How to Use Keywords?

Keywords are:

 words and phrases that identify what people are searching for
 words and phrases that describe the topics you write about

In an ideal world, these keywords are the same, bridging the gap between your content and your
audience, and helping them to find it. Keyword research is the practice of finding the terms that
people enter into search engines so you can use them for web pages, content creation, and marketing.

Understanding Keyword Types

Before you start doing keyword research, it’s essential to understand how to classify them. One way
to describe them is head, body and long tail keywords:
 Head keywords are usually just 1 or 2 words and have a high search volume.

 Body keywords are 2 to 3 word phrases with a good search volume, not high, not low.
 Long tail keywords consist of four or more words strung together with a low search
volume. These account for the bulk of web traffic.
You may also see the terms head, modifier and tail keywords or short, medium and long tail
keywords.
The important factor here is specificity. The longer the phrase, the more specific it is, and the fewer

search results there’ll be when people type it in.

Here’s what we mean:

 If you search for “t-shirts,” you’ll get millions of search results.

 If you search for “blue t-shirts,” you’ll likely get hundreds of thousands.
 If you search for “blue American Apparel t-shirts,” you’ll get much fewer results that
more closely match what you’re really looking for.

From a user’s viewpoint, the more context you add to the search terms, the better the results you’ll
get.
Latent Semantic Indexing-
Another term you’ll hear is semantic keywords, which are related to latent semantic indexing (LSI).
LSI is a bit like search engines using word association to decide what you’re really looking for. Latent
Semantic Indexing, also known as latent semantic analysis, is a mathematical practice that helps
classify and retrieve information on particular key terms and concepts using singular value
decomposition (SVD).

Through SVD, search engines are able to scan through unstructured data and identify any
relationships between these terms and their context to better index these records for users online.

Since LSI helps search engines provide more relevant results when people search, part of a good
keyword research strategy involves finding LSI keywords to use in your content. Want to see
LSI in action? Look at the autocomplete results when you type a word or phrase into the Google
search box. This list changes as you add words to provide context.
A good tool for finding LSI keywords is LSIGraph, which gives you a longer list than the eight or
so terms Google provides. While some entries will leave you scratching your head, others will
provide an aha moment for content creation. Using semantic keywords gives your content even
more potential relevance and reach.
Understanding Keyword Intent

However you describe keywords, it’s not just enough to understand whether they are short, medium or
long tail. To make the most of keywords for marketing, content creation and SEO, you also have to
understand the intent of the searcher who uses them. When you understand search intent, you turn into
a mind reader, able to deliver exactly what searchers want.

As usual, there are different ways of describing keyword intent. For example, Practical
Ecommerce identifies four types:
 Navigational, where users search for a particular website.
 Informational, where users search for the answer to a question.
 Investigational, where users search for information that may eventually lead to a
transaction.
 Transactional, where users are ready to buy.

Getting Started with Keyword Research

So how do you come up with a list of words and phrases you can use? The first step is
easy: brainstorm.

If you know your niche, you’ll have a good idea of the kind of information people need at each stage
of their interaction with you. If not, think about what you’d search for. Use this as the starting point
for a list.

While you’re at it, think about seed keywords. These are phrases that don’t have a modifier, and
they’re the building blocks of your keyword list. For example, “health insurance” is a seed keyword,
while “health insurance benefits calculator” is long tail.
Find related terms by using LSIGraph, mentioned earlier. Just type your search term into the box and
you’ll get a long list of related terms to add to your list.

You can also find out which search terms are already bringing people to your site, as a starting point
for generating new, related terms you can use for SEO, content development and marketing. Two
places to find these are Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
To find keywords in Google Analytics, go to Acquisition » All Traffic » Channels and click
on Organic Search in the table.

You’ll see a list of phrases. However, the largest group will be “not provided”, which are a result of
encrypted browser searches.

Finally, there are a few other places where you can start identifying keywords, including:

 Blog comments, making note of when people ask about certain topics.
 Social media hashtags are essential keywords, so see what people use when sharing
your content.
 Book titles and categories on Amazon.
Don’t forget about local search, which has become more important as searchers have gone mobile. A
place name can also be a useful search term modifier, so if your business serves a particular locality,
consider this as part of the keyword generation process. That also applies to seasonal search terms.

The Best Keyword Research Tools

1. Ahrefs is a complete suite of keyword research, content and SEO tools.
2. Answer the Public breaks down its results by type of question, so that you can target
content to providing the answers.
3. Google Adwords Keyword Planner lets you evaluate monthly global and local search
volumes for keywords, competition levels and an estimated cost per click. To get
 keyword ideas, login and go to Tools » Keyword Planner, and choose one of the
options under Find New Keywords and Search Volume.
4. SEMrush provides keyword data and helps you find keywords related to your main
search terms. This paid tool has lots of other features, too, but you can try out a free
keyword search on this page.
5. The SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool provides search volumes, related terms,
estimated value and more.
Read our guide to learn more about these keyword research tools.

Keyword Research: What Comes Next

By the time you’ve used a few of these keyword tools, you’ll have a long list of terms that people may
use to find your site. How do you know which ones to use where?

If you’re planning to use your keywords for advertising, you’ll want to plug them into Google
AdWords Keyword Planner so you can figure out which ones will work best for that purpose. It’s
worth noting that though popular terms can be expensive, you can also do well with related keywords
that are slightly less popular.
But if you’re planning to use keywords for SEO, content creation and marketing, you’ll be more
interested in how easy it is to achieve a good search position for content using those keywords
(keyword difficulty) and whether you can rank at all (keyword opportunity).
You can also divide up your list strategically. For example, some of your keywords will be directly
relevant to your business, while others will be related to user intent. You can also group keywords
according to the topics you want to cover.

