Keywords are like tickets in the journey of search engine ranking. But it is not just about placing a few keywords here and there in content. It is about understanding the types of keywords in organic SEO and how to use them strategically to boost your SEO.
Keywords have different functions and results in holistic SEO. Learning how to use those forms of keywords. That can help you boost the organic traffic of your website a lot. Let’s discover the numerous types of keywords and the way you may use them to improve website ranking in SERPs.
Table of contents
Basics of keywords
Keywords are the terms or phrases that people type while looking for something on the internet. And it acts as the bridge between what people are looking for and the content you provide.
Importance:
Keywords are very important in search engine optimization because they tell search engines like Google about the content of your site. So, if you optimize your site with applicable keywords, search engines can rank your content to people’s queries, which they are looking for.
Types of Keywords
There are numerous types of keywords. Each has its own purpose in search engine optimization. Understanding those keywords will help in targeting the right audience with the proper content. Below are some of the main types of keywords in organic SEO.
Short tail keywords
Short tail keywords are also known as head terms. They are the first words that come into people’s minds when they want to search for something. They are usually one or two word phrases. And they will have high a search volume and competition. They are the keywords that are highly searched for because they cover a wide range of topics.
Brand awareness
Short-tail keywords are ideal for brand awareness. If you rank for these keywords, you can have a large number of visitors to your website online.
Broad targeting
Short-tail keywords can attract an extensive range of target audiences. So, these kinds of keywords are particularly useful for big websites with good domain authority and brands.
Content creation
Including short-tail keywords in your content can assist search engines in understanding the general topic of your website.
Examples
Shoes – An online shoe business can target the keyword “shoes” to draw the target audience that is interested in footwear.
Pizza – A local pizza shop can use “pizza” to attract customers trying to find pizza in their place.
Benefits
Short-tail keywords can provide huge visitors and increase brand visibility.
Difficulties
Depending simply on the short tail, keywords cannot work. You must add some high-quality backlinks and content to get ranked in the SERPs.
Long tail keywords
Long tail keywords are usually three to five word phrases. They are more targeted and convert better than short-tail keywords. They may be very particular to a specific product or service and will have low search volume and low competition.
Targeted traffic
Long tail keywords are more particular in nature. Targeting them can lead to focused traffic. This means you may have the proper traffic with the similar intent of keywords in the content.
Content Strategy
Including long tail keywords in your content can help in targeting the audience who’s actively looking for your product or services.
Voice search optimization
Long tail keywords are specially designed for voice search because they are more specific to the searcher’s question. People generally use long-tail keywords for voice searches on Google.
Examples
Blue shoes for girls – Instead of focusing on the short tail keyword “shoe”, the shoe store can target “blue shoes for girls”. This will help attract customers looking for girls’ blue shoes.
Local pizza delivery – Instead of concentrating on the short tail keyword “pizza”, a pizza shop can use “local pizza delivery”. This will help the neighborhood pizza shop reach out to people looking for pizza in their area.
Benefits
Long tail key phrases have greater conversion price and lower competition in comparison to short tail keywords. The relevance of the resulting content for the searcher question might be more.
Difficulties
The search volume for long-tail keywords is less. So, you have to include different long tail keywords to get the traffic. Also, developing the content using long tail keywords is time consuming.
LSI keywords
LSI Keywords stand for Latent Semantic Indexing Keywords. They are the synonyms or related keywords for the main keyword. LSI keywords are very helpful in SEO as they are used to enrich the content on a web page.
Content quality
Using LSI keywords will help to create quality content. It helps in giving more information about the topic to the readers.
SEO
Include LSI keywords in your content to make it understandable to the search engines. The search engines like Google will recognize the content based on the LSI keywords. It will also help in ranking the content higher in the search results.
Examples
If the main keyword is “movie”, some LSI keywords could be “Movies theatres”, “Movies near me”, “Movies to watch”, “Movie theater showtimes”, and “Movies out now”.
Benefits
LSI keywords help search engines recognize your content and rank it in the top of the search engine result pages. Using quite a few related terms gives an extra natural reading experience.
Difficulties
You cannot depend alone on the LSI keywords. You have to use the main keyword and then include LSI keywords to create quality content.
Branded Keywords
Branded keywords are the keyword phrases that are made from your company name. It can be your product name, service name or your slogan. Branded keywords can be short tail, long tail or LSI keywords.
Brand building
Using branded keywords can help to increase your brand’s recognition. It can also help in building the trust.
Competitor defence
Ranking for your own branded keywords can prevent competitors from transferring you through paid ads.
High conversion rate
If a user is searching for your branded keyword, it means they are already familiar with your brand. It means they can give conversion opportunity.
Examples
Let us say your brand name is “Apple”, and a few of the branded keywords can be “Apple iPhone”, “apple iPad”, “Apple Watch”, or “Apple store”.
Benefits
Your branded keywords can lead to better quality visitors and higher conversion rate.
Difficulties
If you’re competing with a huge company, ranking for their branded keywords can be difficult. And generally, its keyword difficulty is very high.
Geo targeted keywords
Geo-focused keywords are search phrases that have geographic locations like city names, areas or landmarks. These keywords help the SERPs recognize where your business operates and where your audience is located.
Local search engine optimization
Geo focused keywords are important for local search engine optimization. This allows your business to appear on search results when someone searches for products or services in specific locations.
Increased visibility
These keywords will increase the visibility of your business amongst local customers.
Examples
Italian restaurant in Chicago.
Benefits
They attract visitors who are looking for something in your location. This leads to more traffic. They provide information that is specific to the location. This helps the users to find what they need easily.
Putting all the pieces of keywords research together
Keyword Mapping in SEO
Keyword mapping refers to the way keywords you use to maximize your possibilities of performing in search results for unique searches by focusing on a combination of long tail, short tail, LSI, and other types. You could cover a large number of results for queries and achieve a good target audience.
For example, if you sell footwear. You could use head phrases like “Walking shoes” and “athletic footwear.” At the same time, you can also use long tail key terms like “women’s strolling shoes” and “men’s jogging footwear.” You also can goal LSI key phrases like “running system” and “athletic garb,” in addition to geographic terms like “strolling footwear NYC.”
Integrating keyword research with content creation
Keyword research is a vital part of the search engine optimization method. But it is not enough to choose the best SEO keywords and forget about them. It’s important to do proper keyword research for the content creation to get the maximum benefits of keyword research.
Keyword research helps you to understand what terms people are looking for. And integrate those keywords into your content creation procedure. You can create content that is more relevant to the ones that are seeking queries.
Monitoring the keyword performance
As you start to enforce your keyword method, It is crucial to monitor the performance of your key phrases. This will make sure that your method is working. If some keywords are performing poorly than expected, then it is time to change the plan.
This includes adding more keywords to the content, modifying your target, or adjusting your basic SEO method by monitoring your keyword’s overall performance and making modifications as needed. You could make certain that your content is optimized for the searches that your target market is most likely to be making.
Conclusion
Mastering the use of different types of keywords in organic SEO is essential for a strong SEO strategy. From short-tail and long-tail keywords to LSI, branded, and geo-targeted keywords. Each type plays a unique role in enhancing your website’s visibility, relevance, and user engagement by understanding and strategically implementing these keywords. You can optimize your content for search engines, and searchers to attract high-quality traffic. And achieve higher conversion rates.