What are keywords?

Keywords are words or short phrases that internet users type to perform a search to find pertinent content for their contests. They are a crucial side of any successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.

Website owners chose keywords and incorporate them into their content to help search engines better understand their website and provide relevant content to complete an appropriate search query. 

When used adequately, a good keyword strategy will help a website rank highly in search engine results and drive high-quality relevant traffic.

Website owners need to find the appropriate keywords related to their website content and use them properly to help communicate the topic of their web pages to the search engine. This will increase their chances that search engine finds their webpage relevant to a particular query.

There are different categories of keywords, some specialists talk about two categories others talk about three. I think it is better to categorize keywords into three types, short-tail, mid-tail, and long-tail. They can be used conjointly or separately but despite that, they have different user purposes and will provide different results.

• Short-tail keywords: This category of keywords contains one or two words, and they have a large search volume. Short-tail keywords have high matches. They also do not detail what precisely the user is looking for.
• Long-tail keywords: They are search phrases with longer word counts. In comparison to short-tail ones, this category of keywords may not have a large search volume, however, are specific and will aid website rank easily.
• Mid-tail keywords: They are between short-tail and long-tail keywords, usually made of two to three words. They are more precise than short-tail keywords but they have a bigger search volume than long-tail ones.

Why are keywords important?

Keywords are crucial because they associate an internet user, with a specific search query, to the information provided by a website owner about the content of its page. If keywords and website content are not particularly assembled to provide relevant information about a specific term, visitors won’t be able to find and use the information.  This means a website owner can’t just drop a set of words on a page and anticipate results, he must identify the appropriate keywords related to his website content and use them adequately.

Keywords are essential for both attracting visitors to a website and ensuring that those visitors change into customers.

How to conduct keyword research?

Once you know the importance of keyword research, you are ready to begin. Your keyword strategy should be created based on some steps that allow identify keywords you should be targeting to attract the audience.

Step # 1: Brainstorm and make a list of broad topics related to your content

Create a list with general topics for the keywords you wish to rank for, it could correspond to product or service categories. Keep this list short and simple, with 5 to 10 topics at most.

You can identify the main competitors in your niche and use their keyword profiles to find ideas for your list of categories.

Step # 2: Expand each topic with new keywords and a list of phrases you think your visitors use

Keyword expansion will increase the efficiency of your strategy and the volume of visitors. Keyword expansion could be done on both existing keywords or/and new ones. Improving existing keywords could be performed by the expansion of more efficient equivalent types and identification of terms and phrases your target visitors might use in their search query to find information. Keyword expansion could also be done by creating new keywords.

Keywords expansion could be performed by analyzing your competitor’s keyword profile or using different tools.

Step # 3: Analyze the strength of your keywords

There is no predetermined method for performing keyword analysis. This analysis could be performed with a keyword research tool. The tool will analyze the strength of your keywords by:

• Determine Keyword Difficulty: you are looking for the exact search term? Does your keyword phrase match the precise search term visitor use?
• Look at Search Volume: How high is the search volume? You can’t build a strategy around keywords with low volume. Look for the highest search volume available.
• Note the Trend: Search Trends allow you to discover precise changes in search volumes. You will be able to find if the search trends are up or down. It also allows you to check how often a given search term is used in a search engine.

Final word

Keywords are and will remain important for SEO. Knowing your keywords will help you better understand your content and know who the target audience is.

Comprehending visitor behavior and trends will help you write better content and provide your visitor with what they are looking for.

Effective keyword research can provide crucial information on where you rank for keywords, which keywords are simple, and which keywords your competitors rank for.

Keyword research might tell what visitors are looking for, not what you think they're looking for.