KEY WORDS: what they are and what they are for

Broadly speaking, it can be said that a “keyword” (Keyword) is a word or set of words (Long tail) that people search in search engines and the «Keyword search» (KeywordResearch) is, what its name suggests, finding those words that have searches for a specific topic.

The importance of understanding what keywords are and what they are for is essential for a project to have repercussions and visibility.

Very rarely people will find you by typing your address directly, what is interesting is that traffic is received with general search terms.

I give you an example:

Imagine that you are a teacher fixing socks and you have a page on the internet called “wikipedia.com”, the traffic that you will receive from people who type exactly your domain in a browser will be negligible or almost nil, especially at the beginning.

But now imagine that you have done a good study of keywords and have optimized your project for that keyword and when someone types in the search engine the word “fix socks”, your site comes out on top (hopefully it was that simple, they intervene many more factors, but it is for you to understand the concept)

The visits will multiply exponentially.

There are many more things that influence positioning, of course, but the study of keywords and their optimization is one of the first and most fundamental.

Over time, it could lead to a significant increase in the traffic a project receives.

But let’s go by parts.

What are keywords?

Keywords are words and phrases that describe what a particular content or topic is about.

In terms of blogging and SEO, you can think of keywords as the connecting link between what people are searching for, their search queries, and the content they are providing.

We’ll look at different types of keywords later, but first, let’s look at search queries.

What are search queries?

Search queries are the words and phrases that are typed into a search engine. Three types of search queries can be distinguished:

• Navigation
• Informative
• Transactional

Navigation

A navigation search It is used when people want to find a particular website or web page.

For example, when you want to visit Amazon and enter the specific term Amazon in the search engine.

Curious fact:

Google will recognize that your search intent is a quick success and will show fewer results than it does with a more general search.

Informational – Related Research

An informative search query It is when you look for very specific information on a particular topic and you want to get answers.

Some examples of these research queries are:

• Do you want to find answers to a question: “¿How to position my website in the first places of google?
• You intend to inform yourself on a topic: “What is a hosting? «
• Do you want to solve or solve a problem by yourself: “How to restore a page in WordPress?

Transactional – Buyer Related:

A transactional search query It is used when people are determined to make a purchase decision or become a potential customer. They are called transactional because it is an impending action.

Some examples of these searches for buyer’s intention They are:

• You want the best, the latest, the fastest, the smallest possible:
  • The best DSLR camera for less than € 500
• You want to compare products:
  • canon 700d vs Nikon d3400.
• Do you want a discount or coupon:
  • Discount codes for canon 700d.

These types of terms are more specific and focused on purchasing the product.

Keywords short tail versus long tail

When speaking of “keyword” it is not strictly a single word as such, it can be one or more ‘words.

Depending on the number of words that make up a “keyword” can be divided into three categories:

• Short tail.
• Medium tail.
• Long-tail

The term “long tail” comes from the call ‘ search demand curve ‘, A chart representing all keywords by their search volumes, which has the appearance of a long tail.

• Short-tail keywords

  They usually consist of one or two words; for example, Word WordPress themes ’. These keywords are broad and generic, but often ambiguous, with a high search volume.

• Medium-tailed keywords

  They usually consist of three or four words; for example, ‘WordPress blog themes’. They are more specific than short-tail keywords but have less search volume.

• Long-tail keywords

  They usually consist of four or more words; for example, gratis free WordPress blog themes ’. These are more detailed and very specific, but the search volume is even less.

The conversion rate (the traffic that word attracts) increases as the ‘tail’ increases. This is because long-tail keywords are more likely to match the search query.

It would be logical to be seduced by the high volume of short-tail keyword searches, but they generally have a lot of competition.

That is why it is more advisable to obtain good positioning results using medium and long-tail keywords.

The keyword research process.

Now that we know the different types of search queries and keywords, it’s time to dive into keyword research.

There are four main parts to the keyword research process:

1. Find the idea
2. Keyword search
3. Check volume and competition.
4. Sort by themes

I recommend using a spreadsheet (Excel or Google) to keep track of your keywords as you go. As we go through each step, we’ll take a look at some of the other tools you can use to help you.

Part 1 – Find the idea.

To begin keyword research, you will need some ideas. The goal here is to find the words and phrases that your audience and customers are interested in and using.

You need to get information. But where and how?

Let’s go to the online places that people regularly use. Depending on the theme of your topic (niche), it could be:

• The forums
• Reviews
• Wikipedia
• Blog comments
• Facebook groups

Let’s take a look at some examples.

Customer reviews on Amazon.

Reviewing customer reviews on Amazon provides many insights into what interests people. Let’s go back to our example niche, socks.

If we analyze these opinions we can obtain a list of ideas:

• Reinforced toe and heel
• Thicker and padded
• For hiking
• For great walks
• To run medium-long distances
• Light material
• That it does not produce chafing.

Not bad to start with!

Wikipedia

Wikipedia can also serve as an excellent source of ideas.

We will use our example again.

Look what Wikipedia returns when we ask about socks

If we review the text carefully we can get quite a few more ideas:

• Socks for men/women.
• Types of the composition of which they are made
• Sock Length: Ankle, Mid Leg, Knee Length
• Niches that are related (means)
• Socks for boots / shoes / sandals
• Etc.

The list is increasing considerably, that’s why I told you at the beginning that it was good that you used an Excel sheet to collect all the ideas that you found, it will be much easier to work with them.

Facebook groups and blog comments.

People always ask and answer questions in online communities like Facebook Groups and blog comments.

You just saw that by analyzing a little this type of content you can get enough keyword ideas for your topic (niche).

Part 2 – Keyword Search

Once you’ve gathered all your ideas, it’s time to search for keywords.

There are plenty of keyword search tools available.

The most used and those that offer the most information, as you will be suspecting, are paid and let me tell you that they are not cheap at all.

But take it easy, I know that at first, nobody plans to take on these expenses.

So here we are going to use two free tools that are very valid and will allow us to do a very decent keyword study.

One if it is totally free, and the other has certain limitations in its free modality, but, as I tell you, they are perfect for doing a study in conditions without investing anything.

At this point, I could talk to you about them and how to use them, but I prefer to offer you a manual, guide or explain how I use them, call it what you want, so you can get the most out of studying the keywords.

I know it may seem a bit tedious and laborious, all the time you have to invest in this step, but let me tell you that you will appreciate it a lot later.

You already know that Google is a jungle and highlighting it is a highly complicated task, that’s why all the work you do to achieve those results, believe me, it is totally worth it.

With that said, I’m preparing a guide on how to use these two tools in depth.

So, stay tuned to the blog because as soon as you finish making it you will have it available so you can get down to business with your keyword search.

Thank you for having come this far.

See you soon !!!