If you’re trying to get your website found on search engines, you will need to rank for keywords specific to your business.
What are Keywords?
Keywords or “key phrases” are what people search for when they’re looking for information, products, or services similar to what your company provides. For example, if you own a BBQ restaurant in St. Louis, you might use the keyword “St. Louis style BBQ.”
There are two types of keywords:.
Broad Keywords
Broad keywords are used in general searches and often comprise of one or two words. For example, “BBQ.” Since this term is too broad, it could mean several things. Do you want to eat BBQ or just understand what it is? For this reason, broad keywords are more difficult to rank for because:
- It’s harder to answer their query without knowing what they really want.
- More competitors are trying to be found for that phrase.
Long-Tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords get more specific by using more words in their phrases. For example, “BBQ restaurants in St. Louis” provides more insight into what the user is searching for than just “BBQ”. Long tail keywords tend to be what people type into search engines to try to narrow down their results and easily find what they’re looking for. As a result, it’s much easier to rank for long-tail keywords because:
- You can more easily hypothesize the user’s intent and provide pages to answer that need.
- Fewer people are trying to be found for that phrase (i.e. New York companies are not trying to be found for “BBQ restaurants in St. Louis).
Tips for Building a Keyword Strategy
When it comes to using keywords, it helps to follow these rules:
- Research your Research will help determine which keywords are the most beneficial to your company
- Don’t spam keywords. Also known as keyword stuffing, spamming keywords is not only annoying to the user, but can result in penalties.
- Don’t force a popular keyword. If the copy you’re writing doesn’t match the query, Google won’t rank your site highly because it isn’t useful to users.