Let us guess, you’re trying to navigate your way through digital marketing for the first time and you keep hearing this word keyword thrown about and don’t know what it means. Fret not, you don’t know what you haven’t learnt yet – and we are here to teach you.
Let’s go through some of the common keyword questions we get.
What Is A Keyword?
A keyword is anything a user types into a search engine. In digital marketing, we look at popular keywords within an industry that users enter into Google, and make sure our clients are receiving prominent visibility for those keywords.
A keyword is anything a user types into a search engine.
What Is An SEO Keyword?
A term you try to rank for in organic (unpaid/free) listings through the use of search engine optimisation (SEO) on your website.
What Is A Paid Ad Keyword?
Search terms you bid on in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns appear in prominent sponsored (paid) search results.
What Is A Short Tail Keyword?
Short tail keywords are just that, they’re short. They are usually very broad keywords that generate high volumes of search traffic.
In this example, we have used the short tail keyword of drink bottles. According to Semrush, 27,100 people on average search this keyword every month across Australia.
This keyword is broad, meaning that Google doesn’t know specifically what the searcher is after, so it will present a range of different water bottles, some from high-end brands link Frank Green and more affordable drink bottles from retailers like Kmart.
Ranking for broad, short-tail keywords can be extremely valuable in getting maximum visibility on your products or services. However, due to their competitive real estate, ranking prominently for broad keywords is more difficult.
What Is A Long Tail Keyword?
Conversely, long tail keywords are usually 4+ words, and can even be a full question or sentence.
Unlike short tail keywords, they are usually very specific in nature. They tend to be more informational in intent, or if they are product/service based, more niche to specific offerings of a product.
In this instance, we have provided two separate examples of long tail keywords.
In the first example, you can see this searcher is looking to learn more about how to take better care of their drink bottle and clean it properly. The keyword itself is seven words long and is looking for a specific set of information, and in turn, Google’s first page is filled with blogs answer that specific question, and satisfying the searchers intent.
The second example is more transactional. The searcher here has a much better idea of what they’re after and is looking for a bottle that fits their checklist.
While long tail keywords have much lower search volume, due to their specificity, they tend to convert at a much higher rate, as the searcher is in the frame of mind where they aren’t looking what to buy, but rather where they can buy what they know they want.
Keeping that in mind, you can see that for the 2 litre blue drink bottle with straw keyword, the SERP is dominated by paid ads as brands know someone searching this is much more likely to convert – so they’re happy to spend the money to rank for this keyword.
How Do Short Term and Long Tail Keywords Work Together?
The search demand curve highlights the relationship between short tail and long tail keywords. Short tail keywords, found in the fat head of the curve, generate high search volume but face intense competition.
As you move down the curve, long tail keywords may have lower search volume, but their specificity often leads to higher conversion rates. A balanced strategy uses both—targeting short tail keywords for visibility and long tail keywords to capture highly motivated, ready-to-buy customers.
Why Do Keywords Matter?
Keywords are the building blocks for all digital marketing campaigns. They help you connect your business’s offerings with your desired audience.
When you do the research to find the right keywords for your business, you can not only reach more people, but you can make sure your business reaches the right people.
How To Prioritise Keywords
This is a question we get a lot, as not all keywords are equal in value for a business.
Our recommendation is to have a collection of primary and secondary keywords as part of your campaign, making sure you’re always working to achieve visibility for the most important non-branded keywords in your industry, whilst also not ignoring the long-tail secondary keywords that can help drive brand awareness.
That being said, this question merits a whole blog post in it of itself, so if you want to pick our brains more on this topic, feel free to contact us at any time.
Consider the Search Intent Of Targeted Keywords
When looking at what keywords you want to rank for, it’s important to factor in the intent of the searcher of each keyword. Are users searching to learn, compare or buy?
Sometimes subtle differences in keywords make a pretty substantial difference in what the user is after – and Google is aware of that, and will match it’s SERP accordingly.
Let’s look at an example. Here is a snippet of the organic search results for the keyword running shoe:
Now look at the results when we add the worst best to the start of the previous keyword
The ranking changes change from transactional to informational. Google has clued on that when people search for best _, more often than not they are looking for a comprehensive list of products, with the pros and cons weighed up.
This is why it’s important to do adequate keyword research and make sure you’re putting your efforts into ranking for the right keywords.
