Why Are Keywords Important?

You have probably heard of the term SEO countless times now yet are still unaware of it. Do not worry! I got you. SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. Its primary responsibility is to improve a website’s ranking on search engines by driving the quality and quantity of website traffic. Hold up; you are probably thinking, what do keywords have to do with this? Great question!

What are keywords?

Think of keywords as signifiers helping search engines understand what you are talking about or searching for. Usually, keywords can be a single word or short phrases repeated throughout the blog article or website content. This process of repeating the keywords is one aspect of SEO optimization. The more relevant, the more it will rank higher in the search query.

5 Main Qualities of Keywords

1. Search Volume

Search volume indicates how frequently a keyword is used/searched on Google or other search engines. The higher the search volume, the more significant traffic it can drive to your website.

2. Competition

Every person or a business who has a website desires to be included among the top-ranked search results. Meaning that, apart from you, hundreds or thousands of others use the same keyword. Keywords with large search volumes or high keyword density (the number of times a keyword appears on a webpage/web content) make it difficult to rank higher due to competition.

3. Price

Nowadays, marketers compete for people’s attention. They do that by investing in advertising, which always comes with a price. For keywords, it’s called Cost per click (CPC). It is a metric wherein the advertiser pays every time a visitor clicks on an ad after using a particular keyword. It will be beneficial in determining your advertising budget and creating an estimate of how much your campaign will cost.

4. Word Count

As the name suggests, word count is the number of words used to search for a keyword. For example, the keyword dog would count as 1, compared to the phrase” to adopt a dog in Florida, ” with a word count of 7. Word count appears to be less crucial than the first three qualities mentioned above, but it has advantages. One is that when you have a higher word count, it gives your keywords more context, thus refining your search results.

5. Intent

- Search engines function the same way, unlike people who vary in their search habits. Some SEO engines prefer mini-keywords; others prefer typing long phrases, even a complete question. This is because each person has varying search intent or the purpose behind why they’re searching for a particular topic/subject.
- There are four (4) main categories of search intent:
- Informational – search queries looking for answers to specific questions.
- Navigational – search queries indicating a plan to visit a particular website or webpages.
- Commercial – search queries assessing and evaluating a specific brand.
- Transactional – search queries expressing strong interest in purchasing a specific product or service.

4 Types of Keywords

Besides the different keyword intents available, keywords also have different types enabling marketers to categorize them further.

1. Branded Keywords

These are keywords that contain specific brand names. For example, Channel No.5 perfume, Nike Air Force 1.

2. Geo-Targeted Keywords

Usually, these keywords include a location, perfect for driving traffic to businesses catering to a specific area.

3. Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are usually three to five words with more precise search intent. They might be referring to a particular niche. Its characteristics of being accurate and focused on niche yield higher conversion value, despite low search volumes.

4. Negative Keywords

Negative keywords aren’t cursed or explicit words. Instead, it’s a keyword that signals to Google whom you don’t want your ads to appear or be associated with. For example, if you include the word guava as a negative keyword, each person who provides guava in their search query wouldn’t see your ads. When you look at it this way, negative keywords are filters that further narrow down the group of people you’re trying to target.

Final Words

Keywords are part of our daily lives. We use it every time we look up something on the Internet or simply find a particular document in our file list. Business owners, marketers, and even content creators can benefit from keywords, especially when driving traffic to their websites or social media pages. Either way, they must understand how keywords work to better leverage them to increase their searchability and overall online awareness.

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