WHAT ARE KEYWORDS & WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT FOR SEO?

When it comes to SEO, the importance of keywords cannot be denied. If you want to start a blog and break into content marketing, the first step is learning about keywords. You may have received a lot of advice about the proper use of keywords and their role in SEO, but if you don’t understand the basics, it’s easy for beginners to get confused. So let’s explore the basics:

What are SEO Keywords?

Keywords have two main functions:

  1. To help Google know which topics you want to rank for;
  2. To correspond exactly with what your target customers are searching.

SEO uses keywords to make content searchable, so it can appear in the top results. Keywords are phrases or words responsible for bringing organic traffic to your site.

Types of Keywords

While discussing keywords, it is important to define these two terms:

Long Tail Keywords consist of three words or more. They can be simple or complex phrases, but are generally specific and describe the main theme of the article. Some examples are: ‘ways to earn money online’ and ‘ways to lose weight in 4 weeks’. Long-tail keywords are better for SEO and bring highly targeted traffic to your site.

Short Tail Keywords are less specific, and only 1-3 words long. Examples include ‘what are cookies’, ‘lose weight’, ‘job search’, etc.

For example, the concept of keywords can be easily understood when you look at the analytics of famous bloggers. If you are a blogger, you may attract maximum traffic from just 5% of your posts. So why are these posts getting such high traffic?

Well, these few posts get ranked in search results and target exactly the right users.

How do I Optimise Keywords for SEO?

If you want to optimise your blog post for SEO, the first step is to find the right keywords. The process of finding an appropriate keyword is known as keyword research. There are various paid and free tools that can help you with keyword research:

  • Google Keyword Planner (free)
  • SEMrush (paid)
  • Ahrefs

Quick tip: you can also find keywords when you type the relevant keywords on Google, and see all the search queries that appear below. This is an easy and reliable way of finding appropriate keywords.

Writing Optimised Content

For on-page SEO optimisation, it is crucial to add the keyword in the meta descriptions, headings and meta titles. There are various plugins if your site is built on the WordPress platform that can help you write this easily.

Now you have read about keywords and their importance in SEO, it’s all up to you. If you want to make the most out of your SEO journey, we strongly recommend investing in a paid tool. If you’ve just landed in the blogging field, try to implement simple and free ways of finding the low competition keywords.