Keywords are specific words or phrases that people used to find content on the search engines.If you wanted to look for places where you can learn digital marketing in your locality, you’d type digital marketing institutes in Bangalore. This, right here, is a keyword. Using keywords in content on your website can help present it to the users when they search for related information.
Keywords are like the protein of digital marketing. It helps the muscles of the website grow, stand strong and be more visible in the SERPs. It’s the essential nutrition that enriches an online presence of the website.
Used accurately and consistently, it can help visitors find your business faster and rank your content or the website higher. Keyword research is a huge part of SEO. Without keywords, there’s no such thing called SEO.
But just stuffing keywords in the content or in the website doesn’t mean it will work.
In fact, it can harm your website’s SEO and user experience, which will deter rankings on the SERPs. Place the keywords meticulously, keeping the search intent in mind.
And if you nailed keywords, you’ve nailed SEO and organic traffic will come pouring in.
However, it’s not a one-way street. It’s not as easy as you’d think. Keywords don’t come in one particular type. There are more than 10 different types of keywords in digital marketing and every digital marketer must know them and use them according to the content and websites needs.
Here is the list of different kinds of SEO keywords with examples.
Types of keywords
- Short-tail keywords
Short tail keywords are short phrases made up of less than 3 words. They are sometimes called head keywords.
Short-tail keywords are difficult to rank for as they have high competition. They have high search volumes as well, making it difficult to pinpoint the search intent.
A short-tail keyword example would be – running shoes, strawberry cakes, vegan cakes, etc.
Suppose if the user is using the keyword cake, it’s hard to determine if they want to know how to bake a cake, or how many calories they comprise, are cakes healthy or if they are looking for types of cakes.
As a result, short-tail keywords don’t convert easily because they don’t always match the search intent. But it can still help to use them as a theme of the content.
Characteristics –
- Broad search intent
- High competition
- High search volume
- Low conversion rate
- Mid-tail Keywords
Mid-tail keywords are slightly more descriptive than short-tail keywords but shorter than long-tail keywords. They contain at least three words and have medium-specific search intent but not pinpointing to a particular intent.
Mid-tail keywords too are difficult to rank for but with consistent effort and great content, it is possible. An example of mid-tail keywords would be eggless strawberry cakes, digital marketing courses, women’s running shoes, etc.
Characteristics
- High search volume
- High competition
- High conversion rate
- Medium specific search intent
- Long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are more specific and are over 3 words long. They are more like key phrases rather than a keyword. Long-tail keywords can match the search intent of the user well, as they are more specific than short-tail keywords.
They have low search volume but low competition, making them easier to rank for.
An example of a long-tail keyword would be “vegan-friendly cakes in Bangalore”. When a user uses this keyword, they are looking for bakeries or stores in Bangalore that make or sell vegan cakes.
And they are usually searching intending to buy them, so long-tail keywords convert well.
Characteristics –
- Low competition
- Low search volume
- High conversion rate
- Narrow or specific search intent
- Evergreen keywords
Evergreen keywords always stay relevant. The search volume may fluctuate every now and then but never hits rock bottom or goes too high. So when you write about something that’s centered around the evergreen content, it will always stay relevant and drive traffic even years from now. We highly suggest updating the content from time to time.
Content focused on evergreen content is usually educational. The more value you can provide in the content, the higher your position in the SERPs.
Over time, the views will increase gradually, thus driving some amount of traffic consistently.
Some examples of evergreen keywords are Search Engine Optimisation, daily horoscope, how to lose weight, skin care, etc.
Characteristics
- Moderate search volume
- Medium competition
- High conversion rate
- Specific search intent
- Fresh Keywords or trending keywords
Think about something that is hyped recently. Something that is trending and has a large search volume that dies down slowly. An excellent example would be Dalgona coffee. There was a huge craze for this coffee’s recipe because of the 2020 lockdown that lakhs of people googled how to make Dalgona coffee.
It was one of the 2020 trends that was short-lived and eventually died out. Now the search volume has drastically reduced for the keyword.
An advantage of using fresh keywords in your content is that you will drive explosive organic traffic to your site. You can mix it with the latest news and add your own spin to the content. You will also get new visitors to your site (or social media).
