18 Types Of Keywords Every Marketer Should Know

There is a famous quote by Simon Penson – “Marketing has never been about keywords, it’s about people.” 

As a marketer, this is an important aspect to understand when you are doing digital marketing. Keywords are merely an intermediate, and your ultimate goal is to reach the people. Thus, the people that are searching the keywords need to be your focus. Nonetheless, the right Keywords Selection for the right purpose i.e. strategizing your keywords for search is important. When people are searching, the right keyword strategy will ensure that they will find you/your website in the SERP i.e. Search Engine Results Page – through the keywords, you are utilizing. 

Search Engine Optimization is the process in which you optimize your website/web pages/web content to rank on the Search Engine. Keywords are one of the many aspects that’ll help you achieve this. A website owner or marketer can make use of the Keywords for SEO and try to rank higher on the search engine.

For this result, first of all, you need to thoroughly understand keywords and their types. Accordingly, you can then strategize them for SEO. Let’s understand further –

Types of Keywords:

There are various types of Keywords and they vary according to their purposes. Thus, some keywords are differentiated based on the length, some based on their target, some based on the ad campaign they are targeting, some based on the funnel level to which the buyers belong, etc. Differentiated by the above-mentioned factors, we are enlisting below 18 Types of Keywords – 

1. Primary Keywords: The Primary keyword is the main phrase or term that a web page targets. When optimizing web pages, the meta tags use primary keywords to tell search engines what the content is about. Thus, these are important Keywords for SEO. Example ‘women wristwatches’.

2. Related Keywords: Related Keywords or LSI keywords i.e. Latent Semantic Keywords are those phrases that are semantically related. Thus, these include synonyms or variations of the primary keywords. For optimization, along with a primary, 3-4 LSI or related keywords are assigned to provide more context webpages and to help them rank higher. Examples ‘ladies wristwatches’, ‘best ladies wristwatches’, ‘premium ladies wristwatches’, etc.

3. Customer Targeting Keywords: The Customer Targeting/Defining keywords are phrases that define or identify with a specific audience subset. As a business, you know who your customers are, and you use keywords specifically for them. For example, if you are targeting customers of higher strata, you may include keywords ‘luxury bathrooms’, ‘premium watch collection’, etc. 

4. Geo-Targeted Keywords: These keywords/ keyphrases are those that target a specific location. Customers tend to search for businesses ‘nearby’ when they are at a new geographic location and require something. To reach out to such an audience, Geo-targeting words can be used. ‘Medical Store in Andheri’ can be a prime example.

5. Market Segment Keywords: These keywords are those that target a specific industry or niche or brand. Example ‘wristwatches’

6. Branded Keywords: Branded keywords are phrases that are related to your brand name, brand tagline, etc. You can sometimes accompany branded keywords with some other descriptive word or product. Example “Titan Raga Watches”

7. Competitor Keywords: Branded keywords are effective when people actively search for your brand. If you have competitors with a stronger brand identity, you can attract an audience similar to them with Competitor keywords that target your competing brand names/products/services. For example, ‘Titan watches’ would be a competitor keyword for Sonata.

8. Product Keywords: Product keywords include the search phrases related to the products or services provided by your business. You need a proper keyword strategy in place for every of your product, so that prospective customers can easily find you. Example ‘Adidas Runners’

9. Short-Tail Keywords: Short-tail keywords or head keywords are broad search terms constituting one or two words. They include generic phrases that get more searches, get high search traffic, and higher competition too. Example ‘smart watch’, ‘wristwatches, etc. 

10. Long-Tail Keywords: Long-tail keywords are long search terms including highly targeted phrases that get fewer searches, lesser search traffic, and less competition. Long-tail words will generally give you higher conversion rates. Example ‘ladies wristwatches with round dials ’. 

11. Mid-Tail Keywords: Mid-tail keywords are an intermediate between short and long-tail keywords constituting two to three words. They include phrases that are less generic than long-tail and more descriptive than short-tail keywords. Similarly, the searches and search traffic that they receive is higher than long-tail and low than short-tail. Example ‘ladies wristwatches’.

12. Exact Match Keywords: These types of keywords are used for a paid Ads search campaign. When you set a term as an exact match keyword, it will tell Google to show your ad only when there is a search that is almost exact to the set term. Thus searches in singular or plural forms, abbreviations, or misspellings are included. Example ‘ladies wristwatch’ will show up for searches like ‘ladies wristwatches’, ‘wristwatch ladies’, ‘wristwatches for ladies’

13. Phrase Match Keywords: Phrase Match keywords are also used to target an ads search campaign. When you set a term as a phrase match keyword, Google will show your ad when there is a query for that exact phrase or a search that includes that phrase. Example ‘ladies wristwatch’ will show up for searches like ‘ladies wristwatch sale’, ‘buy ladies wristwatch’, etc.

14. Broad Match Keywords: Broad Match keywords are also used for Paid Ads. When you set a term as a broad match keyword, Google will show your ad when there is a query for any search that is a variation of that keyword including synonyms, misspellings, singular/plural forms, similar phrases, implied terms, etc. Example ‘wristwatch’ will show up for searches like ‘wristwatch sale’, ‘buy wristwatch’, ‘wristwatch store’, etc.

15. Negative Match Keywords: Negative Match keywords are those which you want to exclude from being targeted in your Ads search campaign. When you set a term/phrase/variation, as a negative match keyword, Google will not show your ad when there is a search for those keywords. For example, if your ad is relevant only for ‘ladies wrist watch’, your negative keywords may be ‘men’s wrist watch’

16. Informational Keywords: These keywords are the queries by searchers when they want to know or get general info about something. They are done by searchers at the initial awareness phase of the purchase funnel. Example ‘what are the best wrist watches for ladies’.

17. Navigational Keywords: Navigational or ‘go’ keywords are the searches done when consumers wish to visit a specific brand website. They search various brands to compare. Example ‘ladies wristwatches’

18. Transactional Keywords: Transactional keywords are used by searchers when they are at the conversion phase of the purchase funnel i.e. they are ready to make a purchase. Example ‘best deals on ladies wristwatches’

These are Types of Keywords, and based on this information, you will find it easier to select the keywords for your web content. You can begin with making a long list of probable keywords. If you find them lacking, there are various free and paid keyword research tools available. You can use them to find more keywords. Once you have your list in hand, distribute the keywords into segments and reduce the unwanted ones by eliminating them one by one. And that’s it! you’ll have the final keywords at your disposal which you can use to optimize your web content. All the insights mentioned above will help you decide which type of keyword you’ll want to include based on your need and purpose.