7 Types of Keywords to Boost your SEO Strategy

Thinking what types of keywords you should be focusing on? Columnist Ryan Shelley shows how to categorize keywords by using a personalized and industry-focused approach.

Keywords are essential to every aspect of your SEO campaign, from on-site placement and utilization to link prospecting and acquisition. Knowing which terms to focus on and how to target them can produce great results or end in a huge flop.

Defining and categorizing your keywords can help in your link outreach and community building online, both of which are essential to be able to drive relevant traffic to your site. While there are quite a few of schools of thought when it comes to the types of keywords we should use, I want to walk you through the seven types we use at my company and how we use them in all areas of our SEO strategy.

1. Market-defining keywords: Market-defining keywords are terms and key phrases the people in your target market uses when discussing about your business or industry. These phrases are usually very broad and generic, so they really are often much harder to get ranking for than others; nonetheless, they are still very important.
2. Customer-defining keywords: Customer-defining keywords are the terms and key phrase your customers use to define themselves. Exactly what do your customers call themselves? How do they refer to others in their group? Both of these questions will guide you to uncovering these powerful keywords.
3. Product keywords: Product keywords describe what you sell. When listing out there and researching these phrases, be specific. For example, if you sell personal computers, use the brand names as well: Dell laptop, MacBook Pro, Surface Pro and so on. This will help you discover some great opportunities and prospects who meet very specific niches within your target customer segment.
4. Industry thought leaders: Industry thought leaders are individuals or groups within your market segment that are known, respected and established the tone. These are generally the people everyone else is aware, of course, if they don’t, they should. While these keywords won’t be at home title tag, they are incredibly great for your outreach efforts. Industry thought leader terms can help you uncover PR and job interview opportunities that can appeal to targeted traffic to your site.
5. Competing company names: Competing company names are useful in discovering how others report as well as treat companies similar to yours. These terms are similar to industry thought leaders in that you will not be using them for on-site optimization. Using competing company names, you’ll be able to see who have covered your competition in the news, on forums and websites — and you may dig to their reviews to get a much better idea of what you are up against.
6. Related vertical keywords: Related vertical keywords are terms within your target segment ecosystem. These terms can range from vendors to customer industries, however they need to have a clear link with your main audience. These terms are helpful in uncovering new prospecting opportunities, as well as helping you build a strong community of like-minded individuals.
7. Geotargeted keywords: Geotargeted keywords are key for your local rankings. According to Google Search engine, “50% of consumers who conducted a local search on their smartphone visited a store within a day, and 34% who searched on a computer/tablet did the same.” Defining your geotargeted keywords will help you focus o local prospects, groups and events your company can build relationships and/or sponsor.

Final Conclusions

With regards to finding, organizing and taking advantage of keywords, the biggest piece of advice I will give you is usually to be patient and maintain digging. A lot more you search and check out, the more you’ll discover. Once you've your list, set up keywords by action, and develop your plan. Improve your site, and then give attention to your outreach. Using these keywords, you will be able to create a community that helps drive your site in the right direction.

Read the full article on Search Engine Land.