Keywords

Keywords are words or phrases that describe content. They can be used as metadata to describe images, text documents, database records, and web pages. A user can use keywords to search for specific content in a search engine. In the context of search engine optimization (SEO), keywords are integral as they help search engines understand what a web page is about, and allow the page to appear in the search results for those keywords.

Definition

A keyword in the context of search engine optimization is a particular word or phrase that describes the contents of a web page. Keywords are intended to act as shortcuts that sum up an entire page. They form part of a web page’s metadata and help search engines match a page to an appropriate search query.

Importance of Keywords

Keywords are very important in SEO because they are the linchpin between what people are searching for and the content you are providing to fill that need. Your goal in ranking on search engines is to drive organic traffic to your site from the search engine result pages (SERPs), and the keywords you choose to target will determine what kind of traffic you get.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is when people use keywords to find and research actual search terms that people enter into search engines. The knowledge about these actual search terms can help inform content strategy, or marketing strategy overall. SEO professionals consider keyword research to be one of the most important, valuable, and high return activities in the search marketing field.

Keyword Optimization

Keyword optimization (also known as keyword research) is the act of researching, analyzing and selecting the best keywords to target to drive qualified traffic from search engines to your website. Keyword search optimization is a critical step in initial stages of search engine marketing.

Long Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords are those three and four keyword phrases which are very, very specific to whatever you are selling. You see, whenever a customer uses a highly specific search phrase, they tend to be looking for exactly what they are actually going to buy.

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is a search engine optimization (SEO) technique, considered webspam or spamdexing, in which keywords are loaded into a web page's meta tags, visible content, or backlink anchor text in an attempt to gain an unfair rank advantage in search engines.

See Also

• Search engine optimization
• Meta element
• Google Keyword Planner
• Search engine marketing
• Pay per click

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