A keyword is a word or phrase that people type into search engines (like Google) when looking for information, products, or services online. Keywords are essential for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and digital marketing because they help search engines understand what your content is about and when to show it in search results.
To effectively use keywords, businesses and content creators perform keyword research—the process of finding and analyzing the specific terms their target audience is searching for. This helps them create relevant content, improve visibility in search engines, and attract more qualified visitors to their websites.
In short, keywords connect what people are searching for with the content you provide, and keyword research ensures you’re targeting the right terms to reach your audience effectively.
What Are the 4 Types of Keywords?
There are 4 types of keywords: short-tail, long-tail, questions, and intent targeting keywords. Let’s take a closer look at each of these with some examples to help explain them. For the sake of our examples, we will say that you work for a sports goods store.
- Short-tail Keywords: These are keywords that consist of 1-3 words. Because they are so short, they are also much broader than the other types of keywords. You can use short-tail keywords in two different ways: either as the title of your pillar page, since your pillar page is supposed to have 3,000+ words of general information on a broad topic or included within your text. For our example, let’s say you find a short-tail keyword “sporting goods.” You can use that keyword as the title of your pillar page. Within that pillar, you could also use other short-tail keywords such as “sporting goods store,” discount sporting goods,” and “online sporting goods.”
- Long-tail Keywords: These are keywords that include more than three words. They might even be a question or complete sentence. Some of these are great for the titles of sub-pillars or supporting blogs, especially the ones that are more specific than the title of your pillar—but not too specific. For example, you could use “sporting goods for sale,” “national sporting good chains,” or “top sporting goods stores.” Like with short-tail keywords, these can also be used within your text.
- Questions: These keywords work best for supporting blog titles because they are so specific. You can also use them as headers within your content to help readers navigate through your blog much easier. Some examples of questions that you could use are “What is a sporting goods store,” “What is the average markup on sporting goods,” and “Which sport brand is oldest?”
- Intent Targeting Keywords: These keywords indicate where your audience is on their buyer journey. There are four types of intent targeting keywords: informational, transactional, commercial, and navigational.
- Information: People searching for these keywords are looking for answers, not to be sold to. If you want to target this audience, use questions or phrases that include who/what/when/where/why/how as well as general phases. For our sporting goods example, your informational keywords list might include “Sports equipment list,” “Importance of sports equipment,” and “What are the trends in the sporting goods industry?”
- Commercial: People searching for these keywords are interested in shopping around. Your commercial keywords list might include terms such as “types of baseball bats,” “sporting goods discounts,” or “sporting goods reviews.”
- Transactional: People searching for these terms are ready to buy something. To target this audience, your transactional keywords list might include “Sporting goods for sale,” “Where to get the best sporting goods,” or “List of top sporting goods stores.”
- Navigational: People searching for these terms know what your business is and want to find it. Use the keywords with your brand name in it when targeting this audience. Examples of keywords from a sporting goods’ navigational keywords list are “Dick’s Sporting Goods,” “Dick’s Sporting Goods coupons,” and “Dick’s Sporting Goods hours.”
Qualities of good keyword
Keywords are necessary for any search engine optimization campaign. The term refers to any word or phrase for which people search online. To help your web pages stand out, you need to choose certain effective keywords around which to create your content. For instance, if you are a pizza shop in the North End of Boston, you might wish to create web pages focused on the keyword “Boston North Shore pizza.” The best keywords possess specific qualities that make them valuable for your business.
The following are some of the qualities that characterize the most valuable and effective keywords for any website.
Keyword Relevance
One of the most important qualities to look for in any keyword is relevant to your website. In the past, some companies have chosen to “stuff” their content with keywords that were unrelated to their content or to their business. This tactic is a bad idea because Google can now recognize irrelevant keywords. In addition, using irrelevant keywords leads to site visitors who are looking for something you do not offer. As a result, instead of earning more business for yourself, you are likely only going to alienate site visitors.
Instead, when choosing keywords, select those that are directly relevant to your website. In addition, when choosing keywords for a specific web page, choose terms that are directly relevant to the content on that page. Always look beyond the most obvious keywords to address topics and products that you offer that might make you stand out from the competition (i.e. “gluten-free North End pizza”). Doing so will help you to match your content with visitors’ expectations and allow your site to perform better overall.
Keyword Popularity
The popularity of a keyword refers to how often it is used in online searches. It reflects how much traffic you might be able to earn if you rank well for that term. For instance, a term that is searched 100,000 times will generate more visitors than one searched 100 times. Choosing words that are both relevant and popular is important because it allows you to identify keywords that your target audience is searching for.
