What are keywords and why are they important?

Learn what keywords are and why they are important for your Google ranking

Keywords are, quite simply, the most important words on your website. Not the ‘ands’ and ‘buts’ and ‘if’s, but the words and phrases that define what your website is about.

When it comes to angling your website so it’s ready to attract more customers, there’s no better place to get started than revising your keywords.

Keywords are the building blocks of your content marketing strategy. They can be used to attract the right customers and readers to your site. And if you don’t know what keywords to use when addressing to your customers, they’re not going to find you.

Many SEO experts and service providers will likely begin any conversation about a website’s performance by asking about keywords. This may have come up when you launched your website, or when you created product specs for items and services you’re selling online.

So what are keywords and why are they so important? This short guide will take you through everything you need to know, so you can then enact small changes to your site that will help expand your reach to a wider audience.

What are keywords?

Keywords are words and phrases that people type into Google when they are searching for something. People are generally lazy when it comes to Googling and rarely search in full sentences. Instead, they search in keyword form, like this…

People search in keywords, rather than full sentences

Doing this means search engines have to work a little harder to present what they believe are the right results for what people are searching for. Google trawls through billions of web pages in a split-second and prioritises certain aspects of a site over others, to provide those results.

One of these core aspects is a website’s keywords, which effectively act as a signposts to Google explaining what the site is about. This lets the search engine match what the user is searching for and produce the most accurate results.

Subsequently, the websites that rank highly on Google searches will have ensured their keywords – the words and phrases within the site itself, whether they’re in text, headings, picture captions or FAQ pages – are aligned with particular keywords people have searched for. They get a big green tick (like this one ✅ but even bigger) from Google.

In this example, then, sites that include keywords for ‘trainers’, ‘best trainers’ and ‘fallen arches’ are likely to hit the higher spots in Google’s search results, and thus attract more people to their site. 

Why are keywords important?

The keywords on your website are the primary words and phrases that Google scans and thus associates with your brand. These words are used by Google to determine what your site is about, and whether it’s relevant to the internet users searching on its engine.

This is important because Google then presents its search results to the user in a list format, with the most relevant websites at the top. And if you’re at the top of the search, you’re more likely to attract readers and customers to your site. In fact, research shows top search results boast an average click through rate (CTR) of more than 31%.

So, deploying a keyword strategy is part of mastering Google search so you hit the top spots on specific terms – this is called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Here’s an example of how Fly High Digital used SEO techniques – including keyword research – to bolster an e-commerce website’s revenues.

One great thing about keywords is you naturally use them anyway! They’re not special codes, just everyday words and phrases. When creating a website you will likely have used keywords without even knowing. For example, if you sell blue designer dresses online then your website is likely to include words and phrases such as ‘dress’, ‘for sale’, ‘blue dresses’, etc. Google will scan your site and calculate if it’s relevant to what people are searching for. In all likelihood, someone searching for ‘blue dresses’ may well land on your page.

Keywords are only a small aspect of a wider SEO strategy, but refining them is the perfect place to start for those who want a short-term boost to their website’s ranking.

Google is constantly searching websites to match searches with the right keywords

Can I do keyword research myself?

The problem is, it’s hard to know exactly what keywords people are searching for. You can do all the marketing you like but if your site isn’t matching what your target customers are Googling, then how will they find you?

This is where product marketing can clash with SEO practices. While you want to deliver the best branding possible to your products, you also need to ensure the words you use are SEO-friendly.

Here’s an example: a company is selling vegan-friendly shoes that are made specifically in Northern Ireland. The company angles all its marketing towards being vegan friendly, but in doing so neglects to highlight where their product is made. They therefore fail to rank in searches for ‘Northern Ireland vegan shoes’ and instead have to compete with a bigger market of ‘vegan shoes’.

A little bit of research would have told the shoe company to focus its online marketing on being location specific, in order to attract a more loyal, local customer base and top those searches.

Now, you can do keyword research yourself by using an online keyword planner. This will reveal the volume of search around specific terms, and you can then realign the keywords on your site to match them.

However this is only a short-term solution. If you want a thorough keyword strategy that can transform your site into a high-ranking destination for thousands of searchers, then we can help.

Here at Short Story one of the first issues we tackle when conducting website audits and launching SEO and marketing strategies is those keywords. The primary goal is to create a strategy that targets words and phrases people are using in a unique way that gets your site above those of your competitors and helps to tell your story. We do this by starting off with a website keyword analysis.

So, if you want some help improving your keyword visibility, then get in touch today!

Photos by Austin Distel and Firmbee.com on Unsplash