important.
How To Make A Great Keyword List?
How do you discover the ideal keywords for your company? Your keywords should be the same as the phrases that potential buyers would use to search for your goods or services.
When making your keyword list, here are the things you need to do:
Consider Yourself As A Customer
List the key sections of your company, and then list any possible terminology or expressions that come under each division. Describe your items or services using words or phrases that your target audience would use.
For example, “women’s tops”, “women’s cropped tops,” and “women’s halter cropped tops,” if you find that these are terms that clients frequently use to describe your items, this is a good place to start if you sell women’s clothes. Include the names of your brands and products to further enlarge your list.
Choose Precise Keywords
If you want to target clients who could be interested in a certain product, choose more focused keywords that directly relate to the theme of your website. If you choose more targeted keywords, your website will only show up when those terms are relevant to your company. Though you might not be able to reach as many individuals as you’d like if the keywords are too specific.
You might use specific keywords, such as “women’s track pants,” if you sell women’s clothes. By doing this, your website, for instance, would be qualified to show up when someone searches for these shoes or visits a website about basketball.
Choose Broad Keywords To Attract A Larger Audience
If you want to reach as many individuals as you can, choose more general terms. Remember that if you add overly vague keywords, your website may show up for searches that aren’t necessarily relevant to your business, making it harder for you to connect with potential clients.
Additionally, more generic keywords may be more difficult to rank for. So that machine learning technology can give the most priority to the best-performing searches regardless of the match type.
Determine which broad keywords produce the best results by testing them first. Your keywords should always be pertinent to your website, regardless of how broad they are. For your website to show up when someone searches for a wide variety of clothes or visits websites about fashion, you might use a general term like “pants” if you run a clothing store.
Keyword Research
To do all of this, you should conduct keyword research. This section will teach you how to do Keyword research.
Scavenging for search word(s) or phrase(s) that searchers put into search engines to get the answer they need for a particular use, mainly for search engine optimization (SEO) is known as keyword research. Keyword research can show you target searches, their search volume, the capacity of the keywords to rank for the keywords, etc.
- Make A List Of Relevant Subjects Based On What You Know About Your Business
To kick off this approach, think about the topics you want to focus ranking for in terms of general categories and keywords. You’ll create a list of words that you believe are important to your business, and you’ll use those words later on in the process to help you choose some precise keywords.
For example, you have a Jewelry store. Here are the possible 5 words you might have in mind that you want to rank:
- Rings
- Jewelry
- Men’s ring
- Promise ring
- Ring
- Add Keywords Long-tail To Those Root Words
It’s time to determine some keywords that goes within the root words you’ve chosen to focus on. These are keyword phrases that you believe are crucial to rank for in the search engine results pages, since your target audience is likely searching for them.
- Engagement Rings
- Jewelry Store near me
- Men’s ring
- Gold Ring
- Promise ring
- Recognize How Intent Affects Keyword Research
User intent, as mentioned in the previous part, today one of the most important aspects of how high you may rank on search engines. Remember that giving what the searchers need and matching their intent is so much more important than just having the keywords exist in your contents. How does this impact your keyword research, then?
It’s simple to take them at face value, but beyond the surface, they might mean a lot of different things. You need to be very cautious about how you interpret their target because the searcher’s intent is so crucial to your chance of ranking.
- Search Terms For Relevant Research
When conducting keyword research, you might have already had the creative idea for this phase. It’s a terrific way to add to those lists.
If you’re having trouble coming up with more phrases that people might use to search on a particular subject, look at the related search terms that show up when you enter a keyword into Google. You’ll find some search recommendations for your first term when you type it into Google and scroll to the bottom of the results. These keywords can provide you suggestions for additional keywords you might want to think about.
And finally, the best way to conduct keyword searches, use keyword search tools!
- Make The Most Of Keyword Research Tools
Based on the concepts you’ve already developed, keyword research and SEO tools can assist you in developing more keyword suggestions using exact match and phrase match keywords.