The best way to locate these popular keywords is to do keyword research. There are several ways you can conduct this research. For instance, you can look at any search engine marketing campaigns you already have in place and pull out the highest-performing keywords from that campaign. You can also use Google Analytics to find out which terms are currently driving people to your website. For a more detailed analysis of keywords, you can use Google’s Keyword Planner (or other tools) or hire an SEO service to help you pinpoint the types of keywords that your target audience is most likely to use.
Keyword Length
While the term “keyword” might make you think of single words, one-word terms are relatively ineffective. The reason is that they are extremely popular terms, with numerous websites using them in their content. For instance, the keyword “pizza” is used by so many websites that it is virtually impossible to rank on the first page of search results (let alone the first three results) no matter how well you optimize your content for the word “pizza.”
Instead, the most effective keywords tend to be phrases of 2-4 (sometimes more) words that describe in detail what the online searcher is looking for. These phrases are far more effective than single-word terms. They have enough specificity to narrow down the field of websites to a number that is easier for you to compete with. At the same time, they are short enough that they are still on terms that relatively large numbers of people search for.
Specificity
As mentioned above, one of the problems with single-word search terms is the fact that they are so broad. The broader a search term, the harder it is to rank for that term because you will be competing against so many web pages that it will be difficult to get your site seen. As a result, an effective keyword must contain a certain level of specificity. For instance, instead of trying to rank for “pizza shop,” you might be more successful in trying to rank for “Boston North End pizza shop.”
When you choose specific, long-tail keywords, you will naturally reduce the size of the audience you have access to, because the number of people searching for those specific terms is smaller than those searching for broader terms. However, the quality of the traffic that you generate to your website will be higher than the quality of traffic you would generate using fewer specific terms. As a result, you will generate more business and profit by choosing more specific keywords than by choosing broad topics.
The Right Balance for Effective Keywords
Choosing the right keywords involves more than selecting terms with relevance, popularity, length, and specificity. It also requires you to select keywords that have the right balance of all these qualities. For instance, a keyword needs to be popular enough to earn you meaningful traffic, but specific enough to make your website visible among competitors. A search term needs to be long enough but not too long. A popular term can generate lots of traffic, but a term that is too popular can make it difficult to rank well in the search results.
Navigating the sometimes-complex waters of keyword research and selection may require the help of SEO experts, in Austin or elsewhere. The SEO service you choose can help you to determine the right balance of features in the keywords you use. By choosing the keywords that intersect your business, your target audience’s needs, and the realities of the competition you face, you will be able to maximize the impact of your search engine optimization efforts.
Characteristics of successful search keywords
Successful search keywords have three characteristics that you must pay attention to. These characteristics are vital for ensuring that you are focusing on the correct keywords. When conducting your keyword research (I use Google’s Keyword Planner), you must keep these characteristics in mind when selecting keywords you want to rank for. These characteristics are search volume, search competition, and cost-per-click.
Keywords need high search volume
Ranking for keywords that have a low search volume doesn’t make sense. Why do you spend your efforts ranking for keywords that no one is searching for? You want keywords that have a high search volume. On their Keyword Planner, Google lists the average monthly searches by keyword for the last twelve months. Export your keyword search report to your spreadsheet program and sort the keywords by search volume (highest to lowest).
Keywords need low competition
Search competition refers to how competitive the keyword is amongst others who are paying to rank for these same keywords. The three competitiveness values are low, medium, and high. Look for keywords that have a low to medium search competition. Keywords with a high competitiveness means others are willing to pay good money to show up in Google’s search results (in the paid ads area). Don’t get caught up in a bidding war unless you have an high marketing budget. Now sort your spreadsheet by search volume (highest to lowest) then by competitiveness (low to high).
Keywords need low cost-per-click
Cost-per-click is the amount you will pay to the search engine provider every time someone clicks on your link in your ad. The suggested amount provided by Google’s Keyword Planner is the amount currently being paid by other advertisers in their ad campaigns. Look for keywords with a low cost-per-click. Finally, sort your spreadsheet by search volume (highest to lowest) then by competitiveness (low to high) then by cost-per-click (lowest to highest). The resulting list will be the keywords you should be targeting. Add these keywords throughout your website.
Understanding the characteristics of successful search keywords will help leverage the keywords to use on your website. In addition, having a list of search keywords will help when planning your online marketing campaign. Use the Google Keyword Planner tool to easily find the best keywords for your business. As a bonus, your website will be ready for you when you start your marketing campaign.