To answer this question, you should first know that one of the key elements of digital marketing is SEO. And it is that to sell or gain visibility content strategies are needed so that users who search for terms related to your business in an Internet search engine find you.
Identifying a keyword and choosing the right ones will benefit you in the medium and long term. So if you have a blog or a digital project, you are interested in knowing how keywords work, how to find the right ones, how they influence a content strategy, what types there are, and tricks to find them.
What are keywords or keywords?
A keyword or keyword is a term that a user enters in the Google search engine or any other search engine.
These searches can be single words, multiple words, or phrases. For example, one keyword can be “ affiliate marketing ”, as well as another keyword “what is affiliate marketing”.
What are keywords for and why are they important in a content strategy?
Doing a good keyword study is important for several reasons:
- Thanks to the use of keywords, visibility is gained. Users can find your website or blog.
- The appropriate selection of keywords for a brand or project will position it in the first results of Google and, as a consequence, will attract organic traffic and sales.
- They reinforce the brand image. The brands that users see in the top positions of Google are considered better than the competition.
- It will help you create a good structure for your website and define your content strategy.
- It saves time and money. By this, I mean that if we bet on a keyword that is not optimal because it has a lot of competition or attracts users who are not our target audience, we will be wasting time and money. Instead, if we focus on the right ones, time and resources will be well spent.
After selecting them, you should distribute them throughout the text. Mainly, in the title, in some H2 and H3, in the first paragraph, and the body, and in the slug. So the search engine will understand what the text is about.
Types of keywords and examples
Before moving forward on the subject and knowing how to choose the correct keywords, it is essential to differentiate the types of keywords that exist within a good SEO positioning strategy.
We can mainly differentiate between two types: according to their length and depending on their search intention.
According to its length
The length will determine if a keyword is general or specific. You must know that the more generalist, the more difficult it will be to position yourself in search engines. This means that the level of difficulty of that keyword will be higher.
Therefore, long tail keywords or long tail keywords are the ones that have the most potential to position themselves in Google or other search engines.
So we can distinguish, according to their length, three types:
- Head keywords: made up of a single term, which is why they are considered generic and are the most difficult to position on the Internet.
- Middle tail keywords: normally made up of 2-5 words and although they are usually more specific than the previous ones, they are semi-generic. These will also cost to position them, but if they work well in the content, they can be positioned.
- Long tail keywords: they are longer terms, made up of several words or a phrase, and are the ones that, if worked well, have the best results. In these, the competition is lower and they are closer to the user’s search intention (inquire, compare, or buy).
Examples of keywords according to their length: a head keyword can be “sneaker”, a middle tail keyword is “woman’s sneaker” and a long tail keyword will be “woman’s running shoe”.
Based on your search intent
Another way to classify keywords is by taking into account the user’s search intention when entering that keyword into the search engine. What is your purpose in using that term or what do you want to achieve?
We found the following types of keywords:
- Navigational: the user uses this type of keyword to access a company’s website and uses this method as a connection to access it.
- Informative: these are those keywords that a user uses to find out. They just want to solve doubts about a topic.
- Research: the user wants to know more about something and wants to compare before buying.
- Transactional or commercial: those that are related to the purchase of a product or service. If you have an e-commerce, they are very important.
Examples: a navigational keyword is “amazon” when the user wants to enter the web and does not remember what the URL was like. An informative keyword can be “what is SEO”, the user wants to find out about this concept. And a transactional keyword will be directly related to the purchase of a product “Sony ps-f9 turntable price”.
How these keywords work within content
As an interesting fact, you should know that informational keywords in the medium and long term are interesting to work on since they generate user confidence and you are positioning yourself as a reference.
So when the user decides to take the step to buy, they may come back to your site to do it because they remember you.
On the other hand, the research and transactional keywords are more interesting at the SEO level, since they are closer to the purchase. Here it would be interesting to write comparisons between your product and that of the competitor to convince the user that yours is the best.
Getting out in the top positions with commercial and transactional keywords means sales. But it is not easy. In addition to good SEO optimization, other issues influence: having a consolidated brand, which generates trust, offers good purchasing conditions and creates an optimal and attractive design.
How to find the right keywords for your business
These are the first steps you must take to find the ideal keywords and create content that ranks on Google and other search engines:
Analyze your market and competition
My advice is to brainstorm about the terms related to your business or project and then analyze what the situation is against your competition and see what your chances are.
Here your common sense also prevails, since there will be very competitive keywords that it will be better to discard and not invest time in them because they are positioning pages with a lot of authority or because they are investing in these keywords in Adwords.
Define your ideal client, what problem do you want to solve?
This second phase consists of defining your buyer persona or ideal customer profile in detail:
- What needs do you have?
- What are your fears?
- What problem do you need to solve?
- How you perform searches to obtain information or answer your questions.
Knowing all these issues, it will be easier to use keywords that fit and not only position but also be useful to the user and meet their expectations.
Remember that if the user does not find what they were looking for, they will leave and Google will understand that your page is not relevant to that search.
Start by positioning head keywords or generic keywords
Next, start by doing a Google search and take a look at the related searches, these are at the bottom of the results.
I also recommend that you look at Google’s “People also ask”, which are the related questions that people ask about that term. And they are long tail keywords.
Then use SEO tools to find keywords; There are many free ones that you can start with and I will tell you about them in the next section.
Look at those keywords that do not have very few searches, but are not very competitive either.
Identify long-tail keywords
The long tails keywords or long tail keywords are the ones that are not most interesting because they attract a qualified and specific audience, and also have less competition.
To detect these long-tail keywords, it can be very useful to use tools, which have a free version or are free. These are my favorites:
- Google Planner – To get data, remember that you must have an active Adwords campaign. This tool allows you to see at a glance the keywords, the search average, the competitiveness, and if they are investing in advertising and how much for that keyword.
- Google autocomplete: When you enter text in the search engine, Google will give you keyword suggestions. It is a great resource to find keywords or ideas that you had not thought of.
- Google Related Questions: This snippet from Google shows the most frequently asked questions by users. Ideal to use in your content.
- Google Trends: used to analyze the evolution of the number of searches for a keyword over time and compare with other dates between related keywords.
- Google Search Console: offers you information about which keywords the user has used to reach your site. What will help you measure your strategy?
- Ubersuggest: It has a free version and its strong point is that when you enter a keyword in its search engine, the tool will give you a large list of synonyms and related words; in addition to significant data such as volume, CPC, and competition.
- Keywordtool.io: If you don’t have an Adwords account, this is very similar to Google’s planner for generating long-tail keywords.
- Ahrefs: in its free (limited) version it has its Free Keyword Generator tool, very useful.
- Answer The Public: It is very visual because it represents the keywords in the form of a family tree. Based on a keyword, it will show us all the related questions and suggestions made by users. The only “but” is that the free account is very limited.
- Also Asked: visual, very similar to the previous one. Ideal to get an idea of the questions that users ask on the Internet.
Discard those keywords that are not relevant to your project or business
After following the steps above, you may have compiled an endless list of keywords.
What is the next step? Now comes the most difficult part, which is choosing those with potential for your business and the most relevant ones.
To begin with, I recommend that you discard those that:
- They have a deficient monthly search volume.
- They are too generic.
- Attract users who have nothing to do with your buyer persona
- They have very high competition.
Did you find this post useful what are keywords or keywords in SEO? I hope so and that you start a content strategy from now on to start positioning yourself and surpassing your competitors.
