What Are Keywords, Why Are They Important, and How Do I Find Them?

The word “keyword” is pretty self-explanatory. It’s a word that is of key importance to your content. Keywords are vital to your SEO and digital marketing strategy. Digital marketing experts at Axagen are here to break down the basics and answer three basic questions every modern marketer should know: what are keywords, why are they important, and how do I find them?

What Are Keywords?

When it comes to SEO, a keyword can be a single word, a series of words, or a phrase. To give you an idea of what we mean, here is a simple list of sample keywords:

• Tea
• Japanese green tea
• Caffeine-free organic rooibos tea

Keywords are the link between what people are searching for and the content you provide. Keywords are the reason why, when you type “apple” into Google, the search results show pictures of apples, and not oranges. Hooray for keywords!

Why Are Keywords Important?

Each keyword represents a word that describes your business, product, or service, and, in the context of SEO, a search term. To get your website to the top of search engines, it’s imperative you add keywords relevant to your product or service. Placement is everything; keywords should appear in the first 100 and last 100 words of your webpage content, the H1 and H2s, and throughout the main body of your text.

When people type one of your primary keywords into a search engine, the search engine will rank the quality of your content and determine whether it will be an accurate match for what the user is looking for. Choosing accurate keywords and putting them in the right place ensures your company has a higher chance of showing up at the top of search results.

How Do I Find Keywords?

Some keywords are obvious. If you sell olive oil in Montreal, for example, one of your primary keywords might be “Montreal olive oil.” If your product isn’t that simple, don’t panic! There exist myriad tools to help you build your keyword list. These include:

1. Hiring Local Marketing Services – Getting help from a local SEO agency is a no-brainer. They have the necessary toolset to select stellar keywords and get your website to the top of search engines.
2. Using Google Keyword Planner – This is a free Google Ads tool that will help you find broad keywords.
3. Testing keywords on Google – When in doubt, head to Google to test out your keywords in real-time! All you have to do is type the keyword into the search bar and scroll through the results. Hot tip: consider looking at the “related searches” section at the bottom of the page for more inspiration.

Keywords are the foundation of SEO. Choosing the right keywords, and appropriately integrating them into content will ensure any website outranks its competitors. To learn more about keywords, or for a free website analysis, get in touch with Montreal SEO company Axagen today!