Search Engine Optimization professionals say that researching and incorporating the right keywords into your online content is integral to content marketing. Not only that, its usually said that SEO and content marketing go hand in hand. According to Kissmetrics, the keywords that SEO demands, is successfully fulfilled by content marketing by employing the right SEO strategy throughout your content.

SEO keywords are nothing but the most searched words on the web. Your judicious use of these keywords will allow Google’s crawlers to index your content with greater ease, resulting in higher search engine results page, or SERP, rankings.

Here’s a handy guide to distinguishing among the common types of keywords you can use:

SEO Strategy #1: Informational Keywords

Informational keywords include “query words”, such as “how”, “what”, and “when”. These words are commonly typed into search engines by users looking for answers to their queries. For example, a user who wants to know details of the ideal cupcake recipe may search: “How much sugar is required for a cupcake recipe?”.

SEO Strategy #2: Head Term Keywords

These types of keywords are general and short, around one to two words usually. They are very common and do not factor well ranking-wise in comparison to long-tail keywords. Since the search volume for these keywords is maximized, they are very competitive. You can bet that everyone with a baking website is using terms such as “cake,” “baking”, “cooking”, “oven”, and “dough”.

Packing your webpage content with head-term keywords can decrease your search engine ranking. This type of content marketing tactic is called “keyword stuffing” and might lead to a drop in your domain authority. Your site or blog can, therefore, be penalized via SERP ranking demotion. Google may assume the content on your website is spam.

SEO Strategy #3: Transactional Keywords

People are actively making purchases online. They may use such terms as “buy”, “sell”, “subscribe”, “bargain”, and “for sale”. Keywords that pertain to some nature of online business are called transactional keywords. They indicate the intention to perform a commercial transaction online. Often, these types of keywords will be found on affiliate, e-commerce, or broker sites.

SEO Strategy #4: Long-Tail Keywords

You often hear that long-tail keywords are better for SEO purposes than short keywords. Long tail keywords are short sentences or phrases. They are more specific and targeted and capture users’ queries with greater accuracy. A long tail keyword could be, “how to bake an eggless cake?”. Because of their ability to drive targeted traffic, long tail keywords will pay off in terms of ranking. However, they are more difficult to research. Long tail keywords are also less competitive. This means that they are unique to your website or blog and might not be used as much by others. Hence, you can easily optimize these keywords as per your content marketing goals.

Once you’re familiar with the different types of keywords, you may wonder which ones are optimal for ranking purposes. The type of keywords you use will depend on the type of website you want to set up. If you have an e-commerce site, for example, you will probably benefit from the use of transactional keywords. All in all, websites should have a healthy variety of relevant, well-researched, and specific keywords.

Read Scatter’s e-book: Content Marketing Power Talk to learn more about how content marketing can be leveraged to achieve your business goals.