How does keywords work

Very helpful article for me. I was searching for this topic because I am a blogger in the beginner stage. Now I will use these methods for my blog. I hope it will diffidently work for me. Hey, Thanks for sharing this article. It is very valuable to beginners. I will share this with my colleagues. Keep Posting. Have a good day! I appreciate your time and willingness to share some of the knowledge you have accumulated over the years.

This is about the best article on this topic. I have searched and read many articles, by Neil Patel, Search Engine Journal, etc and I have always felt something is still missing. But you just nailed it completely. The way you explained how to integrate primary, secondary and other keywords into a post and not making it look obvious is really simple. I have a post on my website that draws many keywords on the first page in google serps and some on the second page and I found that those on second page are only mentioned once in the post while some still are not mentioned.

This article just showed me how to integrate many more keywords into that post. All points mentioned here are fantastic! I followed your suggestion and get traffic on sites.

Thank you for such an informative article. Amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing content WOW. Thank you Matt! Hi, Thank you for your article. Where can I find keywords list for my beauty online magazine? Your email address will not be published. Give us your email address to learn more about how we can create high-quality content for you.

There are 3 main types of keywords for SEO: Primary Keyword Secondary Keywords Additional Keywords Your primary keyword should be the main focus of the entire article, so the title and ensuing content should reflect that.

You should insert keywords into your content writing using the following steps:. Use Keywords Within the First Words Many experts believe that Google gives more weight to the first words in your content. Use Keywords in the Last Words Similar to how an introduction of an article is important to keyword rankings because it sets the framework for the content, it could be argued that the conclusion or last words is just as important, if not more important.

Use Keywords in Headings H1s, H2s, H3s, etc Headings are a formatting tool that most text editors offer to allow you to help break up your text. How to Use Keywords in Heading 2s H2s Heading 2s, or H2s, are where you can do the bulk of inserting important keywords. How to Insert Keywords to Heading 3s H3s Heading 3s, or H3s, are used to help break up and list individual points in the main sections. Use Keywords in Anchor Text Links When a keyword is used as an anchor text link in your content, it implies that there is a place to find even more information regarding that word.

Use keywords in title , headers, Alt-Image tags. Insert keywords in the first and last paragraphs and evenly throughout. While keywords are great, the meat of the content is the most important thing you should focus on. Keyword-riddled content helps nobody and Google will not rank your content unless it helps somebody.

Author Recent Posts. Follow me. Matt Secrist. Matt is passionate about writing quality content, watching NBA basketball, going backpacking and taking mid-day naps. Latest posts by Matt Secrist see all. Search for:. Mollah on November 29, at am. James Steven on December 3, at am. Kabiru on August 4, at am. Great Information, thanks so much Reply.

Jon Bingham on December 7, at am. No, it means using the secondary keyword is a good thing. Shazal Mumtaz on October 12, at pm. I really appreciate you.

Minna on December 28, at pm. Pritesh Patel on January 11, at am. This is an amazing article. Thank you so much!! Auxine on January 21, at am. Thank you for this! Good knowledge to keep in mind.

Yuvraj Makkar on February 8, at am. Amy Stanley on March 7, at am. Manish singh on April 2, at am. Really very nice article. Amjad Ansh on April 7, at am. Shubha on April 12, at am. Dwayne on July 29, at pm.

Rhishikesh Gaikwad on April 12, at pm. Wow Superr!! Lise on April 24, at am. And remember, if you're having trouble coming up with relevant search terms, you can always head on over to your customer-facing colleagues -- those who are in Sales or Service -- and ask them what types of terms their prospects and customers use, or common questions they have. Those are often great starting points for keyword research. Download the Template. This template is designed to help you do the same and bucket your keywords into topic clusters, analyze MSV, and inform your editorial calendar and strategy.

Like I said in the previous section, user intent is now one of the most pivotal factors in your ability to rank well on search engines like Google. Today, it's more important that your web page addresses the problem a searcher intended to solve than simply carries the keyword the searcher used. So, how does this affect the keyword research you do? It's easy to take keywords for face value, and unfortunately, keywords can have many different meanings beneath the surface.

Because the intent behind a search is so important to your ranking potential, you need to be extra-careful how you interpret the keywords you target. Let's say, for example, you're researching the keyword "how to start a blog" for an article you want to create.

Does the searcher want to learn how to start an individual blog post? Or do they want to know how to actually launch a website domain for the purposes of blogging? If your content strategy is only targeting people interested in the latter, you'll need to make sure of the keyword's intent before committing to it.

