Types of SEO Keywords – Your Guide To SEO Success!

Google processes more than 40,000 keyword searches every SECOND. But how many of these searches help businesses gain profits? 

To know the answer, you need to be familiar with the types of SEO keywords and their classification. It will help you understand which type of keywords brings you just traffic and which brings you sales. Today, we will cover this topic in detail.

Let’s dive in.

What Are SEO Keywords? (Because Basics Are Must!)

SEO keywords are the words typed by Internet users on search engines when they search something on the Web. So, basically, these are the query phrases that people use.

SEO keywords example:

Suppose if an Internet user makes the query “red dress” on a search engine, the words “red dress” serves as a keyword.

For good SEO of a website, one must understand the search queries related to their niche and try to answer them as precisely as possible. This is the foremost thing. Then comes the technical part, which requires using keywords at certain places on your website – like in header tags.

When you do so, it serves two purposes:

1. It helps search engines to relate your web pages with relevant Internet users’ searches. 

That will help your web pages to rank high on particular search queries.

How?

When you create a site, Google crawlers, called “Spiders’ ‘ will crawl your pages. They will analyze the keywords and phrases that appear regularly on your web pages and associate them with these words. If they find it relevant, they will show your web page in the search results. 

2. It helps in smooth navigation on websites with multiple pages, especially e-commerce websites. Amazon is the perfect example of this.

On the homepage of Amazon, type a search query related to a product on their search bar. Hit enter, and you will see a list of product pages that matches your query. You can navigate to the product page you wish to go on. This happens because of the presence of keywords on those web pages. 

What Differentiates Types of Keywords in SEO?

Well, experts say many things in this regard. But the best answer is the intent of keywords. What internet users wish to achieve using keywords is what differentiates the keywords’ types. 

There are three types of intent that helps in the classification of SEO keywords:

Informational Intent

When people search for something for just information, without any particular goal,  their intent is informational. For example, when someone searches iPhone on the internet, the person just wishes to know about it. 

On the other hand, a person searching “iPhone 12 pro price” has some other intention. The chances are high that this person is looking to make a purchase. This brings us to internet users’ transactional intent. 

Transactional Intent

The users with transactional intent are looking to make a transaction – be it purchasing a product or service or even subscribing to a newsletter. So the guy in the above example, who is searching “iPhone 12 Pro price” has the transactional intent to make a purchase. 

Navigational Intent

This intent is of the internet users who are performing a navigational search. They are already aware of the brand. They just wish to find the right website or webpage offering the brands’ products.

Note: The intent of keywords is the base of the classification of keywords which further serves as a base for differentiating the types of SEO keywords.

What Are Different Types of SEO Keywords? 

As per the searchers’ intent, there are multiple types of SEO-related keywords. But it is not the only SEO keywords classification factor. The other one is the length of the keywords. We will discuss both, starting with the intent. 

Informational Intent Keyword Types:

Niche Defining Keywords

These are keywords relating to a specific market or industry. People use them to search for industry-specific information. These keywords may be specifically or broadly related to a niche. 

Examples: Running Shoes, Plumbing Issues, Restaurant Ideas

Customer Persona Defining Keywords

These search phrases help you target specific sets of audiences. When using these keywords, the users define themselves. Therefore, one can use such search queries to align with your product or services to rank high in search results.

Examples:  Gym Tips For Women, Shoes For Men 

Transactional / Buyer Intent Keywords Types

Product Defining Keywords:

As the name indicates, these search terms are linked with details of a specific product. Here, the users’ intention is to make a certain transaction like purchase a product and not just take the information. 

Examples: Nike Air Max 270 Price, Google Newsletter, Spotify Subscription 

Location Specific Keywords:

As the name indicates, people use these keywords to find something online in a particular area or location. It may be their current location or a city they are planning to visit. Using these keywords serves the best for local SEO. That’s why they are also known as local SEO keywords.

Examples: Auto Repair Near Me, Wedding Planner in LA

Navigational Intent Keywords Type

Brand Specific Keywords:

Keywords that include the name of a brand or other terms specific to a brand come under this category. Generally, these search phrases include the brand name and a product type or other brand descriptive terms. 

Examples: Reebok Running Shoes, Puma Gym Outfits

Product Specific Keywords:

These search queries contain the exact product name with some other terms to specify criteria for search results. You will better understand these types of keywords with their examples.

Example: iPhone 12, Air max under $50

Types of Keywords in SEO by Length

Short Tail SEO Keywords:

These are also known as Generic, Broad or Seed keywords. Search terms with one or two words that have a very high search volume belong to this category. They are directly related to the product or service you offer. But since you are one among the sea of billions of others offering the same service, these keywords have very high competition.

Example: Men’s Shirts

Mid-Tail SEO Keywords:

These search phrases have two or more words and are more specific than generic keywords. They have less competition in comparison to short tails as they are more specific. 

