What Is A Keyword? – Definition, Importance, And More

Definition Keyword

Today we will see everything related to keywords, from their definition to their characteristics when optimizing our website, one of the most critical SEO positioning factors to take into account.

First of all, we must know that when we speak of a keyword, we mean a word or identifier with a particular meaning for a programming language. Or what is the same? It is a word or a short phrase that describes the theme of a web page.

When, for example, someone searches Google for “cheap women’s perfumes,” Google tries to discern what the user is looking for to return a SERP of web pages that deal with the subject in question.

If your website includes in its content the exact phrase that the user searched for as a keyword or at least related phrases such as “women’s perfumes,” Google is much more likely to show the user your website among their search results.

Why are keywords important?

In a word: ROI. Knowing how to choose the keyword structures that best suit your website and learning how to use them correctly for SEO is undoubtedly the easiest and most effective way to attract more users to your website.

As we well know, search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for the success of our business, and it is the keywords that play the leading role.

Several paths can lead users to your website. Some examples are external links on other websites, publications on social networks, or direct traffic.

However, when we talk about online purchases, we must know that it is searches that generate the most traffic (38.98%), surpassing direct traffic (35.88%), external links (19.34%), and income through social networks (3.91%).

What is Organic Search?

When we talk about organic search, we must know that it refers to the results that the Google algorithm selects to meet the reader’s needs. Organic search represents 94.95% of all search traffic and 35.21% of total internet traffic.

That means only 1.97% of total traffic comes from users who click pay-per-click (PPC) ads, even though ads often take up all the content in the top half of the SERPs.

And is that keyword targeting is not only more effective than PPC ads, but it is also more profitable.

Optimizing keyword targeting

Another essential fact to keep in mind is that 91.5% of search traffic goes to web pages on the first page of search engine results (SERP). Among them, 61.5% of the clicks are for the first three results, with the first classified taking around 32.5% of the clicks.

The exacting reality is that you will never get good organic traffic unless you manage to rank in the top ten results.

That is why a good SEO strategy is so important. Good SEO not only increases your visitors and your ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs), but it also translates into more conversions and a considerable improvement in brand recognition.

In a recent survey that gathered data from a large crowd of marketers, 48% of respondents rated keyword research as one of the “most effective SEO tactics.” It is the second-highest-rated, second only to “relevant content creation.”

In other words, the only thing more important than finding the right keywords for your website is creating quality content that has real value for users.

Keywords and Content Strategy

A common mistake is to consider keywords as “specific words that get into the content” since it also gives us information about our strategy. Keywords help understand how people find your website and inform us if the correct type of content is being created for your audience.

For example, let’s say your website ranks 15th in search results for “mortgage expenses.” In this case, you will have the option to add more content to the page in question to push your site to the first SERP and thus get more traffic.

On the other hand, if you rank high for a keyword, but it receives very few clicks, it may sign that the keyword is not delivering the benefits it was believed to be.

Let’s look at an example, imagine that your company sells clothes to university students in a specific region. To attract customers and help improve your fashion brand identity, you decide to target “college fashion trends” as well as other keywords associated with college fashion.

After a couple of months and have managed to reach position five for the target term, you discover that your traffic does not improve or that users do not remain on your website after clicking on the article.

The problem could be because your customers see your clothing as a staple rather than high fashion, or because potential fashion customers don’t identify with the word “college,” at least when it comes to clothing.

If your keyword has a specific search term, you may face this problem.

Some of these terms are:

• Location: for example, “CDMX university fashion” or “Mexico fashion trends.”
• Seasonal: such as “summer college fashion.”
• Economical: with specifications such as “cheap fashion clothing.”
• Subcultural: like “clothing for windsurfers.”
• Type: for example, “flannel shirts.”
• Branded: that includes proper names such as “Ralph Lauren shirts.”

The content used is also another reason why the problem could be happening. It is necessary to make sure that the style used is beautiful to the audience we are looking for, not to use misleading titles and things like that.

The truth is that tracking a single keyword can leave us with a large void of data of great importance to our company. However, things change when what is observed is the impact of dozens or hundreds of keywords on the web metric, with data such as which pages attract the most customers, how long they stay on the web, what percentage conversion has, etc.

What are long-tail keywords?

When we talk about long-tail keywords or long tails, we must know that they are phrases used as keywords with three or more words that can help companies target their articles more effectively while boosting the SEO positioning of your website.

How can long tails help my content strategy?

The more your content is tailored to specific customer interests, concerns, and needs, the more effective it will be. For example, if you sell food products, you are more likely to attract customers with a food blog than with a recipe blog.

The same goes for keywords, and the more your content is tailored to what customers want to see, the better you will have both SEO and sales results.

This very article you are reading is also a good example of effectively using long-tail keywords. If you look at our title, “What are keywords? Guide for beginners,” you will see that in addition to informing the union, we also seek to attract users from outside the world of digital marketing through a simple long-tail word such as“ What are keywords? ”.

This strategy benefits us in two aspects; first, it makes it more likely that Google will classify our website for the searches of our target audience. It also allows us to offer users the answer to their questions without much effort. We’ll explain more about how keywords fit into titles later.

Keyword research for SEO

Google has a secret algorithm to classify all the websites that do not stop evolving, becoming more complex with each step. It is common to see digital marketers using various tools to choose those keywords that give the best results to your website.

Each of the tools used for keyword research has different characteristics; however, some features include most of them.

Also Read: What Is Affiliate Marketing? – Definition, History, And More