What is a Keyword

For example, if you were looking for information on dog training, you would enter 'dog training tips' or 'dog training information' into the search engine. In this case the terms 'dog training tips' and 'dog training information' are considered keywords.

You probably use keywords all the time, you just didn't know what they were called.

You've probably noticed that the above two examples were more than one word. That is because a keyword can be more than one word. Sort of a 'keyphrase' if you will. But these also fall into what are known as keywords. If you are looking for something very specific your keyphrase could be several words long, such as 'springer spaniel puppy training'. The more specific you are in searching, the more targeted results you will achieve.

To help you understand why keywords are so important, let's look at how the search engine, Google works

Google has little logical robots that crawl all over the internet reading, recording, and indexing every website. (Don't worry, they don't visit your machine, just web servers.)

These robots make a note of the keywords that websites use. They notice what words are most important to that website, and how they are used. With this they determine what really the website, or webpage is all about. That way Google knows how to categorize that site. So when people use Google to search for information Google knows if a given website matches up with what that person was looking for.

Now if you have a website about 'dog training' you want to make sure that Google knows this, so you use dog training keywords in the content of your website. You can also use them in titles, and other areas.

Of course if your website is more specific, and you use more specific keywords, Google will learn this, and you will receive more visitors looking for that more specific subject matter.

So, figuring out the best keywords for your website and content will increase the number of visitors to your site. And that is why using the proper keywords is so important.

This is the first in a series of articles contained in the ebook 'Keywords for Newbies'. These articles cover keywords in general, their research and selection, and how to use them. The ebook is free. So if you've been confused by any of these things, or just want to get started with an easy to understand, step by step approach, then check out www.KeywordsforNewbies.com