It is crazy how much we use keywords daily and do not realize the impact it has until the decision is made to be an entrepreneur then and only then do we realize the impact of what it is and how hard we need to work to be in that keyword space.  

As a content creator or writer, you are always looking to create content that is among the trending or to use those words that will have you in the top search when individuals search for items that are within your niche.  

Definition  

Often associated with the world of digital marketing keywords made simple is, the main word that is used to cipher a code and holds great significance in the statement. This holds the core of writing for blogs and website content for SEO purposes.  

Why Are Keywords Important? 

Keywords speak of connection; this connection is providing that main link where once a user types in the correct terms in the search engine then your website or blog will populate with the correct SEO.  This is so as the search helps to easily identify what the user(s) are searching for. 

For websites and blog, the main goal is usually to rank on all major result pages for search engine and in doing so one need organic traffic and your keywords’ job is just that.  

While your content is important for keywords and organic ranking, your audience is more so important. To organically rank with correct keywords, one must first know and understand the audience/visitor for the site. With this understanding, you will now know the correct strategy which will include the content style, topics and all to be displayed on your page. 

What are long-tail keywords? 

Long-tail keywords are also called key phrases these are usually longer keywords (contain three or sometimes more terms) that are not commonly used. When used are usually deliberate and most cases lead to conversions when used.  

What are short-tail keywords? 

Short keywords are also known as head terms and consist of one to three (1 to 3) terms and are more frequently used than those of long-tail keywords, this simply means they attract more visitors and hence can improve your organic traffic. 

Examples of long-tail and short-tail keywords:   

What Are Negative Keywords? 

The simple way of putting this is that negative keywords are used to block ads from being triggered by a particular term or phrase. This means once your negative words are added to an ad your search engine will not show and result for searches with that phrase or term. 

With the one mentioned earlier must be very particular in the word’s selection for negative words, in selecting the incorrect term/word, one stands the chance of negativing impacting their SEO.  

What Are Positive Keywords? 

Positive keywords are those that are usually used as triggers to generate an ad on varied search engines.  There are, however, two categories of positive/good keywords; search engine optimization (SEO) keywords and pay-per-click (PPC) keywords.  

PPC Keywords 

PPC keywords are those keywords that are used to rank a brand and your brand’s visibility. This increases site traffic, which can further increase conversion, thus enhancing the brand’s profitability increases the brand.  

For PPC keywords there are varied platforms that you can use to promote products and services, and one such platform is Google Ads. In this you pay for each click your visitors do on the ad as the name suggests (pay-per-click). 

Two areas of PPC keywords are, non-branded and branded keywords: 

• Branded keywords: these are words or phrases that include the branded names, and is used to attract visitors to your page it also increases conversions. 
• Non-Branded keywords: This is the opposite of branded keywords where the user that goes through with this option is usually browsing before final purchase.  

SEO Keywords 

Using SEO keywords aids in having your page(s) remain relevant and keep up with the competitors. In this also you will have the great factors that allow traffic for a longer period. One main difference with PPC keywords is that SEO keywords are free with aiding your ranking and brand or product awareness.  

What Is Keyword Difficulty? 

This tells how challenging it is to rank for a particular keyword and this is also called keyword competition. The higher the difficulty level on a word the more difficult it is to rank on that particular word and the opposite is also true.  

What warrants the difficulty level on a word/term to be high? This truly varies as what you will find is that terms that the marketplace is saturated with you will find that the difficulty level is high.  

It is recommended that to get ranked as a new website, blog or online platform you start with less competitive/difficult words. In doing this you are more likely to tap into the niche of the market you are in earlier. 

What To Consider When Choosing Keywords? 

In choosing keywords and determining the category of negative or positive it is recommended that the search volume considers and more specifically the monthly search volume (MSV). MSV tells the total number of times a user searches a particular term monthly. This also opens the area of content strategizing and have you writing on all things trending. 

I know the next question is, how can I know the MSV? The answer is, that there are multiple tools out there that will be able to provide the full information on this.  

Finding Keywords The Right Way 

Here are three steps that can help you find the keywords you need: 

• What are the personas of your user? 
• Double-check all results that you have attained from researched results (collected and analyzed data)  
• Investigate the competition using keywords you are looking to use. 

 Conclusion 

For a quick recap, we have taken a brief look at the term keywords and hope in reading you learn all there is to know to launch your next project correctly.  

With this article, we now understand keywords are generally used to hold the key part of a statement and aid well with SEO. The importance of long tail and short tail keywords as one covers a wider range of searches than the other and more.