What are keywords? | SEO for beginners training

What is a keyword? When looking for informationabout keywords in relation to SEO, you get bombarded with informationabout keyword research.

And of course, keyword researchis very, very important, it's also important to knowwhat a keyword is exactly.

And that's the thing I want to discussin this video.

What is a keyword, some also call it a focus keyword? A keyword is a word that describesthe content on a page best.

It's the search term that you most wantyour page to rank for.

So when people search for that keywordor phrase, they should find a page on your website.

Let's say you've got a websiteabout herbal tea.

You sell all sorts of herbal teaand you blog about herbal tea.

You sell delicious Ginger tea and createda product page about Ginger tea.

What kind of search termdo you want to be found on? What kind of words do you think people will use in search enginesto find you? What would the search query look like? Probably 'ginger tea'.

Because this keyword reflectswhat's on the page best.

If you should explain the bottom lineof your content, how would that look? What words would you use? That's your keyword or key phrasesif they're multiple words.

We tend to use the word keywordall the time, but we don't necessarily meanit's only one word.

Keywords usually consistof multiple words! So, in this video, when I talk about keywords, I usually mean a phrase, rather than a single word.

Why are keywords important? One of the things Google looks at, is content.

It's the words you use on your pages.

Now picture this, if every word on let's saya blog post about ginger tea is used 2 times, then all words are sort ofof equal importance.

Google won't have a clue on what wordsare important and what words are not.

And the words and keywords you're usingare clues for Google, it tells Google and other search engineswhat the page or post is about.

So if you want to make your keyword clearto Google, you need to use it fairly often.

But Google isn't the only reasonwhy keywords are important.

Actually, it's less important, because your focus should always lieon the user.

On your visitors and potential clients.

With SEO you want people to landon your website when using a certain search termor keyword.

You need to get into the headsof your audience and use the words they usewhen they are searching.

If you use the wrong keywords, you'll never get the visitorsyou want or need, because your text doesn't match whatyour potential audience is searching for.

But if you do use the keywords peopleare searching for, your business can thrive.

So if you see it like that, your keywordsshould reflect what users are searching for.

With the wrong keywords, you'll end upwith the wrong audience, or none at all.

That's why having keywordsis really important.

How do you use keywordsin your pages and posts? There was a time where you could adda lot of keywords to your pages and posts, so-called keyword stuffing, and you'd rank in search engines.

But a text with a lot of the same keywordsin it, is also very annoying to read.

And because users find these kinds of textterrible to read, Google finds it terrible.

That's why you can't rank in Googlewith keyword stuffing anymore.

So what are the rules of thumb here? First and foremost, it's very importantthat your content is easy to read.

Of course, you should use your keywordsin your text, but don't overdo it.

Usually, a keyword density of 1% to 2%is fine.

Make sure your use of keywordsis balanced throughout the text.

So, don't put all your keywordsin the first paragraph, but mention it a few timesthroughout the article.

Use your keywords in a subheadingor a couple of subheadings, depending on the lengthof your page or post.

And use the keyword in your page title, first paragraph and in your meta description.

You can imagine that some keywords have more competition in search resultsthan other keywords.

Keywords that only consist of one word, are very common and generic and will probably have a lot of competition.

We call these keywords, head keywords.

While these keywords can probablygenerate a lot of traffic to your site because a lot of people use themin search engines, they are also the toughest keywordsto rank for.

Another downside of focusingon head keywords is that it might not always reflectwhat the page is about.

If I'm searching for the keyword 'tea', what do I want? Do I want to buy teaor do I want to learn more about tea? So while head keywords might generatea lot of traffic, the chances that my pagefits the visitor's need is actually smaller.

Just focusing on head keywordsmight not be your best strategy.

Optimizing posts and pagesfor more specific keywords is essential as well.

That's where mid tailand long tail keywords come in.

Mid and long tail keywordsare more specific and less common because they focus more on a niche.

The longer (and more specific)your search terms are, the easier it will be to rank for them.

We'll discuss long tail keywords some morein our video about keyword research.

So now we've determinedwhat a keyword is.

In the next video, we'll go into keyword research.

We'll explore everything you needto take into account when setting upa successful keyword strategy.

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