8 Types of Keywords in SEO

SEO or Search engine optimization is a process that the world has realized the power of. It is one of the most prominent marketing processes across the globe. Over the last 2 decades, the significance of SEO in marketing has increased for over 100 times. Brands, industries, movie makers, filmmakers, celebrities, influencers, politicians, and almost every industry that needs some connection to be established with the public and some marketing for it has to depend on SEO in some way.

SEO helps to highlight the presence of a certain person, brand, thing, or literally anything on the various search engines. Search Engine optimization has grown into an industry in itself. There are people employed in it. There are SEO experts who get high pay all along. Well, SEO is not just a single thing. It is a combination of different processes and activities that are done for improving search engine presence, a very prominent of which is web content. Web content is the information published on a certain topic on a website. The website can be a blog too. The web content or articles published on these websites include ‘Keywords’, these keywords help the search engine recognize what all the article is about. Keywords comprise search terms. Keywords are actually based on the search queries. 

In this article, we’ll be describing 8 types of keywords in SEO that every marketer should know to get successful, but first, let’s look at a better definition of SEO and keywords.

What is SEO?

SEO is an internet marketing process that intends to increase the traffic or page views on a website by understanding the search engine algorithms and use of many processes. Search engine optimizers analyze various aspects of a website’s performance and try to derive as much traffic as possible through unpaid methods rather than direct traffic through paid ads. A huge part of SEO involves analysis of user search queries and search keywords.

What are Keywords in SEO?

SEO keywords are phrases of a small group of words that are added to the web content to help a search engine identify what the content is about and optimize web content for the search engine. The main aim of adding the right keywords to the content is to improve search engine rankings.

These keywords are derived from a process known as Keyword research which is done by most search engine optimization professionals with the help of many paid tools and services that determine what the users are actually entering in the search.

Now that you know what SEO is and Keywords and why they are so important let’s know about 8 types of keywords in SEO that every marketer needs to know.

8 types of keywords in SEO that every marketer needs to know

As a digital marketer, one must have good knowledge about SEO and its processes. Keyword research is an essential component of SEO. Below given are the 8 most important types of keywords in SEO.

1. Long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are those keywords that contain more than 2-3 words, as the name suggests. Long-tail keywords generally have lesser competition and also have a lower search volume because these target a very specific set of search queries.

With long-tail keywords, the marketers can easily pinpoint search intent. Long-tail keywords serve as a good way for low-authority websites to gain some search engine rankings and gain authority.

Long-tail keywords are very specific in nature, and so that means that the user is willing to take action. Product marketers have a great opportunity with Long tail keywords as the users here can be converted.

2. Short-tail keywords

Also known as head keywords, short-tail keywords are shorter in length, but that also makes them very broad. It gets almost impossible to match the search intent. These keywords can be better used as theme keywords. Short tail keywords are difficult to compete on.

Let’s take an example of a keyword, ‘Avocado,’ no one can tell what the user might be searching for. The user can be searching for health benefits of avocado, Vitamins in Avocado, or anything related. Short tail keywords don’t have a search intent.

With the help of short-tail keywords, long-tail keywords are determined. In our example of ‘Avocado,’ the short tail keyword is used to determine other long-tail keywords, like the health benefits of Avocado and vitamins in Avocado.

3. Product defining keywords

These are the keywords that help in describing your product. These keywords are largely used by product marketers. With product-defining keywords, you can achieve a significant number of sales as the user searching for such keywords is already in the first stage of making a purchase. All you need is a little definition to guide them to the buy button.

For example, These are not just any regular mobile chargers, but high tech and fast mobile chargers. Where ‘mobile chargers’ is the product and ‘high tech, and fast mobile chargers’ is the product defining keyword.

4. Long term evergreen keyword

Evergreen keywords are the ones that hold relevance all the time. The search volume keeps fluctuating, but that fluctuation is minor. People need to search these keywords all year long. These keywords are great for building the site authority as the content hosted on these keywords is primarily educational and informative. So, if you can publish a nicely crafted and informative piece of content on long-term keywords, you will gain some authority points for sure.

Long-term evergreen keywords also help you in maintaining a constant inflow of traffic, which is essential for maintaining SERP and ranking on other keywords.

5. Short term fresh keywords

These keywords are related to a specific event or something related to a short period of time. The traffic on these keywords is not consistent at all, but it is very effective in driving a huge inflow of traffic in a short time.

These keywords are helpful in attracting new audiences and therefore helping in the long term. Such types of keywords are generally used by news websites, viral content websites, and event bloggers.

6. Customer defining keywords

Customer defining keywords and product defining keywords go hand in hand many times. Customer representing keywords tell the visitor for whom the product is. The more detailed you can give about your targeted customer in the keyword, the more sales you can generate.

Without customer-defining keywords, you can often have conversion fewer visitors on your site. Let’s take an example to explain this, suppose there is a product defining keyword, ‘Energy drink made from high-quality organic herbs’ this product defining keyword will receive traffic from all the genders and all ages, but let’s assume that the product is only for adult men, then, a lot of our visitors are not going to purchase anything. To solve this issue, we will add a customer-defining keyword, ‘for male adults,’ and make it ‘Energy drink made from high-quality organic herbs for male adults’ to reach the targeted persona.

7. Latent Semantic Indexing or LSI keywords

LSI keywords are the ones that are related to your main theme of the website. Suppose you are running a website based on trimmers, then your LSI keywords for it will be Beard trimmers, Trimmers for men, Trimmers for women, etc.

LSI keywords help in maintaining the appropriate amount of content on the site. These keywords help to improve the ranking by helping search engines understanding the niche and theme of the blog.

These keywords generally have a low search volume and low competition but a specific search intent. These have a better conversion rate and help in boosting the site’s ranking for the main keyword.

8. Intent Targeting keywords

These keywords are used to target the intent of a user. When the user makes a search, the intent generally falls into three categories, namely Informational, Commercial and transactional.

Informational intent targeting keywords generally tend to educate the user on words like how to, steps to, what, why, where are used in these keywords. These keywords are great to initiate customer interest.

Commercial Intent Targeting keywords target users who are willing to make a purchase. These users need to know about the product or service you are offering. So you should use keywords like Specifications, features, qualities, shipping fees, etc. To give the user a fair idea about the product.

Transactional Intent targeting keywords target users who are already ready to buy your product but are comparing the prices and terms with other websites. You’ll have to interest them by using keywords like best price, best buy, additional discount, 24-hour customer support, hassle-free returns, etc.

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