Characteristics
- Explosive search volume that stays high only for a short time
- Medium competition
- Specific search intent
- High conversion rate
- Product keywords
Like it suggests, keywords that define the products are product keywords. Users searching using product keywords are looking for something very specific. For example – scuba diving fins.
Using this keyword suggests that the users are in the early stage of the sales funnel which is the research/discovery process. They are looking for detailed information about the product. So when you’re targeting a product keyword, provide as much as valuable information as you can. This is crucial in the funnel stage. Add a couple of keywords from the product description.
Characteristics
- Low search volume
- Low competition
- Specific search intent
- High conversion rate
- LSI keywords
Latent Semantic Indexing keywords are phrase matches similar to the main keywords and describe their theme. Like how some words have the same meaning but are different. Like synonyms. To choose LSI keywords, pick a main keyword first.
LSI keywords are used when the content needs to fit broader terms and connect to the root keyword. So that your content will show up in the SERPs for different variations of a keyword.
For example, digital marketing institute is the main keyword. LSI keywords would be digital marketing courses, digital marketing training, digital marketing college, etc.
You can use an LSI keyword tool to generate LSI keywords.
- Customer defining keyword
Similar to product keywords, customer defining keywords describe an ideal customer. They revolve around your customer persona or an audience persona. Create an audience persona for your business and then search for relevant keywords. Is your product suitable for women? Or kids? Or only both?
An example of a customer defining keyword would be running shoes for women, kid’s school bags, men’s shoes, etc.
Characteristics
- Low search volume
- Low competition
- Specific search intent
- High conversion rate
- Local keywords
Location specific keywords are very important for businesses that have a physical store. Using them can optimise their website local SEO and present the site when users look for products or services in a specific location. Local businesses must use them if they are to beat their competitors in their locality.
Add local keywords to your Google My Business account and optimise it for local SEO. You can also target a specific town, state, or even a country. An example of local keywords would be digital marketing courses in Marathahalli, best bakeries in Indiranagar, best parlors in Bangalore, etc.
Local keywords are also known as inferred keywords and geo-graphical keywords.
Characteristics
- Low search volume
- Low competition
- Easy to rank for
- High conversion
- Moderately specific search intent
- Intent targeting keywords
Intent targeting keywords are of three types. Searchers are usually looking for answers with a query. It can be informational, transactional or commercial. Intent targeting keywords focus on keywords centered on a query to provide answers to them.
Informational keywords – When searchers use informational intent keywords, they are looking for general information about a specific topic. So use the keywords in the content that is providing useful information, that is educational too. Create content about what, where, why, when, benefits, etc using keywords involving those words.
Commercial keywords – Revolves around product descriptions, where to buy them, and other information related to purchases. Users using this keyword type are mostly looking to make a purchase, so you as a marketer have to use specific variations of commercial keywords that describe the product in-depth.
Transactional Keywords – Keywords like best price, offers, sale, discounts, guarantees, refund, free shipping etc are all examples of transactional keywords. They help customers empty the shopping cart or make them abandon it. So it’s very important to use the transactional keywords in the right place and in the right stage of the sales funnel.
- Negative keywords
Negative keywords are keyword variations of the same topic that you want to appear for or target. Negative keywords can help refine your relevance of the content and refine what the content is about. It’s especially useful when you’re promoting ads and you don’t want the ad to appear for particular keywords. You can filter out negative keywords by adding them in the keyword tool like AdWords or keyword planner.
- Branded keywords
Branded keywords are related to a brand’s name or their domain. Searchers might be looking for information about their products or services. For example, Nykaa shampoo, SEMrush tools, Learn digital academy courses, etc. Branded keywords therefore contain the name of a specific brand or a business.
Characteristics
- Low search volume (depends on how big or small the brand is. Big brands have larger search volume compared to smaller brands)
- Low or almost nil competition because the branded keywords belong to that particular brand
- Specific search intent
- High conversion rate (depends on the intent)
- Non-branded keywords
Keywords about products and services, even industries or institutions without a brand’s name are non-branded keywords. They’re phrases and words that people use to search for related products or services but are not referring to a particular brand.
