The Basics of SEO Keywords and How to Use Them

SEO keywords can help get your content rank higher and get in front of viewers. Check out the basics on keywords and how to utilize them.

You’ve likely heard the term ‘keyword’ many times before and maybe even have a sense of how it relates to SEO. SEO keywords go far beyond a basic term and exist in different forms and types. Generally speaking, a keyword is any search term entered on a search engine that has a results page where websites are listed.

Keywords exist as a means for search engines to effectively pull up results for users. It’s a general pointer that helps guide viewers closer to what they’re looking for. As digital mediums become more popular, strategies to use the algorithm for benefits became standard practice, hence SEO. Now, ranking for keywords is a go-to when trying to increase website traffic, prospects and customers. If you’re looking to gain some traction in the digital space, you should definitely take the time to evaluate how keywords and SEO can help you.

SEO Keywords in Content

Whether it be website content or blogs, SEO keywords are a key ingredient in getting it in front of viewers. Great content can only go so far if it isn’t properly optimized to reach the target audience. An example of keyword could be as follows:

Blog Title: How to set up a recruitment chatbot for performance.

The main keyword here is ‘recruitment chatbot’. We’ll touch on the longer tail version that could also exist later on. This keyword acts as a search term for search engines to grab.

When you incorporate keywords into your content there are some general rules of thumb you should follow, which will be covered next.

Forming a Strategy

With keyword research, you want to first get down what the purpose of your efforts are. Your content’s theme will guide a lot of the process for choosing which keywords to prioritize.

Main areas of focus should include your brand keywords, terms relevant to your services and/or products, as well as keywords around which you can build content relevant to your industry, customer questions, etc.

Including terms that don’t relate to the subject of your pages won’t help you rank in search engines, which aim to provide searches content that is most relevant to their search queries.

Keeping your keywords relevant and doing some investigation to see if they’re the best choice will go a long way. Going back to our example above, if the keyword were to be just ‘recruitment’ or just ‘chatbot’, a significantly higher number of results would show up compared to ‘recruitment chatbot’ together. Not only would these terms be harder to rank for, they would also be less relevant.

Types of Keywords

As simple as it may seem, there are actually different types of keywords with unique purposes. SEMrush outlines 4 categories:

• Commercial keywords are keywords used for paid advertising strategies. Whether to refer a given keyword to the commercial depends on the site niche.
• Transactional keywords show more targeted people who have the intention to buy a product or service or buy it soon.
• Informational keywords are used when searching for information, often to support a purchasing decision.
• Navigational keywords: When users type in a company or brand name, they perform a navigational search. They already know the company or product and want to find the correct website to get to their products.

Along with these categories, there are two general types of SEO keywords that can be very useful.

Short & Long Tail Keywords

Short tail keywords are broad search terms that serve as the head for longer tail keywords. They usually have higher search volume since they are general. In our example, ‘recruitment chatbot’ would be the short tail keyword. If you tested this you’d likely find tons of results. You would find even more if you individually search ‘recruitment’ and ‘chatbot’.

Short tail keywords tend to be harder to rank for given the high number of results, but they can guide a path to other long tail keywords that can rank higher. Long tail keywords are more specific and typically longer than short tail. In our example, a long tail keyword would be ‘recruitment chatbot for performance’. This term is clearly more specific and would have less search volume, but there is a better chance to rank here.

How Do You Find a Keyword?

There’s a lot to consider when it comes to keyword research. When you begin searching, you first want to identify a theme and get some ideas on some main phrases that represent that theme. From there, you can use keyword tools to test different terms and get insight on volume, difficulty and other key metrics. In some cases, you can have an idea on some good keywords based on previous experience from other posts or pre-established phrases.

Tools for SEO Keywords

Below are some popular tools for keyword research that are great to test out and get a feel for the process. Each has their own perks, but do most of the same functions. It is up to you to decide which better serves you.

• SEMrush
• Serpstat
• Moz
• Ahrefs
• Google Keyword Planner. Note that in order to take advantage of these features, you will need a Google Ads account.

Assessing Performance

SEO keywords need to be regularly assessed to see if they are properly ranking. The keyword research tools mentioned above offer keyword tracking capabilities so you can gauge how your site pages are performing based on the keywords you are targeting. Testing different phrases will give you a better idea on which work best and how difficult they are to rank for.

However, using keywords will not skyrocket your SEO performance immediately. Many others are trying to rank for the same terms, so it will take consistent implementation to see results. In the end, we’re looking for sustainable growth, not quick wins.

Need help putting this into practice? Get in touch.