If you have heard content is king, then keyword strategy is queen.

While you spend half a day writing compelling content, the first thing you should do right is to do proper keyword research. It will not only help you promote your content but will also bring traffic organically.

To reach your target audience organically, you should be focusing on the right keywords. In fact, to bring related traffic to your content the right keywords should be used. There are multiple types of keywords therefore, knowing the basic difference between these keywords is best for your business.

In addition to this, if you use the best keyword finding tools like SEMrush Keyword Magic Tool, then knowing the difference between different types of keywords will help you get the best results instantly.

Types of Keywords to Attract More Traffic & Sales

Based on different categories keywords are primarily of 5 types. It includes:

• Targeting keywords
• On-site keywords
• Buyer keywords
• Keywords by length
• Google Ads keywords

You can use these different types of keywords to bring in more traffic, qualified leads, and better conversions. To know which keyword should be the best selection for your keyword strategy, let’s discuss different keyword types in detail first.

Targeting keywords:

As the name suggests, this is the type of keyword that is targeted to your industry type. You can relate these keywords to your industry, user persona, and what you offer. Let’s discuss different types of keywords under targeting keyword type.

Targeting keywords include:

• Market segment keywords
• Branded keywords
• Product Keywords
• Customer-defining keyword
• Geo-targeted keywords
• Competitor keywords

Market segment keywords: These type of keywords are broadly associated with specific industry or brand. Here, audience search for these keywords using general information related to industrial products. While searching for these keywords audience may search for terms related to different industry types or specific niches. A leather sofa is a good example of it.

Branded keywords: This is simply a search term that includes the brand’s name or brand’s name with product name, product types or other information. Reebok tennis shoes are a good example of it.

Product Keywords: It relates to search terms where specific brand offerings are mentioned. Here, you may find a specific brand’s product or service is mentioned in a search term. Samsung HD TV is a good example of it.

Customer defining-keywords: These search terms define the specific audience or subsets of customers. Sunglasses for Men are a good example of it.

Geo-targeted keywords: Here, searcher mentions a specific location to search for specific product or services. They can mention areas nearby or another location. Hotels in Times Square is a good example of it.

Competitor keywords: Here, a search term related to your competitor is considered under competitor keywords. It gives you edge over your competitor to rank well on high-ranking keywords. For example, Honda compact cars could be competitor keyword for Toyota.

Also Read: Important Aspects of Successful Blog Post that Brings Tons of Traffic

On-site keywords:

The SEO keywords that you use while writing a fresh piece of blog post or landing page are counted as on-site keywords. They are primarily of two types:

• Primary or focus keywords
• Related or LSI keywords

Primary or Focus Keywords: Primary or focus keyword is the main keyword of your content page that you are targeting. Using this focus keyword, you are sending clear signals to search engines what the page is about. It helps you boost traffic for your content page with the assigned keyword. For example, “types of keywords” is a primary keyword for this content.

Related or LSI Keywords: LSI keywords or latent semantic keywords are those keywords that are synonyms, variations, or semantically related to the primary keyword. Here, you can target one primary or focus keyword with 2-3 LSI keywords in the content. It will help search engines understand the context of the page in a clearer way. It will simply boost the search traffic. For example, “different keyword types” could be the LSI keyword for this post.

Buyer Keywords:

Terms used by the buyer during purchase funnel are terms called as buyer keywords. The buyer uses these keywords to search for product & services when he is trying to buy it. Here, the intent of the buyer could be different for each type of buyer keyword. Buyer keywords include:

• Informational keywords
• Navigational keywords
• Transactional keywords

Informational keywords: Informational keywords or “know” keywords are keywords used by searcher during the awareness stage of the purchase funnel. Here, searcher knows that they have the problem and need a solution. Now they are looking for different ways to fix the problem. For example, “which is ultra-light running shoes” could be the informational keyword used by the searcher.

Navigational keywords: Navigational or “Go” keywords help the searcher find the site or specific URL that helps him buy the product. They use these keywords during the consideration phase of the purchase funnel. Here, searcher looks for different options available and compare them. For example, when searcher tries to search & compare Reebok shoes with the search term “Reebok running shoes”.

Transactional keywords: Transactional keywords, or “Do” keywords are keywords searcher use when they are ready to buy a product or service. These keywords are used during the conversion phase of the purchase funnel. Here, searcher knows what he wants to buy and use specific terms to find the way out to close the deal. For example, “budget hotel rooms in LA” helps the searcher find the exact result for his query to close the deal.

Keywords by length:

This is another type of keywords that is described by its length. Usually, long-tail keywords are considered to be more serious searches in comparison to short tail keywords. There are three types of keywords by the length that includes:

• Short-tail keyword
• Mid-tail keyword
• Long-tail keywords

 Short-tail keywords: Short-tail keywords are also known as broad keywords, head or generic keywords. These types of keywords usually get high search volume. It includes one or two words in the search term. You can find that these keywords are highly competitive in nature. Example: sedan cars

Mid-tail keywords: They are counted between head keywords that are highly competitive and has high traffic volume and long-tail keywords that attract less traffic but has a high conversion rate with less competition. These terms are more descriptive then short-tail keywords and include 2-3 words. Example: Black sedan cars

Long-tail keywords: These are more specific searches. These search terms are targeted specifically to a particular topic or audience. Long-tail keywords have low-competition, low search traffic, but high conversion rate. Example: Black sedan cars with roof-top

Google Ads keywords:

These types of keywords are used to create ad campaigns on Google also known as Google Ads. It includes:

• Broad match keywords
• Broad modifier keywords
• Phrase match keywords
• Exact match keywords
• Negative keywords

Broad match keywords: A broad match term is similar to short tail keywords. Here, one or two words are used to show your ad on Google for product or service. Here, you mention these broad match keywords to tell Google to show your ad for any query that is a variation of the broad keyword. Here, Google will display your ad no matter searcher is searching for a similar phrase, synonym, singular or plural form, stemming, misspellings, and other variations.

Example: sports cars

Example searches: buy sports cars, black sports cars

Broad Modifier keywords: In broad modifier match, you need to put a plus sign (+) in front of one or more words in a broad match keyword. For example, if you have modified broad match “red purses” keyword to broad match modifier with a (+) sign, it will look like this “+red +purses”. Here, your ad will be triggered for other search queries also like “colorful purses”, “women’s purses”,  “red purses”etc.

Phrase match keywords: Here, a specific phrase term is used to display your ads by Google when there is a query for specific phrase match keyword. It could include search terms when there is a word before or after the phrase match keyword. For example, while selecting a phrase match keyword “black shoes”, Google will display ads for keywords like “Black shoes male” or “female black shoes” also.

Exact match keywords: While selecting this type of keyword, Google will display your ad only when the search query matches the exact match keywords. For example, if you have selected “tennis shoe women”, then the ad will be displayed on search terms like “tennis shoe women”, “women tennis shoes”, “tennis shoes for women” etc.

Negative keywords: When you put any search term in negative keywords list the Google will not display your ads for selected negative terms. For example, if you put are running a campaign for “shoe sale” and you are selling only women’s products, then you can put “men’s shoes”, “men’s shoe sale” etc. in negative keywords.

Conclusion

While the keyword plays an important role to help you boost traffic on your site, knowing them well in advance help you create SEO optimized content for better results. It will also help you boost your revenue and profit considerably. Now when you know all types of keywords, it’s time you optimize them for effective results.