Types of Keywords for Improving SEO
May 31, 2022
Written by Casey Bjorkdahl
Casey Bjorkdahl is one of the pioneering thought leaders in the SEO community. In 2010, Casey co-founded Vazoola after working for a Digital Marketing Agency for five years in New York City. Vazoola is now one of the fastest growing and most widely recognized SEO marketing firms in the country.
Creating a successful SEO marketing campaign includes a lot of research and a broad understanding of the different types of keywords available to you. Knowing what types to use and how these keywords help you can ensure that you improve your overall visibility and get more traffic. In this article, we'll define the essential keyword types for your SEO campaign, highlight how they work, and give simple examples of each keyword type.
There are a lot of different things to think about when it comes to types of keywords in seo. Adwords keyword types are specifically useful when planning campaigns. Branding keywords (or brand keywords) come in handy when optimizing around your brand name. General keywords can help to balance out your backlink profile when performing link building. Informational keywords are good for helping users answer specific questions. transactional keywords target users who are ready to purchase a good or service. The list goes on and on, and it can be hard to determine which keywords are best to target.
Ways the Best Target Keywords Affect Website SEO
Modern SEO marketing isn't about keyword stuffing but carefully choosing your keywords and identifying the most effective types of seo keywords. Weigh searcher intent alongside your keywords to find the best options that work the most successfully for your needs. Various SEO keywords types can:
- Enhance Your Online Presence: Carefully selected keyword types can improve your online presence by connecting customers to your website. For example, a customer seeking a specific keyword may find a page that uses that keyword several times.
- Increase Customer Traffic: Did you know that the average internet user leaves a web page after just 20 seconds if it doesn't meet their needs? Better keyword usage can keep people on your site longer by connecting them with content they enjoy.
- Improve SEO Presence: The primary purpose of your SEO keyword marketing is to increase your presence continually on search engines. Better keyword usage will cause Google and other search engines to rank your site higher and get you on the front page.
These benefits are more common when you do the appropriate keyword research and find the best types of keywords for your site. There are so many options you can choose here that it is crucial to select the kinds that fit the best into your specific site needs.
What are the Types of Keywords Users Can Search With?
Google searchers have many types of keywords available to them when searching. Being familiar with how users are searching can help you decide what keywords to use in your content and SEO marketing strategy. They vary in their search broadness and precision, with broader keywords drawing in wider audiences and more precise keywords attracting higher-quality traffic. These SEO keyword types include:
- Broad Match: Broad match keywords focus your target keywords more broadly and collect a wider potential audience. They may bring in more potential users but have the drawback of potentially frustrating customers if they're too broad, i.e., if the content displayed doesn't match their needs.
- Modified Broad Match: Modified broad match keywords let you fine-tune your keywords by searching for multiple keyword types in a single match. The general search is still broad but includes more specific terms than you get with a comprehensive match option.
- Phrase Match: A phrase match keyword focuses on a specific phrase with similar variations but doesn't seek an exact match. In this way, it lets you concentrate your keyword usage more effectively but does potentially narrow your potential customer base a bit more.
- Exact Match: Exact match keywords are the most precise keyword and, therefore, the less likely to convert traffic. However, the traffic you convert is higher-value, meaning that customers are more likely to spend time on your site before navigating away.
Include varying keyword types throughout your content to increase your potential SEO success. For example, use multiple broad match types of keywords, several modified broad and phrase match options, and a few exact match options. The balance here may depend on your content type and services or products.
How to Select Target Keywords
Use this simple keyword research process when choosing your website's target keywords:
- Find a Keyword Tool: Start your search by identifying multiple SEO keyword research tools and entering various search terms into it. These programs generate various keywords variations you may use when creating your online content options:
- Try a Keyword Audit: Google and other search engines include a simple audit that lets you gauge your keyword spread and quality. This information includes properly converting keywords and options that you might want to stop using, including dead keywords:
- Create Your Seed Keywords: Create a list of 5-10 seed keywords you want to use in your SEO. Create multiple variations on these keywords and carefully identify potential content that may go well with them. In this way, you can expand your SEO rankings and get better results.
- Produce Your Content: Now, create multiple web pages using these keywords and connect them throughout your site. Build out extra keywords and websites as your page grows, continually researching keywords and changing them to suit your SEO needs.
Important Keyword Examples to Use in Your Content
Consider these examples of how users search when using Google to find relevant content:
- Broad Match: Enter your keywords with no modifications and include 2-4 word phrases. For example, prescription toothpaste may include that phrase, medical toothpaste, and toothpaste for gum disease.
- Modified Broad Match: Add “+” to each term, including +prescription +toothpaste and any of the variations you created for broad match searches.
- Phrase Match: Put up quotes around your keyword, such as “prescription toothpaste,” alongside things like “medically useful toothpaste” and “powerful toothpaste options.”
- Exact Match: Put brackets around your keywords, like [prescription toothpaste] and stick to 2-3 word phrases like [men's prescription toothpaste], [women's prescription toothpaste], and [medically approved toothpaste].
Set Up The Best SEO Keywords for a Successful Campaign
By now, you should have a pretty good understanding of the various keyword options available to you. It should be reasonably easy to pick keywords, and you may feel comfortable integrating them into your overall account. First, however, make sure you do the necessary reach to maximize your keyword success. Doing too little research into the keyword types for SEO may cause some complications.