Keywords – what are they and how do you choose the best phrases?

Table of content

Keywords are the basis of almost every textual content on the Internet. They bring many benefits, so learn how to choose the best phrases!

Keywords – what are they?

Keywords (also known as keyword phrases) are words that you type into a search engine to display the pages you want.

The use of keywords in the text plays an important marketing role. Thanks to them, it follows:

  • increase in positioning
  • generating website traffic
  • more potential customers

What’s more, the correct use of phrases improves the clarity of the text and makes it easier to read. For this reason, they have found widespread use in copywriting, significantly increasing its business potential.

Types of keywords

There are several ways to use phrases. They can be modeled in terms of length and search intent. In the first case, we distinguish the phrases:

Short tail

Short, composed of 1-3 words. The advantage is high searchability, while the disadvantage is low conversion and significant competitiveness. Example of a phrase along with the difficulty and number of searches:

Long tail

Long-tailed keywords are, composed of at least 4 words. Similarly, the advantage is a high conversion rate and low competition, and the disadvantage is a small number of searches. Example:

Keywords categorization by intention

As for user intent, keywords can be:

  • informative  – e.g. “is it worth using disposable gloves”. They are related to the most basic intention, which is to expand knowledge.
  • navigational  – e.g. “SafeHand gloves”. Works well when a user is looking for a specific product.
  • transactional – e.g. “disposable gloves shop”. For these phrases, there is an intent to buy.
  • investment – e.g. “latex or nitrile gloves”. These words occur when the user is interested in buying and looking for additional information.

Knowledge of individual types is extremely important for a copywriter to accurately match phrases to the information contained in the content. Thanks to this, the effectiveness of the created textual contents increases significantly.

Inserting keywords

Content to be visible on Google must contain keyword phrases. It is thanks to them that the text is indexed and then displayed for specific queries. Use key phrases naturally, in different variations, every 50-200 words.

Example

If your intention is to create an article to gain traffic for the phrase “is it worth using disposable gloves”, you can successfully use the following phrases:

  • “disposable gloves – are they worth it?”
  • “advantages of disposable gloves”
  • “why is it worth using disposable gloves”

Thanks to this, the article will be indexed on many related phrases, and the content itself will become more natural and accessible to readers.

Keywords are the foundation on which the entire text rests. Therefore, it is important to use them not only in the text, but also in strategic places of the article.

Title

This is the most important field to use a keyword as it tells you what the content is about. Already at this stage, the search intention and the length of the phrase should be specified in order to adjust the information provided to what users are looking for.

Tip: A catchy title increases your click-through rate, which further boosts your SEO.

Headlines

When writing text, you should add headings of different sizes – from H2 to H6 (H1 is the title). Thanks to this, you will build a clear text structure for SEO and sort the described issues. Such a procedure will improve readability and have a positive effect on positioning.

Headlines

The best place for the keyword phrase are H2 and (optionally) H3 headings. You don’t have to use all the headings – the priority is the natural tone of the text.

Body

According to the above-the-fold principle, the words above the scroll line, i.e. at the beginning of the content, are the most important. For this reason, the introduction of the article is another place where the use of a key phrase will increase its weight.

Tip: smaller headlines refer to more specific topics, so it is worth using them to promote long tail phrases.

Tip: To make the introduction inviting, it should introduce the issues raised, but not answer any of them.

How to choose key phrases?

Precise selection of keywords to a large extent influences the final results. It depends on him whether the created texts will become visible in Google.

You can select phrases in several ways:

Manual search

This consists of entering an interesting phrase in Google. Although such action is extremely simple and free, it carries a lot of valuable information.

From the very beginning, Google suggests related terms:

At the bottom of the page, the search engine displays similar searches that are also popular:

The analysis of organic results will also bring a lot of valuable information. Based on it, you can easily assess the strength of your competitors:

As you can see, in this case we are dealing with large portals, which clearly indicates that it will be difficult to gain visibility for such a general key phrase.

Unfortunately, the above method is limited in terms of the data received. In order to precisely select key phrases, based on objective parameters, you should go towards analytical programs.

Tool search

This is where a keyword search engine comes in handy, such as:

Google Keyword Planner

This free tool displays phrase suggestions as well as the number of searches per month. However, it should be noted that the data relates mainly to Google Ads (as indicated by CPC rates), which in the case of positioning gives limited possibilities.

KWFinder

This program presents a much larger set of data. Namely, it displays several hundred proposals for similar phrases and competitiveness in terms of SEO, and also allows you to preview the parameters of domains that occupy high positions in Google.

Unfortunately, the quality goes hand in hand with the price, which is 29.90 euros per month in an annual payment, although the first few analyzes are free.

AnswerThePublic

The tool, which was originally supposed to help creativity in finding new ideas, has become another interesting solution in the selection of keywords.

After entering the phrase, we receive numerous suggestions for topics, where the shade of the green circle indicates greater competition:

Two analyzes a day are free. For more demanding copywriters, it is necessary to purchase a subscription, which costs $ 79 per month for an annual subscription.

Keywords - questions and answers

Below we present the Q&A section.

How do keyword phrases work?

Google promotes useful information to meet the needs of users. For the search engine, keywords are an indication of what the topic is about and what queries to display the page for.

The condition for success is the high quality of the text, so phrases should be placed in a natural way. It is important that they occur several times in the content, as well as in the title, introduction and the most important headings.

What determines the effectiveness of keywords?

There are two main factors that affect how a page is displayed on Google:

  • competition – the more pages that have used a given phrase, the harder it is to break into the top position. This is because the content has to compete with more other sources, which means it requires more effort.
  • company resources  – the existing content that exists on the website is equally important. The keyword will be stronger if it is included in the built topical authority and cornerstone content. The SEO potential is additionally increased by internal linking to other articles, as well as the use of semantically similar phrases (LSI keywords), naturally occurring in high-quality articles.

However, positioning consists of hundreds of other factors, so any change that positively affects the user experience will increase visibility on Google. For this reason, you should also take care of page loading time, clear structure, SSL certificate, etc.

How often should you change your keywords?

There is no rule about how many variations of keywords to include in your text. It is worth remembering, however, that variations can broaden the scope of indexation, which will allow the article to be displayed for more phrases.

This is related to the Hummingbird algorithm, which was introduced to Google in 2013. It put emphasis on the context of the query, displaying more precise results. For this reason, the use of phrases in the form of Q&A and definitions increases the overall visibility of the text and can generate featured snippets.

Do you always need to use keywords?

NO. Phrases in the text are needed when the place of publication is indexed by Google. An example is:

  • blog page
  • offer page
  • online shop
  • backend site

On the other hand, keywords do not need to be used when the purpose of the text is:

  • e-commerce platform (Konga, Jumia etc)
  • social networking site
  • leaflet and product catalog

Summary

  • Keywords are words you type into a search engine to get query results.
  • Using them in the text indexes the page, which increases its visibility and generates organic traffic.
  • There are several types of phrases. They differ in length and search intent.
  • Keywords should appear in the title, introduction, headings, and several times in the text (once every 50-200 words). It is important to place them in a natural way, using different variations.
  • Keyword selection is important for optimal results. There are simple, free ways to do this, but paid programs offer much more data.

Lordson Okpetu

I'm many things rolled into one; I'm an ex-journalist, a content strategist, digital marketer and 'rockstar' direct response copywriter. I've written tons of copies to sell thousands of products and services across diverse industries in Nigeria. In my occasional spare time, I play chess or spend time with my family. I am the Chief Operating Officer of Content Writer, Nigeria.

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