SEO keyword
In Online Marketing, keywords are the most important components. Keywords are words and phrases that are most often used by web visitors to find things in search engines. These are then used to in various on- and offsite measures in SEO. In Pay-Per-Click Advertising, a keyword is a term which is typed into a search engine which will trigger an advertisement in the surroundings of the search results. So, the keyword is always exactly the word, Online Marketing measures are adapted to.
Head keywords vs. long-tail keywords
As the name suggests, a keyword consists of one word (singular or one-word keyword). A word phrase that includes several words is called a keyphrase. According to this, “notebook” would be a singular keyword and “home cinema” or “LCD TV” keyphrases. Singular keywords and keyphrases are summed up as head keywords. Long-tail keywords are created when the search query is made more concrete with more or specific terms. For example, typing in “buy LCD TV online” in the search field reveals more information about the user’s intention: he wants not only to inform himself, but is willing to spend money. The same is true for a long-tail keyword like “Toshiba LCD TV 65396HFL” – the searcher has already informed himself on the issue and knows exactly what he wants.
The graph below illustrates clearly the difference between keywords and long-tail keywords. The classic one-word keyword is queried in search engines most frequently, but achieving a good ranking requires a lot of effort and cost. Let’s take the “notebook” example: a number of online stores, product testers, blogs, forums and price comparison sites struggle for relevant placements. And if your online shop has reached the highest position in the search results to this keyword, you still can’t be sure that all the users who search for “notebook” are willing to purchase – they may just be interested in exchanging their opinions or informing themselves. It is also unclear what they are looking for: are they looking for a notebook pc or office supplies?
This is not the case with long-tail keywords: while these phrases have much fewer queries, they reveal more concrete decisions and clearer intensions of the users. Another important note: competition on long-tail keywords is smaller. Thus, the efforts and the costs for a good position can be reduced and the niche more profitable.
