WordPress SEO in 5 Minutes – Difference between Keyword and Keyphrase
You are planning to create a new website for your business and have hired the best web developers. While the designing is still going on, your web development agency keeps stressing that keyword and keyphrase are essential for your site optimisation. You are aware of what site optimization is. You also know that both keyword and keyphrase are focus words, but what is the difference between the two? When should you use them? This next article from our SEO agency in Perth will help you unlock the mystery and find the answers.
What is a Keyword?
A keyword is a specific word that best defines the content of your blog post or page. It is the search term that you would want your page to rank for. To put it simply, when someone searches for these words on search engines, they should find your page or post.
For example, let’s say you are a web development and branding agency, and you’ve written a blog about branding on your site. The keyword will be “branding” for your post or page.
What is a Keyphrase?
Keyphrase is the phrase that best defines the content of your blog post or page and that you would want your page or post to rank for.
From the same example as above, let’s say your web development and branding agency is in Perth, and you have written a post about developing websites for businesses in Perth. Your keyphrase should be something on the lines of “web development for Perth businesses” or “web development agency in Perth”. These phrases describe the content of your post better than, say, “web development”.
So, What’s the Difference?
The difference between them is as simple as you guessed. Keyword and keyphrase both define your page or post best and can be used to rank in search engines. The only difference is keyword is a single word while keyphrases have more than one word.
If you are serious about SEO, you have probably heard about long tail keywords. So, what is the difference between keyphrase and long tail keywords? Long tail keywords can be a keyword or keyphrase but are very specific. They generally tend to be particular phrases than a word. Taking the same example as above, “web development for healthcare business in Perth” can be considered as long tail keyword as it is very specific.
Why are Keywords and Keyphrases Important?
Both keywords and keyphrases are significant because of the following reasons:
- Increases organic traffic and conversions rate by reaching out to your targeted customers
- Helps to create valuable content for your audience
- Portrays the essence of your web page
- Help to communicate with search engines so they can understand the content of your page
Keywords vs. Search Queries
Keywords are abstract and can be generalised in multiple search queries. While search queries are the phrases that users enter in search engines with the intention to find some information. Even though the user intent is same the search queries can differ from person to person. They can even have misspellings and grammar mistakes.
To choose effective keywords you need to meet the search intent of the customers and make your focus phrase similar to search queries.
Importance of Keyword & Keyphrase Optimisation
Optimizing your content based on the words and phrases that your target consumer use to search for similar services can get your site ranking higher for those terms. You must also ensure that your content is optimized for search intent. This will get you more visitors; more visitors mean more opportunities for conversion.
You may want to note that it is difficult to rank for a keyword since a large number of sites will be trying to rank for it. A keyphrase, by contrast, will be easier to rank. There will be fewer people searching for a particular phrase, but there will also be fewer sites trying to rank for it.
Want to know how and where to use keywords? Read our complete guide on keywords.
Keyword research is essential to determine the most suitable keywords or keyphrases. They are chosen based on the rating on a combination of commercial intent, volume, and competition. Choosing the right words is crucial. Our SEO experts can help you with that. To know more contact us today or email at sales@computingaustralia.group.
Jargon Buster
Organic traffic – Visitors reaching your site from a search engine result and not a paid ad.
Keyword research – A process used by professionals to find and analyse search terms.
Search intent – A term used to define the intent behind a search query. It can be transactional, informational, commercial and Navigational.
Long-tail keyword – A keyword or keyphrase that is more specific and have low search volume.
Article originally published on 06/06/2020
Revised on 05/04/2021
Added new sections:
Keywords vs. Search Queries
Importance of Keyword & Keyphrase Optimisation
Added new terms to Jargon Buster
by The Computing Australia Group