Everyone wants to rank on Google, but not everyone can. If you want the secret to ranking better here’s a guide on keywords and how you can improve rankings on SERP
Fun Fact
Did You Know?
Around 15% to 20% of all search queries on daily basis have never been searched before on Google. (source: readwrite)
What are Keywords
SEO keywords also referred to as “keywords” or “keyphrases” are terms added in online content to improve search engine rankings for content on a website.
In simple words, keywords are the words most searched or typed on Google which users type to find what they are looking for.
Why are keywords so important in SEO?
Keywords in your content make it possible for people to find your website on search engines. When you optimize your content using target keywords that people search for, your website tends to rank higher for those keywords.
Keywords help in understanding what people are searching for and allows you to meet their needs.
They also provide a clear strategy towards which marketers can focus while curating content for a blog or a website
What are the most common SEO Keywords
Here are the most common types of keywords:
1. Branded Keywords:
Branded search terms are the keyword phrases that contain content related to a brand in a search query.
This could include the name of your company, business or brand names, branded campaign names or taglines, or anything else with your brand name in it.
2. Unbranded keywords:
Unbranded, or non-branded or common keyword, terms are the keywords that do not reference any brand name (including any misspellings).
Unbranded terms often describe the users’ problem or your business offering.
3. Page-Specific Keywords:
Page-specific keywords are the keywords that apply to a single page or set a number of pages on a website.
4. Head keywords:
Also known as head terms with the high keyword search volume and popularity. Head keywords are also very competitive and have high keyword difficulty. These core keywords are competitive & difficult to rank for on SERP.
You can use the ubersuggest chrome extension to check various metrics like keyword volume & difficulty.
5. Long-Tail keywords:
Long-tail keywords are search keywords or phrases that have a longer word count. The long-tail query is more specific and gets less search traffic, but usually has a higher conversion value.
6. Primary Keywords:
Primary keywords are also known as targeted or focus keywords are used to describe the context of your content and help you to focus yours on the target audience.
7. Secondary keywords:
Secondary keywords are the supporting keywords that include all other keywords you are targeting to rank for.
Secondary keywords act as semantic or long-tail support to your primary keyword.
8. Evergreen keywords:
Evergreen keywords have a higher search volume with less variance over time. Usually, people prefer to create evergreen content because it can be a low investment compared to the long-term value to the long-term value it produces.
9. Topical keywords:
Topical keywords are the keywords that can be either seasonal (e.g., Diwali gift ideas), or consistently relevant (e.g., weather report).
Google often favours new content for topical keywords.
10. Negative Keywords:
Only used in Google ads, are used to exclude irrelevant traffic to your website. Using negative keywords you can filter the traffic towards relevant audiences for your business.
What is Keyword Strategy?
A keyword strategy is an essential way to develop a successful search engine marketing campaign.
Here are some of the guidelines you should follow to have a winning keyword strategy:
Don’t just start with keywords:
Before you start writing your content about your offerings, it’s important to learn about your customers. Focus on gaining some real empathy and understanding about the customers you’re serving and their respective perspectives.
Building a seed keyword list:
Once you have gained an understanding of your customers’ needs and wants, prepare an initial list of words and phrases that effectively describes your business offerings.
Gathering the current keyword data.
If your website already exists, gather a list of what keywords are currently generating traffic to your website. You can use the Google search console and Moz keyword explorer tools to gather current keyword data.
Expand the list using various keyword tools.
You should always lookout for new keyword groups, synonyms, common modifiers, and long-tail permutations. You can use the following SEO keyword tool for this purpose:
a. Answer The Public
b. KWFinder
Group keywords by search intent.
Organize your keywords in a way that will be simple and useful for everyone who looks through them. This can be done by classifying them into audience-type, topic, or phase of the funnel.
Add keywords to content.
Choose 1-4 primary keywords to add on each page to maintain a balance between keyword difficulty, relevance, and search volume. Once those are chosen, find semantically related and long-tail keyword searches to support your primary keywords.
Don’t overdo it.
Keyword stuffing refers to the practice of loading more than the recommended amount of keywords in a piece of content.
Attempting to manipulate a website’s ranking in google search results is not a healthy practice. Stuffing a keyword into your content numerous times can cause your content to be removed from search listings entirely and results in an unsatisfactory user experience.
Avoid keyword cannibalization.
When you have too many identical or similar keywords present throughout the content on your website it is called keyword cannibalization. As a result, search engines like Google won’t be able to decide which content to rank higher.
How to use keywords in your content & where to insert them?
Title tags:
Title tags can improve rankings and click-through rate (CTR) of your website and when it is written effectively, keywords can help improve both.Meta description tags:
Meta description tags are like the title tags, and can help in increasing CTR.Most visible content:
Google‘s job is to crawl and index both static contents as well as dynamic content. As an H1 tag is at the top of the webpage it is the most visible content and gets more attention than boilerplate content at the bottom.Image and video file names:
You can include a descriptive name for image and video files by using a relevant keyword.Image alt attributes:
Alt tags makes your website more comprehensive for your visually impaired audience.ARIA tags:
Accessible rich internet application tags are similar to alt attributes. They help in making website content more accessible to those with disabilities. ARIA tags can be used on certain types of dynamic content, interactive content, and background images.
Generating Organic Keyword Ideas from Your Website(s)
There are additional tools that can help in recommending new keywords which can drive organic traffic based on your website and content analysis. Let’s look at a few:
- Google Ads Keyword Planner
Google ads formally known as Google AdWords,’s planner tool is a great source of finding popular keyword ideas.
You can search for words or phrases related to your products or services on Google ads. This tool can help you in finding keywords that are most relevant for your business.
This research tool can also provide you insight into how often certain words are being searched on search engines and how those searches have changed over time. This can certainly help you in narrowing your additional keyword list down to the ones you want to use.
- Google Suggest
Google Suggest is the tool that auto-fills in your searches as you’re typing in the Google search box. Google suggest is also known as Google autocomplete.
Lots of people struggle with Search engine optimization as they target very competitive keyword metrics.
Thus, it is more advisable to use long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are long, usually, 4+ word terms that searchers type in the google search box and Google suggest is the best tool when it comes to finding long-tail terms.
Additionally, you can also tools like Google Trends & Ubersuggest as well.
The best keyword strategy relies on relevant keywords. These relevant keywords are the keywords that closely relate to your business and are associated with your industry.
Selecting the right keyword will help you in driving relevant traffic to your business. At Itzfizz digital we help organizations develop the perfect SEO strategy, get in touch with us now.
Additionally here is a guide on SEO, 10 free SEO tools & on page SEO strategy guide to help you get started.
What are your thoughts on keywords let us know in the comment section.
If you have any questions mentioned in down in the comment section below & I will be sure to answer them.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) :
Why are keywords important to SEO?
What is the difference between a keyword and a search query?
Keyword: A keyword is a word that describes the content on your webpage. It’s the term that you want to rank for on a certain webpage of your website.
Search Query: A search query is an actual word or phrase that a search engine user types into the Google search box.
