When I was first learning about the internet and how to use it, I had no idea what keywords were.
When I was first learning about marketing on the internet, I still wasn't completely clear about keywords! This topic can be confusing.
The basic definition of a keyword is word or words people type in to the search bar to find what they want to find online.
A keyword can also be a phrase.
Whether you realized it before or not, any time you do a search on Google, Yahoo, Bing, or another search engine, you've always been using keywords.
If it weren't for keywords, a search engine wouldn't know what to return when you searched online.
Search engines are constantly trying to improve their service to the people who search.
Their goal is to always return the best possible match for the keywords you enter so that you as the user are satisfied with your experience.
If you need someone to fix your air conditioner and you type in "air conditioner repair" plus your city, you will get the results that the search engine thinks is the best match for what you entered.
The websites that show up on the first page will be the ones that are the best optimized for your keywords.
If you've ever gotten something that seemed like it didn't match what you typed in the reason that happens sometimes is that if the search engine can't find exactly what you type in, they will return the next best thing.
It's important when deciding which keywords to target for your online marketing campaigns that you choose keywords that people are really using so they will find you when they search for what you offer.
Competition happens when you're choosing keywords just like it does in every area of doing business.
If competition for your keywords is high it could be difficult to get ranked in a high position.
If you don't think you'll be able to do that, you can search for related keywords.
This requires a fair amount of research to know what the competition will be and which keywords are actually getting searches.
It won't matter that you rank high for certain keywords if people aren't searching with those phrases.
This makes brings up a very important point.
People will make claims that they can rank on Google in 24 hours.
That does happen, but many times it happens for keywords that nobody is using to search.
Ranking for competitive keywords can take several months of serious work.
If you consider working with a marketing consultant who tells you they can rank your website in Google in a few days, you need to have a complete understanding of they keywords they plan to target.
You must have an agreement about the keywords that you'll work on or you'll be paying for a service that will do you no good.
Any work they do should include a good analysis of your site to see if what they're proposing is even possible.
Be sure that before you pay for the service you see the research on the keywords that the consultant has done so you can be certain that you're getting work done that will actually help you.
Now that you know what a keyword is and how the search engines use them, you're way ahead of most business owners who are focused on running their business!