What are organic keywords? (And how to use them).

Whether you are a seasoned professional, dipping your toes into the frothy waters of digital marketing or about to launch your first ever website, then there is no getting away from the fact that organic keywords are a huge part of organic search engine optimisation. Working on your search engine optimisation (SEO), and getting your website visible on search engines like Google through keywords is critical if you want your website found by searchers actively looking for services, products and people like you.

Organic keywords are one of the five key ingredients that make up a good SEO strategy (content, page speed, backlinks and time being the other four BTW), so by ensuring you are hitting the key phrases and keywords that searchers are using to find companies just like yours, then you can start to make headway with your competitors. Carry on reading to find out which type of keyword you should be using on your website pages.

So, what are the main keyword types? It’s coming!

What are organic keywords?

Organic keywords are the keywords that appear below the paid search results, like Google Ads. Organic keywords are essentially free, in that you don’t have to pay for your search listing to be found, as you do with PPC. Organic keywords are also evergreen content, in that they don’t disappear when you run out of budget as a paid Ad does. Not only that, but honing in and niching your keywords, you increase your chance of being found by the right searchers, and then converting those searchers into paying customers or clients. Long-tailed keywords have a much higher conversion rate compared to short-tailed keywords. Why? Because long-tailed are more niche to what you do, and appear when a user has a set intent in what they what to do next, such as buy a product or service or find out information. Short-tailed keywords also have huge competition and unless you are one of the big fish, and a multinational company, chances are you won’t get found for it.

The two types of keywords you should absolutely be using.

There are two types of keywords (there are more, but I’m going to focus on two today), that you absolutely should be using on your website. Keywords lead to specific types of content, and users expect to be greeted by the right content when they land on your web page. If they don’t, they head to your competitor. That’s bad for you and your bounce rate (also a ranking factor!). So, which keywords should you definitely be using? They are informational and transactional keywords. Here’s the low down on each of them, and how to apply them to the right page:

Informational keywords.

Informational keywords are for generic keywords when searchers enter into the research phase of their web search. For example, you found this blog post via search because you were looking to understand types of keywords better, or what informational keywords mean. Informational keywords are ideal for blog posts and FAQs. Say you are a small business who sells tea. You would use informational keywords to create content around ‘the benefits of tea’ or ‘which tea is best for sleep’ and so on. These give searchers an idea about which type of tea they might like, so make sure you include a good CTA on that blog post to take them to your shop to buy.

Transactional keywords.

Transactional keywords are for searchers who are primed to buy. These are targeted searches and should be used on your service and product pages only. Using the tea shop analogy above, here you’d use ‘buy tea online’ or ‘order tea online’. Sometimes the water can muddy between informational and transactional. For example, using ‘best tea to buy online for insomnia’ - this keyword you could use on either a blog post or a product page.

Not sure which keyword to use?

Google search it! Nothing quite like heading into the mouth of the beast itself to see which pages come up for the keywords you are thinking about using. If Google is returning mostly blog posts, then its’ most likely an informational keyword. If you are being returned product pages, then be safe in the knowledge it’s a transactional keyword.

Need a helping hand with keyword research? Then pop me a message. I’m eye deep in keywords on a daily basis, and I am pretty sure I can help you with yours.