Example: Plumbing Repair Company

Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords in SEO are search phrases used by people when searching for something on the internet on a specific topic in a very precise way. These phrases are long – a minimum of 3 to 5 words. These search terms are more specific and better describe a particular thing. 

Long-tail keywords examples: “cheap men’s brown shoes” “Navy blue shirts for men” 

Why Experts Prefer Long Tail SEO Keywords?

There are two reasons behind it:

1. Less Competition:
Consider the following search results:

• “men’s shoes” – About 10,130,000,000 results on Google
• “designer men’s shoes”- About 385,000,000 results on Google
• “branded men’s shoes” – About 74,300,000 results on Google
• “cheap branded men’s shoes” – About 25,200,000 results on Google

As you can see, the longer the expression, the fewer matching sites there are. Therefore, long-tail keywords are easier to rank for. So instead of working hard to try and rank yourself on “men’s shoes”, why not optimize a page for “cheap branded men’s shoes”?

2.  Higher Conversion Rate
When the police ask someone to describe a thief, they hope to get as many details as possible, as this will help them find the right person. The same is the concept with long-tail keywords. People using long-tail keywords are in the purchasing cycle most of the time. So, normally, long-tail phrases bring in visitors who convert better. Thus, investing in long keywords is a winning “quality over quantity” strategy.

What are good SEO keywords?

Good SEO keywords for a fruitful keyword strategy depend on certain factors:

1. The Monthly Searches: this is the monthly average of the number of times the word has been typed by an Internet user on a search engine. This, therefore, gives you an approximate idea of ​​the traffic that this keyword could generate on your site.

2. The Competition: it is a question of how many Internet sites also wish to position themselves on this keyword. The more competition there is, the less chance you have of appearing on the first page of Google. A keyword analysis tool can help you in this regard.

3. The Relevance Of Keyword: The chosen keywords must align with your business niche and your site’s content for better SEO keyword optimization.

How To Choose The Right Keywords For SEO?

To choose the right SEO keywords for your site to rank well, there are a few points to consider:

• Establish a list of priority keywords on which you want to position yourself,
• Perform a competitor keyword analysis,
• The chosen keywords must be relevant,
• If you offer several products from different categories or various services, make sure to create a different page for each main keyword,
• Also, make a list of secondary keywords for each page. A free keyword tool like Google keyword planner can help you in this task.
• Evaluate the search volume for each chosen keyword using an SEO keyword research tool.

What is an SEO keyword tool?

SEO keyword tools help you find the right keywords for your website. They give you data and metrics about keyword analysis such as the number of monthly searches, country-based searches, keyword competition, relative search terms, and other things. Google ads keyword planner and SEMrush are two leading keyword planner tools that you can use.  

How are keywords in SEO Are Different from SEM?

In SEM, you target users according to paid advertising. So, your keywords are mostly transactional intent types. Whereas in SEO keyword analysis, you consider all types of keywords mentioned in this blog. 

How do I work on keywords on my website?

The most important point is one main keyword = one page. Ideally, the content of your page should be adapted to a defined keyword. This is where the writing of web content comes in,  which also requires respecting certain criteria:

• Include your keyword regularly in the contentṣ without overdoing it.
• The ideal keyword density is less than or equal to 3%.  
• If possible, insert your keyword in the first paragraph of the text. 
• Insert your keyword in the title of your page, the meta description, the subtitles.
  Each keyword must match a specific URL. 
• Use keyword variations in your content.

Google’s algorithms will look at the richness of the content of your page, its URL, and the relevant inbound links to judge your authority on the main keyword and position you higher or lower in the SERPs.

One bonus tip: create keyword clusters.

How to create Keyword clusters?

Creating keyword clusters is grouping non-similar keywords that have alike transactional intent.  This is done to target all the searchers who have similar transactional intent. 

For example, “shorts women”, “cotton shorts for women” and “women’s cargo shorts” are non-similar keywords. But they all showcase that searchers wish to buy linen shorts.

Keyword	Search Volume
shorts women	74000
cotton shorts for women	12100
women’s cargo shorts	18100

Now let’s say you sell women’s shorts online. If you only target the first keyword, you will leave out the traffic that other keywords can bring. 

Instead, if you target the primary keyword along with its LSI keywords, long-tail variations, semantic keywords, and some other relative terms, chances are you will have 10x more traffic as your webpage will rank for multiple keywords.  To understand this concept in detail, read – Keyword Clusters by SEJ. 

Final Words

There are many types of keywords in SEO. To find those that can profit your business requires understanding the searcher’s intent. Once you understand that, put yourself in your prospect’s shoes. Ask yourself what they would type in the search engines that can lead them to your site or blog.

Finally, be realistic. If your site is fresh, don’t aim too high right away. You will be competing with sites that have been around for years and have many more pages than you. Take the time to work on your strategy. Start with the most accessible keywords. Once you position yourself better, then you can consider more competitive keywords.

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