Most marketers, particularly SEOs and content writers, have heard this before; keyword targeting is the basis of your SEO strategy, so it has to be done right (the first time). But what does “doing keyword research well” even mean?
Over my years as an SEO, I’ve developed a sort of mental “keyword matrix” that I use to create intentional keyword focuses; and the kicker is, it works for virtually any industry. So let’s not dilly dally. It’s time for this to come out of my brain and out onto the internet.
What Are SEO Keywords & Why Do They Matter?
Okay, we can dilly dally a little; I wanted to include this section for anyone who’s not going into this with existing SEO expertise (we’re not about alienating people who want to learn here, guys!)
Keywords are the queries that users type into Google (or Bing, or Yandex, or Yahoo!) that return results on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). It’s also a metric that Google uses to determine whether to rank a website for a certain keyword, and where on the SERP to position it. For these reasons, including the right keywords on your website is paramount in order for your content to be shown to the right audience when they’re searching.
Why does this matter? When someone is searching online for a product or service that you offer, you want to be found, right? Most of the time, the first keyword a brand new site will start to rank for is the name of the brand it’s for (if it’s unique, that is). That’s not because Google just knows what your company is called; it’s because that keyword appears frequently and naturally within the website’s content, URLs, page titles, etc.
A Note About AI Search
We’re not quite at the fun part yet (sorry), but this is the last thing we’ll review before we get to the keyword matrix of it all.
Though this content will mostly focus on traditional SEO (which is still the dominant search method), there are slightly different guidelines and best practices for AI search keywords. I’ll include some information about that at the end of each section for my fellow super-mega-search-nerds out there 😉
The 4 Parts of the Keyword Matrix
Now that our SEO crash course has concluded, it’s time to start building out our keyword matrix. For this, we’ll take four keyword selection principles and combine them to create a nice, tidy visual that will (hopefully) help you select the most optimal keywords for your SEO efforts.
The Type of SEO Keyword
The four main types of SEO keywords are short-tail, long-tail, branded, and semantic keywords. Notice that I’m not talking about search intent here (that’s later); when I refer to the “type” of keyword, I’m referring to its content:
- Short-tail keywords are 1-3 words maximum, and tend to be high volume, broad, and extremely competitive. Think “running shoes” as a keyword where the SERP is dominated by Nike; boutique brands typically don’t stand a chance against companies like that.
- Long-tail keywords are 3-5 words (most Google searches are around 3-4 words long, so we don’t want to go any more niche than that). Long-tail keywords have lower search volumes and are more specific, with a trade-off of often being higher intent. Think “best running shoes for marathons”.
- Branded keywords (as the name suggests) are keywords containing your brand name or the names of your products. These are usually the easiest to rank for with a new website since your brand name should appear naturally throughout content and metadata.
- Semantic keywords hinge on a concept known as Latent Semantic Indexing; these keywords are semantically related to the target keyword, even though they may not contain any of the keyword topics. As an example, a semantic keyword for our hypothetical boutique running shoe brand could be “arch support footwear”.
What about AI search? LLMs prioritize long-tail, semantic keywords because they’re built to understand the user’s intent, not the specific words within the prompt. People aren’t going into ChatGPT and typing in “running shoes”; they’re asking an entire question (and those can get long), plus maybe a few follow-ups.
Does that mean you need to try to target thousands of unique, 10+-word queries to show up in LLMs? No! The focus here should be making sure that your keywords (long-tail, short-tail, and semantic) can all be related back to similar keyword topics. Help the LLMs “understand” what your site is all about.
The Search Intent of the SEO Keyword
Something else to think about when figuring out how to choose SEO keywords is search intent; this is also the second component of our SEO keyword matrix. There are four main types of search intent in SEO:
- Informational search intent makes up the majority of Google searches; the user is looking for an answer to a question or seeking more info on a particular topic. Best used for Top-of-Funnel and Middle-of-Funnel audiences.
- Commercial search intent typically refers to someone who is no longer in the problem identification or information-gathering stage of the Customer Journey; rather, they are seeking out specific recommendations or looking for comparisons. Best used for Middle-of-Funnel and Bottom-of-Funnel audiences.
- Transactional search intent comes after commercial; the user has a direct intent to purchase. These keywords can be branded or non-branded, depending on the depth of the research completed (e.g., “SEO services in NYC” vs. “NoGood SEO services”). Best used for Bottom-of-Funnel audiences.
