In plain English
Keywords are the words customers use when they ask a friend for a recommendation. If they ask for a "kitchen remodeler" and your sign says "interior renovation solutions", the friend won't think of you.
Used in a sentence
“We'll build the service page around the keyword customers actually use, "window replacement", not "fenestration".”
“We always called it a "consultation", but our customers search for a "free quote".”
In detail
Keyword research finds the phrases your customers use, how often they search them and how hard they are to rank for. Each important page should focus on one main phrase and its close variations, used naturally in the title, the headings and the text. Behind every keyword is an intent: someone ready to buy, someone comparing, or someone just learning.
Stuffing a phrase in over and over doesn't help, and modern search engines understand meaning, not just exact words. What works is answering the question behind the search better than anyone else, in the words the searcher used.
Why it matters for your business
Using your customers' words, not your industry's, is how the right people find your pages.
- One main phrase per page
- Matches what customers really type
- Targets searches from people ready to buy
Easy to mix up
A keyword isn't a hashtag or a tag on your blog. It's a search phrase, and it belongs naturally in your page's title, headings and words.
Related terms
Title tag, Organic traffic and SERP. Or browse the whole glossary.
