whats is keywords, Why Are Keywords Important?

The way to use keywords is by planning a campaign that targets them. That is where SEO, content marketing, and PPC advertising come into play. 

One of the simplest ways to use keywords is to make sure your website content—page titles, text, categories, and subsections of webpages—are all worded in the same way your audience writes their search engine queries. 

This way, when your web pages appear in the search results, they will reach online customers who searched using the same keywords or phrases.

But before you get any of this started, you’ll need to conduct keyword research to make sure you are writing the right content for your industry that will appeal to customers. 

Keyword research is the process of finding the right keywords for your website to target. 

After you’ve completed your keyword research, keep the following in mind to ensure you’re following best practices:

• Avoid keyword stuffing
• Use keywords naturally
• Find long tail keywords with reasonable competition
• Learn how to place keywords
• Use keyword research tools

How to Implement Keywords

When writing and optimizing content for your website, you’ll want to provide answers to keywords that ask questions. Providing general information that educates people on the topics circling those target keywords can also improve a site’s SEO and ranking.

Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is when you use your target keyword too frequently in your content. Some tools can assist you in preventing keyword stuffing so that Google doesn’t ping you for this bad habit.

To prevent stuffing, avoid adding your keyword more than once every 200 words or so. If you add the keyword 2-3 times every 200 words, you’re probably keyword stuffing.

Think about how far Google has come—you don’t need to spoonfeed it. If your content answers a user’s query and provides solid information on that topic, Google is probably more likely to recommend your page than a page that doesn’t answer the question but repeats select keywords.

Another way to prevent this poor habit of SEO is to use related keywords or phrases that are similar to your primary keyword and incorporate them into your content.

Our most important advice for using keywords is to sprinkle and not spam.

While the targeted keywords for this example appear right off the bat, they don't feel spammy or forced.

Use Keywords Naturally

If you write your content and avoid keyword stuffing, that’s a good start. But what does it mean to use keywords naturally?

Here’s an example.

In your keyword research, you might discover commonly searched keyword phrases like “coffee shop near me.” 

This particular keyword is difficult to place in content naturally because of how it's written. For instance, you would not start a blog post with “Looking for a coffee shop near me,” especially if you are composing content for a reader and referring to them as “you.” 

When incorporating keywords, trying to force them into sentences when they already have a strange order may also pose a problem. The keywords “coffee shop famous” may be difficult since it is a seemingly incomplete search query. Your blog post title shouldn’t read “10 Coffee Shop Famous in Seattle.” 

It’s just not natural.

Using a semantic version of the keyword in the title is a better idea. In this example, you could use 10 Famous Coffee Shops in Seattle”.

The keyword "coffee shop famous" triggers results that don't even have "famous" in the title of the posts because Google is able to determine which ones best answer the user's query.

So when you are adding keywords, make sure they fit into a sentence like any other word would, so the reader wouldn’t even know the difference.

In general, it’s best practice to focus on creating great content that answers users’ queries and gives them valuable information on the topic they’re searching for. Create good content rather than over-analyzing the number of times you place a keyword or fitting the exact match keyword in perfectly.

Find Long Tail Keywords With Reasonable Competition

Long tail keywords are much better than solitary keywords for one reason—they focus very specifically on a topic. 

For example, a head term or single keyword like “coffee” will bring up a wealth of results covering a broad set of topics for the user. However, they might not find the answer they are looking for right away because the search query “coffee” is just too vague. 

The word “coffee” likely has a high search volume and high competition, making it more difficult to compete for a higher ranking.

In this example, the keyword "coffee" has a very high volume, but a higher Keyword Difficulty.

Long tail keywords like “how to make iced coffee” yield results with lower search volumes and lower competition, giving you more of an advantage when ranking.

So if you owned a small coffee shop in Seattle trying to rank for “coffee” when big sites like Starbucks are out there, you would face some challenges.

For this keyword, "how to make iced coffee" has lower volume and lower Keyword Difficulty.

Learn How to Place Keywords

There are numerous places you can put your keywords when writing content. 

While you’ll probably end up naturally including your primary keyword in the body of your content, there are other places you can include it that will help Google determine what your page is about. 

Content can be much stronger when incorporating keywords into:

• Page Titles
• Title Tags
• Meta Descriptions
• Alt Tags
• Headers

Read more about on-page SEO signals in our On-Page SEO Guide.

The Best Tools For Using Keywords

Using your keywords to the best of their ability requires a bit of assistance to use them naturally and effectively requires easy-to-use tools.

Fortunately, Semrush offers some great tools that help you use keywords in SEO, content, and advertising. 

Here are some of the tools we recommend:

• On Page SEO Checker 
• SEO Content Template
• SEO Writing Assistant
• PPC Keyword Tool

Why Choose a Keyword?

For an online business, keywords guide your strategy. 

Optimizing for the correct keywords can help make your business more visible than your competitors. This can help bring in leads, online traffic, and even foot traffic.s.

But how do you determine which keywords are right for your content?

Let’s take a look at Home Depot’s website. When we look at all of the keyword positions they rank for, we understand what their website is about and what products they are marketing online. 

However, Home Depot is a household name. If you run a local home improvement store, it's going to be tough to rank for high-volume, high-competition keywords successfully.

It’s best to find a sweet spot for your business—take note of the keyword difficulty as well as the keyword volume. There’s no use creating a page targeting a term no one searches for.

Don’t forget about the user, though. If a topic is high-difficulty but essential to your business, it still belongs on your site. It just might be a foundational page for users rather than an organic traffic success.

Qualities of a Keyword

So when we are doing keyword research, what are some of the components of a keyword? To perform great keyword research, you need to understand the qualities that define a keyword's value. 

The main qualities of a keyword include:

• Search volume
• Competition 
• Price (cost per click)
• Word count
• Intent