- Navigational search intent consists of users trying to find a specific page on a specific website, such as “NoGood careers” (we’re hiring, btw).
- I don’t recommend focusing an SEO keyword strategy on navigational search intent; in fact, if you’re finding a high search volume for branded keywords with navigational intent, that signals a larger visibility or UX issue on your site.
What about AI search?
- Being cited for informational keywords positions you as an authority on a particular topic; you won’t necessarily get a click out of it, but you will get brand recognition that supports other marketing efforts!
- Being cited for commercial queries captures your customers when they’re juuuuuuuust about ready to buy; they’re comparing their options, and if an LLM cites you, they’re 23x more likely to convert. Time to get crackin’ on that AEO strategy, eh?
- Navigational and transactional queries are less common in LLMs. When it comes to user behavior in AI search, the research is still in its infancy (so it’s subject to change), but currently AI is generally being used for exploratory search that often leans informational or commercial.
The Monthly Search Volume of the SEO Keyword
The first two components of the keyword matrix give you the general content and intent of the keywords you should be targeting; the third step, monthly search volume, drills down into a metric that is unique to each keyword (and fluctuates over time).
Based on the information above, we know that short-tail, informational keywords are likely going to have the highest search volumes (you’re already building that matrix out in your head, aren’t you? 🤠). The trick here is to find a “sweet spot” based on your industry, the intent, and the type of keyword.
- Search volumes that are too high give your content less of a shot at ranking. Don’t post an article targeting the keyword “what is seo”; that topic is far too oversaturated for your content to make a splash.
- Pro Tip: I like to choose keywords that are within the “sweet spot”, but might be slightly longer-tail and include the short-tail keyword. Think “what is seo in healthcare”.
- Search volumes that are too low put you in a position to lose out on quality traffic. This signals that you’ve gotten too niche with your keyword, or you’re not using the same language that users are.
- This is where it becomes important to know when to use industry lingo, when to use age-specific terms, or when to keep it general. For lack of a better example, think “labubus explained” vs. “chinese monster plushy explained”.
What about AI search? Sorry to let you down, but search volumes for AI search mostly apply the same way as they do for traditional organic search. My advice here is to focus on the topics you’re writing about: Are they being talked about right now? Are they going to be talked about in the future?
On the opposite end of the spectrum, one of the main draws of AI search for users with super specific queries is that they’re more likely to find an answer where Google might not always have one. This makes search volume even less relevant (huge news for niche bloggers).
The Keyword Difficulty of the SEO Keyword
We’ve made it to the final part of our keyword matrix: keyword difficulty. Similar to monthly search volume, this metric is unique to each keyword and fluctuates over time, usually based on search trends or topic popularity.
As an example, notice that the search trends for “rio olympics” peaked right around, well, the Rio Olympics. Anyone who was writing about the Rio Olympics at the time was battling a much higher keyword difficulty than they would now (not that it’d be topical to talk about it now, but you see my point).
Just like with monthly search volumes, though, finding the “right” keyword difficulty when choosing keywords for SEO is all about finding the “sweet spot”; not too high, not too low (with some exceptions).
One particular exception that comes to mind is one of being “on the bleeding edge”. The same way that trend forecasters in fashion predict what will be next season’s hottest styles, SEOs can do the same. In this case, writing content for a keyword that has low search volume and low difficulty can be a good strategy; one that captures other early adopters in the space and has a “first to market” advantage.
(Shameless plug here for Goodie; that’s literally all we do over there.)
What about AI search? More bad news incoming: search volume and keyword difficulty both play almost exactly the same role in SEO as they do in AEO. The takeaway is that SEO is the foundation of AEO, and SERP rankings do matter. Succeeding in LLMs is much easier if you’ve already found success in traditional search engines.
How to Choose SEO Keywords Using a Keyword Matrix
It’s finally happening; wrapping all of this up with a neat little bow. Are you ready for the final reveal? Here it is:
A note on the above: You’ll notice I didn’t include navigational intent in the keyword matrix. As stated above, I don’t recommend relying on it as part of your SEO keyword strategy.
Due to fluctuations in search trends and behaviors, changes to algorithms, and industry differences, creating an all-inclusive how-to for something like this isn’t particularly possible (trust me, I wish it was); all of this to say, looking at these four characteristics of keywords should serve as a solid guide for how to choose SEO keywords.
Hopefully, you find this as helpful as I did when I was thinking it up in my brain; and if you didn’t (or you still want more insight), NoGood’s SEO experts are here to help 😉