An example for non-branded keywords would be digital marketing courses. Here the keyword is pointing to a service, but not to an institution. Similarly, mobile repair services, or app development services, orthopedic shoes, are all non-branded keywords not relating to any specific brand. OrthoFeet’s shoes is a branded keyword because OrthoFeet is included here, which is a name of the brand that makes orthopedic shoes.
Characteristics
- High search volume
- High competition (unless they’re long-tailed keywords)
- Specific search intent
- High conversion rate
- Seasonal keywords
Seasonal keywords are used only during a particular time in a year and the search volume dips after it passes. The search volume for keywords during Diwali, new year, Christmas, valentine, and other festivals and events will be quite high. For the keyword, what to bake for Christmas, the search volume will be high and dips after Christmas has passed.
Using seasonal keywords in the content during relevant times can bring in a lot of traffic. For a short while. Use this advantage and create the best content. It will again be relevant when the season comes around and you can get traffic from it if you update it.
Characteristics
- High search volume that fluctuates seasonally
- Medium competition
- High conversion during peak time
- Specific search intent
- Misspelled keywords
Ever notice how some words have different spellings? It might be missing a letter or two, but still acceptable in some countries. This differs with the English language of different countries. The word organisation with an ‘s’ is British spelling and in American, it’s spelt with a ‘z’.
Some people misspell words like accommodation, jewellery, necessary, accessories, etc. A few years back, marketers could benefit from optimising the page with misspelled keywords,
but when Google released an autocorrect feature, it no longer became relevant.
Characteristics
- High search volume
- High competition
- Low conversion rate
- Broad search intent
- Related vertical keywords
Related vertical keywords are related to your company, market and niche. They are related to the products or services similar to the ones you offer. For example, for a digital marketing company, related vertical keywords are –
SEO services
Social Media Marketing services
Website development
Lead generation services
Notice how these keywords are related to the services offered by a digital marketing company. Similarly products related vertical keywords involve keywords related to similar products that provide similar benefits and perform similar functions.
- Exact match
Exact match keywords are Google keyword match type that allows ads to be shown when users search for the keywords you are bidding on. An exact match keyword in Google Ads will only enter in auction in which the search query perfectly matches or is a close variant of your keyword.
For example, running shoes women and running shoes for women are exact match keywords and they match because the function word is changed.
Similarly, find the below examples in the image
- Broad match keyword
Like it suggests, keywords that provide a wide range of match to related keywords are broad match keywords. So when a user searches, your content or ads will show up even if it’s not exactly match the user’s query. It will show up when it’s closely related to the user’s query.
Using broad match keywords allow you to target many variations of a keyword. There’s a lot of scope and opportunities for conversions and lead generation.
- Modified broad match
Modified broad match, as the name suggests, is a type of broad match keyword with one key difference. It allows you to flag certain words as mandatory for targeting. Regular broad match keywords will look at related keywords or synonymous keywords, so adding a modified broad match will avoid that from happening. It’s used with a + sign before the keyword as shown in the picture below.
- Phrase match keyword
Phrase match keywords allow ads to show up when users are searching for related content using the exact keyword you used with additional words before or after the main keyword. It also appears for close variations of the phrases.
Word order is very important in phrase match keywords, meaning if someone enters an additional work in the middle of the keyword, your content or ads won’t appear to them. Words can be reordered as long as the keywords remain meaningful and relevant.
Importance of keywords in SEM
SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing. It’s an important strategy in digital marketing that compliments Search Engine Optimisation and content marketing that helps your website generate traffic and brings it to the top of the SERPs.
And it starts with keyword research.
SEM cannot bear any results if you do not do keyword research. Like we said earlier, keywords are like the protein of digital marketing that nourish and enrich your website. Keywords help search engine users find your content, and leads them to your website, thus driving traffic. Keywords also help raise the conversion rate as some types of keywords are focused on helping in conversion rate optimisation.
The kind of keywords you use determines the purpose of the content and helps search engines understand what your website and content is all about. Any marketer knows this and understands the importance of keywords in SEM. But if you would like to learn more, then Learn Digital Academy provides the best online digital marketing course and offline digital marketing courses in Bangalore.
