Keywords, are terms composed of one or more words and are used by users in search engine searches.

In the context of digital marketing, they are essential not only for optimizing a site at the level of organic positioning (SEO), but also for content marketing strategies and online ad creation.

Why are keywords important

The main search engines (Google and Bing) have thousands of indexed pages, which makes your website a real drop in the ocean.
When choosing the right keywords, that is, that are directed to what your target audience is looking for, your website is much easier to be found.

Head Tail Keywords and Long Tail Keywords

When we talk about keywords, it is essential to distinguish the so-called Head Tail Keywords and Long Tail Keywords.

Head Tail Keywords are usually composed by one or two words, and represent more comprehensive research terms. Because they are less specific, they represent a higher search volume, and consequently a greater competition, thus making it difficult to get a good position for these keywords.

Long Tail Keywords are usually composed of three or more words, and are more specific search terms. This type of keyword, due to its specificity have a lower search volume, but also a lower competition and is easier to get better positioning compared to the competition.

How to define which keywords you should use


As mentioned earlier, it is the keywords that will direct the public to your website, so it is essential to define the right keywords.

To choose the most appropriate keywords, it is important to consider some factors, namely:

Target Audience
If the goal of using the chosen keywords is to attract your audience, then it is essential to have a deep knowledge about your target, more precisely you need to know your persona well.
This means that you should know what type of content your persona is looking for, and you should try to put yourself in her place, in the sense of understanding how it would put your question in search engines, and how you would like the answer to appear in the results.
Once this exercise is done, you will have an idea of which keywords would be more efficient for your business.

Competition
Competitive strategy analysis is also a good option for choosing keywords. Try to realize what kind of keywords apply to content strategies. By this way you will have information not only what words are used by them to attract customers, but also which ones they are not using, thus constituting and opportunity to identify keywords with potential that are being used by the competition.

Tools
In addition to the factors mentioned earlier, there are several tools (paid and free) that can help you choose the right keywords. Here are some examples:

• Google keyword planner;
• Google Trends
• Ubersuggest;
• Semrush

Keywords and SEO
Keywords are a central tool in the organic positioning strategy of a website (Search Engine Optimization) and should therefore be used strategically in the different factors that influence SEO.

Title
The title of a page, or a blog article is one of the most important elements, as it is immediately informing the visitor about what content is on the page, even before clicking on it.
Thus, it is extremely important that the title, besides informative, contains relevant keywords.

Description Goal
The description goal is the descriptive text that comes in the search results just below the title. In addition to being appealing enough to lead users to click on the link, the description goal must contain keywords. If the keywords existing in the description goal, matches with the keywords inserted by the users, this correspondence will appear in bold, thus becoming more appealing to click.

URL
URLs also play an important role in SEO. Thus, in addition to the construction of URLs that are friendly from the user's perspective, it should include whenever possible, relevant keywords.

Keywords and Content Marketing

Given the SEO techniques mentioned earlier, it is important to think about the content.
If you have for example a blog, it is obviously important to include the keywords you have identified as relevant throughout your texts. However, remember that the goal of content marketing is to provide relevant information to your target audience, which means that building texts designed only to include as many keywords as possible will not be the best option in an optic of user experience.
So try to include relevant keywords, but always having as a priority the usefulness that the content will have for your persona.

Keywords and online advertising

Keywords also play an important role in online advertising. Whether on platforms such as Google Ads or Microsoft Ads, it is the keywords chosen for the campaign (together with other segmentation factors), which will define who the ad will appear to.

In addition, the chosen keywords will also influence the costs associated with the campaign. Given that online advertising platforms work ar cost per click (CPC), it is important to analyzee which keywords you can use that ahve the lowest possible cost, thus enabling as many clicks as possible taking into account the defined budget.

Another aspect to consider is the so-called negative keywords.
Negative keywords are nothing more than words that tell Google what terms they don't want to see associated with your ad, thus allowing a more detailed segmentation of your ad.

Veja Também: