Keyword

A (good) keyword describes the keyword of a search query in a search engine, as well as the thematic keyword of a website. Especially for a search engine optimization it is important to find the right keywords for the website, so that users can find the site with a search engine. There are several tools available for keyword analysis.

Definition

The German term says it all: Schlüsselbegriff, Suchwort. On the one hand, keyword describes the term that users use to search the Internet for information using a search engine. On the other hand, keyword also means the key term for a certain topic, with which website operators optimize their websites for search queries of their target group.

Thus, a keyword analysis is a fundamental tool for search engine optimization (SEO). Tools such as the Google Keyword Planner help here to achieve the highest possible position on the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

What are keywords used for in search engines?

The basic function of a search engine is to find a searched term on websites and to evaluate how relevant this term is for the respective website. So the keywords are the key to connect searchers with providers.

It’s important to remember that a keyword is more than just a generic term. A website is described by a large number of keywords.

There are different types of keywords depending on the topic and industry, which reflect the intent of the user and the provider. These include, for example:

• Brand Keywords – A key term like a brand name that the user is already familiar with.
• Commercial Keywords – A term or formulated search query for a product or service when there is not yet a specific intent to purchase a product.
• Compound Keywords – When a user uses a brand and commercial keyword at the same time in their search query, it creates a compound keyword.
• Informational Keywords – Here the user searches for specific information, for example news, encyclopedia entries such as Wikipedia or guides.

Short- and long-tail keywords

For an optimal alignment of your page according to the appropriate keywords, you can still distinguish between short- and long-tail keywords:

The longer the key term becomes, the more likely it is to describe a niche.

Many short search terms are subject to very high competition. So to rank for that in the top spots in the SERPs is going to be tough. Long keywords are often less competitive with each other. You can put that to work for you and use tools like Ahrefs to determine the search volume of various keywords and make those terms work for you. A balanced mix of long and short tail keywords is often the most successful.

Keywords in the OnPage optimization

When optimizing a site for search engines, it’s important that you don ‘t focus your copy on your keywords alone. As part of semantic optimization of your site, the keywords should also appear in the URL and ALT tags.

It is also important that your keywords do not appear too often in the texts . Keyword stuffing (excessive use of keywords) is recognized by search engines and evaluated negatively. Instead, you should make sure that your keywords appear again and again in the individual components of the content, the headlines or the meta information. A WDF*IDF analysis will help you assess whether you have achieved good keyword density.

Conclusion

Keywords are essential in search engine optimization. The keywords lead users to the website via search engines. Therefore, it is part of the SEO work to know the search volume of the keywords and adjust the keywords if necessary.

With OnPage optimization, it is still important to place the keywords in the right places – without keyword stuffing.