The most well-liked ones consist of:
- Ahrefs
- SEMrush
- Ubersuggest
- Google Keyword Planner
- SECockpit
- Keywords Everywhere
- Moz
- KeywordTool.io
- KWFinder
- Wordstream
The fact that the majority of them provide the average monthly searches, grouped by region if necessary, is the most significant of them. A term with a high search volume isn’t always the most helpful because there will be more competition for ranks on the SERPs as more people look for it.
Keyword Optimization
Use The Keyword Tools To Discover Fresh Keywords
Get keyword suggestions and calculate traffic for those keywords with the Keyword Planner while creating a Search Network campaign.
This tool will demonstrate the potential performance of a list of keywords. As well as the typical frequency of those searches. Utilize this information to select terms that may result in more clicks and greater product recognition.
When you type “running shoe” into the Keyword Planner, it can also suggest the keywords “cheap running shoes” or “cloud foam running shoes” as alternatives. You’ll receive data on each potential keyword suggestion that demonstrates the level of keyword competition and the typical global search volume for that term.
Include A Headline
Since page titles are typically seen by your human visitors, I attempt to ensure that they are included on the majority of the pages I work on. It would be best if I could include one or two essential phrases. This should not only improve rankings but also reassure site visitors who have just performed a keyword search that they have arrived at the appropriate page.
Use Negative Keywords
You might be wondering what this one is about. In some circumstances, you’ll wish to stop your website from appearing for keywords that are unrelated to your goods or services. Did you know that you can start using negative keywords to assist you to minimize fees and help your website appear only for the search terms you desire and is relevant to your website?
Imagine that only you have a cosmetic business, and you only sell matte lipsticks. Now, you can add “lipgloss” to your negative keywords so that you will not rank when a searcher searches for this type of product.
If using keywords and long-tail keywords implies that you know exactly what you want, it’s the opposite of negative keywords. Negative keywords are about knowing exactly what you do not want.
Keyword Mapping
This is extremely important to do, basically, this is keyword organization. This means that you should distribute the keyword list according to which page aligns with the content.
If you do keyword mapping, you will not experience repetition, redundancy, dumping all the keywords on the home page alone and confusion for the traffic.
On every page, there is always a designated keyword. Once you have your keyword list, make sure to dispense them to the pages according to the content.
For example, you have these words on your keyword list:
- Shoes
- Bags
- Dresses
Obviously, you will give them out and implement them on the pages designated for them. Bags for the bag page, shoes for the shoe page, and dresses for the dress page. If you do not want to dump all your keywords on the home page, it will be a disaster.
Look For Keywords For Your Website
You should conduct some study on the potential keywords you’re thinking of employing for your site, by experimenting with different words and phrases in various browsers or using tools for SEO like the Keyword Magic Tool.
You may start by making a compilation of words and phrases that are related to the material and then methodically typing each one into search engines or other tools.
Sure, all of these tips will help in optimizing for searches. But what does it really mean to optimize?
Match Search Intent
This might be the best thing you could do. Generating the appropriate kind of content is only one aspect of matching search intent. You should also address the topics that searchers expect to find.
Let’s take the example of wanting to rank for “guitars.”
You can see that people are searching for images when you look something up on Google by looking at the current top-ranking pages. You are aware that you must produce that kind of material.
But just what should you display?
What kind of guitar ought you to show?
Looking at the pages with the highest rankings will help you understand this. Most of the top pages show acoustic guitars.
You should copy this strategy if you want to have the highest chance of ranking for this query.
Don’t stop there though. Check out the additional topics that the top-ranking pages address.
For instance, nearly every page that features images of guitars coerces subjects like:
- Which is the best guitar for a beginner?
- Which brand of guitar is the best?
- Which guitars are best?
- What price should I pay for a guitar?
You should include the answers to those questions in your post. Because this information indicates that the majority of searchers desire to know them.
The core of SEO is keywords. If you don’t understand what people are looking for and what they want to see, you can’t properly generate or optimize content for search engines. Find the right keywords for your company now. And begin including those in your SEO.
