When you think of Keywords for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), it may seem very simple to just think of some unique words which are included in your content and you are done, however, it involves far more research to create a proper keyword list which will improve your SEO and give your Website page an edge over your competitors. Let us understand it more in an elaborated way.
What Are SEO Keywords?
Even though you may be looking to publish your content on the web, however at some point earlier, you would have definitely been a user searching for a particular topic on a search engine like Google since it is very common for everyone to search a particular topic that way.
Now, the word which you use to search the topic is a keyword for the content creators of the topics related to your word and those who had included this keyword in their web content, will be shown to you rank-wise as a search result.
In simple terms, understand it in this way that search engines have to search billions of websites and web pages, so it cannot search the whole content of each web page which will take huge time to complete the search.
Instead, it searches only certain specific terms with single or multiple words set as keywords for each web page and returns the search result with the list of web pages which exactly or most closely match the search of the user.
How many types of keywords are there in SEO?
Mainly there are four types of keyword categories and if we include their sub-types, depending on the intent with which people search the topics, then we get 12 types of keywords and we will cover each one of them below.
Informational keywords
These are the keywords which people use to search for detailed information related to a particular topic i.e. they are looking for a particular detail or read something related to it for enhancing their knowledge.
As their intention is just to find the correct information, which is mostly one time, it is highly unlikely that they will purchase or sign-up for some services, subscriptions etc., however, if your web page has created a niche space for itself then the users will visit your page again and again, which will in turn generate a traffic for you.
This category of keywords can be further divided into below mentioned sub-categories of keywords.
Short tail or generic keywords
You will usually find these keywords are in the form of ‘question words’ put in the search bar for which your content should provide information like an answer to their questions of how, what and why.
These keywords consist of usually just one or two words, for which there would be many websites offering that detailed information. On the other hand, It is highly likely that the person who is searching topics would get your web content as the top search result, if your content is unique.
However very few websites are providing relevant information for short tail or generic keywords according to intention, and, it is risky as well to target a common word like ‘Inflation’ as a keyword, for example, because there are a lot of websites which provide information about these types of topics.
Mid-tail keywords
In mid-tail keywords, usually there are two to three words used as keywords for which search results are slightly broader i.e. there are good chances that your unique matching content will rank higher as it will cover topics related to those two to three words. One of the examples for these keywords can be ‘Inflation in India’
Long-tail keywords
In the same way as mentioned above, if the searched topic is a set of multiple words, i.e. combination of more than 3 words then it would be long-tail Keyword type. These types of keywords help you get more audience for your web page content as it covers more words and hence more topics than the short tail and mid-tail Keywords. Example of these keywords can be ‘Comparison of global and Indian inflation in the last 10 years’.
Primary keywords
When your page web content covers majorly one particular topic then that particular topic heading can be your primary keyword. It is called primary because your whole content is focused on this one keyword.
It helps you to target your specific set of audience and creates your niche for that particular topic. For example, if your content is about ‘global power politics’ then once you create that content for it, you can add this primary keyword to your heading, title tags, meta description, etc.
Navigational keywords
When a person tries to search the whereabouts of a company, shop for a specific product, etc. with keyword/s then that is a navigational type of keyword. So, these are the location-based keywords which are used to find the specific locations, services, usually listed in the local directories.
For example, ‘Best eye specialist near me’, this keyword will give a search result of an eye specialist who is nearest in location if (location search is switched on in the device).
Commercial keywords
As the name suggests, these types of keywords are used when the intent of searching keywords is commercial i.e. you want your audience to subscribe to your service or purchase your products.
For example, a medical website which gives a lot of details about the right kind of foods which help you to remain healthy, also wants you to purchase the health supplements promoted on their website. These keywords can be ‘Best health supplements’, ‘Which vitamins should be taken above 40’, etc.
Transactional keywords
These keywords are set for the customers who are ready to make an instant decision to purchase a product but need to find the closest match and complete the purchase. For example, when you try to search a product, usually top ranked search results are filled with the ecommerce giants like Amazon, ebay, etc. who have nearly all the products you can think of.
How to find your Best Keywords for SEO?
Best way to set your keywords is to ensure that your keywords are as unique as possible and at the same time, your keywords should truly represent the niche topic you have covered in your content.
Understand your target audience’s intent, be in their shoes to understand under what circumstances they search for certain topics and write your content accordingly or you can do vice-versa.
If your content is unique, it helps you to create your niche category and you will be in a good position to keep the appropriate keyword which works best for you and your content will be a SEO-friendly content.
Free Online Tools to find the Best Keywords for SEO
We have done our research and based on it, we have listed the top three online tools/websites which you can use to find the best keywords for optimizing your content.
Ubersuggest
This SEO tool on the website neilpatel.com provides you the top SEO pages report, backlink data, helps you to get the better content ideas and also most importantly generates a list of keywords based on what is working for your competitors along with the hot topics which are in trend these days.
You can use their free 7 days trial period to check whether this tool is really working for you to get the best keywords.
Google Ads Keyword Planner Tool
It is a free-to-use feature within Google Ads. As per Google, this keyword research tool gives you insight into how often a certain word was searched and how those searches have changed over time. Based on it, you can easily decide your keywords which are best suited for your content.
Moz Keyword Explorer
Last but not the least, you can use this tool to help you analyze the percentage chances that your keyword will be a top searched keyword. You will get a difficulty score which will tell you how difficult it will be for you to get top ranking using that keyword.
The higher a keyword’s difficulty score, the more difficult it would be to get a top rank for that term. Initially, you can use a 30-day free trial period and later use their Pro membership which will give you access to Keyword Difficulty & SERP Analysis tools.
SEO is all about visibility i.e. making your web content more visible on the huge world of internet and setting the right kind of keywords can help you to achieve your aim of making your web page a top ranked page.