Where to Use Keywords in Content

Using keywords to optimize your content is a whole other topic, but you can get started by using
keywords in:

 The title of your page. That’s both the actual title and the SEO title, which might be
slightly different. The title’s a starting point for Google determining relevance, and it’s
the clickable link you see in search results.
 The meta description. If you don’t use an SEO tool, then this will automatically come
from the first 160 characters of your content, so that’s a good place to use keywords
too. The meta description provides the description that’s below the clickable link and
helps people decide to click – or not.
 Links and social media updates. If you’re sharing site content, this may already be
part of the title, but you can also help people refine their searches by adding an
appropriate hashtag, which is also effectively a keyword.
Of course, you’ll also use keywords and related terms throughout your content. Avoid keyword
stuffing, though – it’s considered a black hat SEO tactic and will backfire. Have your main keyword
in mind and then use variations, so you write like a human being for human beings. When you’re
done, check back to see if you can include additional semantic keywords without compromising
readability and content effectiveness.
Getting Started With Using Keywords For SEO
Keyword research also helps you come up with your content strategy by creating content around the
terms that you know your audience is looking for.
The best practice is to focus each piece of content on a different keyword phrase, and never use the
same keyword more than once. That’s because you don’t want to end up competing with your own
content for search rankings.

In the next section, we’ll look at how you find SEO keywords to use in your content.

How to Find Keywords For Your Content

First, brainstorm the terms that you think your potential customers might be searching for.
Next, find related terms by searching on Google, scrolling down to the bottom of the page of search
results and seeing what else people searching for that term also looked for.
Where to Keywords for SEO-
1. Page Titles
Optimizing page titles is part of technical SEO, and is a good starting point when using keywords for
SEO.

A page title describes the main subject of your page and shows up as the first line of a search results
entry to let both Google and searchers know exactly what the page is about.

In many cases, the page title may be the same as the headline for a blog post or the name of the page
(like “about” or “services”), but it doesn’t have to be. You can use SEO software like All in One
SEO to tweak the SEO title to improve search ranking potential.

The best practice when writing page titles is to use your target SEO keywords or keyword phrase at
the start of the page title. That’ll make sure that it’s seen as more relevant. Also, more practically,
your page title won’t get cut off in mobile SERPs, which can happen on small screens.

Learn more about assessing page titles in our SEO audit guide.
2. Meta Descriptions
The next important area for the use of keywords for SEO is the meta description. This shows up as
the second part of a search results entry. Though the meta description is no longer a direct ranking
factor, it can help Google determine how relevant your content is to what people are searching for.
The meta description also helps searchers decide whether to click through from a search result to see
the full content on your website.

That’s why it’s so important to use the right keywords here. By right, we mean relevant to the content
that searchers will find when they click through.

3. Subheadings

Before we get into how to use keywords for SEO within the main content, let’s talk about
subheadings. Subheadings help make your content scannable, giving readers’ eyes somewhere to
pause.

Subheadings may help visitors decide about the relevance of content to their needs. They may also
appear as part of a featured snippet or answer box. Learn more about this type of structured data in
our SEO audit guide.

The best practice is to use keywords in at least a couple of subheadings.

4. Content
One of the most important places to optimize the use of SEO keywords is in your content. That’s
because content is one of the top SEO ranking factors.
But it’s essential to get it right; poor keyword usage can actually hurt your search ranking.

For example, it’s crucial to avoid keyword stuffing. If you’ve got keywords in every other sentence
the chances are your content will incur Google penalties.

So, here’s how you use keywords effectively in content:

First, use your main keyword in the first couple of sentences of your content, or at least within the
first paragraph.
Next, use that keyword and variations of it, throughout the content, as shown below.
The best practice is to include latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords rather than the exact
keyword every time. These might include some of the phrases that showed up in the SEMrush SEO
content template we talked about earlier.
The bottom line: write for humans first, and make content readable and understandable.

5. Images- So, how and where should you use keywords for SEO in images?

1. First, make sure any images you use are relevant to your content.
2. Next, give them a file name that reflects that relevance. You can include keywords or
LSI keywords here if it makes sense.
3. Use SEO keywords in image titles, which are little pieces of text that pop up when you
hover your mouse over an image.
4. Finally, use SEO keywords in alt text. This is the part that helps with accessibility. The
best practice for using alt text with images is to make it descriptive; don’t just use the
keyword.

6.URLs- The best URLs give visitors – and Google – a clue about what’s on the page, so you want to
make them descriptive. And that means using SEO keywords in the URL. The best practice is to keep
URLs short, and include no more than one or two keywords in a way that makes the URL make
sense to people who are visiting.

7. Link Anchor Test-

Links are one of the top three SEO ranking factors, so you absolutely have to optimize these for
SEO.
The golden rule is: vary your anchor text. That’s the clickable text that’s highlighted as a link.

If you use the same anchor text for every inbound link you create, that’s an SEO ranking red flag for
Google, and it might get you penalized. Instead, use LSI keywords to vary inbound anchor text.

8. Social Media- Although social media isn’t a direct search ranking factor, research into social
media and SEO shows that there’s a strong link between social shares and visibility in SERPs.

That’s enough reason to optimize keyword usage in social media updates for better SEO.

9. Directories and External Listings-Finally, external business listings can also be a great place to
include keywords. That’ll improve the chances that your business will show up when searchers type
relevant keywords into the search box. And that’ll improve your online authority and click-through
rate.