The importance of keywords in your SEO strategy

SEO
without keywords, that’s not possible. After all, every search query on search engines such as Google begins with the entry of one or more keywords or search terms. Accordingly, a large part of search engine optimization (SEO) revolves around keyword visibility.

Keywords are the cornerstone of any search query. They help search engines like Google more clearly define users’ search intent. The content that matches the user’s keyword is shown by Google in the search results (SERPs).

Keywords are therefore the link between a user’s question and the answers that Google provides in the SERPs. That’s why keywords play such a key role in a website’s SEO: If you use the right keywords for a topic or search intention on your website and landing pages, Google will consider you relevant to the search query – and you’ll end up high up in the SERPs.

The type of keyword depends on the search intent, the accuracy of the search intent, and the search volume of the keyword itself.

Companies can create content according to a user’s search intent.

Once a user’s search intent and thus the type of keyword has been clarified, the next step is to distinguish how specific the search term is. Thereby, non-specific keywords tend to have a high search volume. These are head keywords or short-tail keywords. In contrast, there are specific keywords that can also have lower search volumes. Since they usually consist of several terms, they are called long-tail keywords.

Finding the right keywords, i.e. keyword research, is the first step of an SEO strategy. Of course, you don’t have to come up with the appropriate keywords. Keyword tools help you find the right keywords.

Keyword Tools

1. Google Keyword Planner – A free tool from Google that helps you find keyword ideas and provides information about how often they have been searched for in the past.
2. Ahrefs – A comprehensive SEO tool that provides keyword research, backlink analysis and content optimization features.
3. SEMrush – SEMrush also offers keyword research, competitor analysis and other features to improve your ranking.
4. Moz Keyword Explorer – A tool that helps you find keywords and get an idea of how difficult it might be to rank for them.
5. Ubersuggest – A free tool by Neil Patel that provides keyword ideas and search volume data.
6. keywordtool.io – Another free keyword tool that provides a variety of keyword ideas and other useful information.

Keyword analysis

Through keyword research, you will first get a long list of keywords. To evaluate the quality and quantity of each keyword, you need to create a keywords analysis. Here you consider the search volume, the competitive situation and ambiguity of the keywords. Then you can prioritize your keywords, break them down by topic, and consider which landing pages should rank for which keyword.

Once the appropriate keywords have been found, prioritized and categorized, it’s time for placement. The key here is to place the keywords as naturally as possible.

So don’t place keywords in places where they seem pointless, and don’t use a number of keywords that seem unnatural. Keywords are very important for SEO. However, the time when keywords were used just for the sake of keywords, simply so that as many of them as possible were placed on a website, are over.

When placing keywords, a distinction is made between main and secondary keywords. Main keywords are the keywords for which the page should rank. Mostly, these are short-tail keywords that appear in the title tag, meta description, H1, URL, and so on.
The secondary keywords are synonyms of the main keyword or variations. They find place in category pages, in any additional data like images or as variation in content. They can also occur in the H2.

The right placement of a keyword is important so that you also appear for this very keyword in the search results of the users. For example, if you sell dog food of any kind on your website, your main keyword would be: dog food. Dry food would thus be an inappropriate main keyword, because your offer includes not only dry food, but also wet food, puppy food, sensitive food, etc. You can use these specific keywords for category pages. However, on the home page, in their title tag, meta description, etc., it should say dog food.

Keywords are a kind of link. They connect the user’s search query with Google’s search results. That is why they play an elementary role for SEO. This means for you as a company:

No keywords = No ranking

This is because keywords convey a user’s search intention. And a user’s search intent is your sales intent as a company. So you should also consider keywords as a link between you and your customers.

SEO is the tool you use to keep you connected. Investing in a good SEO strategy is therefore your tool as a company to rank at the top of the search results and thus be successful in the long run.