To verify what a user's intent is in a keyword, it's a good idea to simply enter this keyword into a search engine yourself, and see what types of results come up. Make sure the type of content Google is closely related to what you'd intend to create for the keyword. This is a creative step you may have already thought of when doing keyword research.

If not, it's a great way to fill out those lists. If you're struggling to think of more keywords people might be searching about a specific topic, take a look at the related search terms that appear when you plug in a keyword into Google. When you type in your phrase and scroll to the bottom of Google's results, you'll notice some suggestions for searches related to your original input. These keywords can spark ideas for other keywords you may want to take into consideration.

Want a bonus? Type in some of those related search terms and look at their related search terms. Keyword research and SEO tools such as Ahrefs , SEMrush , and Ubersuggest can help you come up with more keyword ideas based on exact match keywords and phrase match keywords based on the ideas you've generated up to this point.

This exercise might give you alternatives that you might not have considered. Once you have an idea of the keywords that you want to rank for, now it's time to refine your list based on the best ones for your strategy. Here's how:. Before choosing keywords and expecting your content to rank for them, you must curate keywords for three things:. Google ranks content for relevance.

This is where the concept of search intent comes in. Your content will only rank for a keyword if it meets the searchers' needs.

In addition, your content must be the best resource out there for the query. After all, why would Google rank your content higher if it provides less value than other content that exists on the web?

Google will provide more weight to sources it deems authoritative. That means you must do all you can to become an authoritative source by enriching your site with helpful, information content and promoting that content to earn social signals and backlinks. If you're not seen as authoritative in the space, or if a keyword's SERPs are loaded with heavy sources you can't compete with like Forbes or The Mayo Clinic , you have a lower chance of ranking unless your content is exceptional.

You may end up ranking on the first page for a specific keyword, but if no one ever searches for it, it will not result in traffic to your site. Kind of like setting up shop in a ghost town. Volume is measured by MSV monthly search volume , which means the number of times the keyword is searched per month across all audiences. If you don't know the difference between head terms and long-tail keywords, let me explain.

Head terms are keywords phrases that are generally shorter and more generic -- they're typically just one to three words in length, depending on who you talk to. Long-tail keywords , on the other hand, are longer keyword phrases usually containing three or more words. It's important to check that you have a mix of head terms and long-tail terms because it'll give you a keyword strategy that's well balanced with long-term goals and short-term wins. That's because head terms are generally searched more frequently, making them often not always, but often much more competitive and harder to rank for than long-tail terms.

Think about it: Without even looking up search volume or difficulty, which of the following terms do you think would be harder to rank for?

If you answered 2, you're absolutely right. But don't get discouraged. While head terms generally boast the most search volume meaning greater potential to send you traffic , frankly, the traffic you'll get from the term "how to write a great blog post" is usually more desirable.

Because someone who is looking for something that specific is probably a much more qualified searcher for your product or service presuming you're in the blogging space than someone looking for something really generic.

And because long-tail keywords tend to be more specific, it's usually easier to tell what people who search for those keywords are really looking for.

Someone searching for the head term "blogging," on the other hand, could be searching it for a whole host of reasons unrelated to your business. So check your keyword lists to make sure you have a healthy mix of head terms and long-tail keywords. You definitely want some quick wins that long-tail keywords will afford you, but you should also try to chip away at more difficult head terms over the long haul.

Which is why I recommend focusing on long tail keywords. Fortunately, finding long tail terms is a breeze thanks to Google Suggest also known as Google Autocomplete. Both tools bubble up question keywords. The first tool is called AnswerThePublic. But it tends to bring up its own unique set of questions. The great thing about these tools is that the question keywords you get are long tail keywords.

The 1 issue with any keyword research tool is that they usually spit out words and phrases that are super related to the seed keyword you typed into it.

This tool lets you ask customers, colleagues or clients how THEY would search for something in Google. The one big difference is that, with ecommerce SEO , you need to find keywords for product and category pages… and lots of them. Fortunately, you can find lots of excellent product keywords using Amazon Suggest.

This works the exact same way as Google Suggest. In fact, I find myself using traditional keyword tools less and less. Instead, I just look at the keywords that my competitors already rank for. I just pop in a competing domain… and I get a list of thousands of keywords within seconds. Most, if not all of them, are paid. Pro Tip: Reverse engineer websites in your league. The Google Keyword Planner is super helpful because the data comes from the most reliable source of keyword data: Google itself.