A word or phrase that represents what people search for and what a page, advertisement, or piece of content addresses.
A basic building block of search strategy and audience intent research.
Short and sweet:
A word or phrase that represents what people search for and what a page, advertisement, or piece of content addresses.
A basic building block of search strategy and audience intent research.
See also: Search Query, Keyword Research, Search Intent
A keyword is a specific word or short phrase that content is deliberately built around, chosen because it reflects language a target audience actually searches for rather than internal jargon a business might otherwise default to. Keywords vary widely in competitiveness and specificity, ranging from broad, high-volume terms that are hard to rank for to longer, more specific phrases that attract a smaller but often more qualified audience. Because a page can realistically only rank well for so many terms at once, most content strategies focus each individual page around one primary keyword and a handful of closely related variations.
A dentist writing a new blog post might target the keyword “how to whiten teeth naturally,” building the whole article around answering that specific phrase.
Advertisers bidding on Google Ads choose a specific search term like “emergency locksmith” to trigger their ad, paying only when someone searching that exact phrase clicks through.
A long-tail phrase such as “best waterproof hiking boots for wide feet” usually attracts fewer searches than a short one like “hiking boots,” but the searcher’s intent tends to be much clearer.
