Keywords 101: What to know before building a keyword strategy

Deepen your news SEO knowledge with our comprehensive guide to keywords. From understanding seed keywords to leveraging striking distance terms, understand why keywords matter and how to use them

Jan 16, 2024

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This week: All about keywords! What better way to start the new year than by reviewing all types of keywords? We’ll walk through a variety of definitions and then review some considerations when dealing with terms and phrases.

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Tap tap tap, go the keys as you do keyword research. Credit: Austin Distel.

Let’s get it.

In this issue:

What is a keyword?
Types of keywords.
Keyword considerations.

THE 101

What is a keyword?

A keyword is any word or phrase that a user types into a search engine to find information about a topic. Keywords are how readers seek out information, and by targeting relevant terms, publishers can connect their content to the intended audience.

Any term used in a search engine, whether it is a single word or a long phrase, is a keyword. For this reason, sometimes “keyword” and “keyphrase” are used interchangeably.

Types of keywords

Seed keyword

A “seed” keyword is the starting point for keyword research. Seed keywords are usually one or two words and are often considered short-tail (see more below). Typically, seed keywords are the topic you’re looking to explore; from there, it can be broken into many secondary and tertiary keywords.

For example, if you are doing keyword research on the Super Bowl, the seed keywords might be:

Super Bowl LVII;
Team1 vs Team2;
Super Bowl 2024.

You’re not necessarily targeting just the seed phrases for every story; instead, after you identify a seed keyword, expand your efforts to find story angles or more specific questions articles can answer.

To find seed keywords, consider the phrases you already rank for, or topics you want to explore further (use any keyword research tool). Check Google Search Console (GSC) for phrases already sending traffic to your site.

Seed keywords are a good starting point when you’re thinking about expanding your E.E.A.T signals and topic authority on a subject.

Main-focus (primary) and secondary keywords

The main-focus keyword, also known as the primary keyword, is the primary phrase targeted on any piece of content. Primary terms should be captured in headlines, URLs and in the body of the article.

Secondary keywords are supporting players. They provide additional detail and related information, but are used less frequently in your coverage. Capture secondary terms in the meta description (the deck or subtitle), as a subheading or at the end of a URL.

To find related terms, use Google’s autocomplete feature on the search bar, People Also Ask and Related Search features, and People Also Search For from the Keywords Everywhere tool to see if there are common alternatives.

Consult Google Trends for the breakout terms during a news event. These are often good main-focus and secondary keywords to target, and may give you some other content ideas.

Short- vs Long-tail keywords

Short-tail keywords are terms that are short (usually less than three words) and refer to broad categories or topics. Short-tail keywords usually have high search volume, but are more difficult to rank for because of the wider interest. Ranking for these keywords likely results in a lot of traffic, but also requires more work (more robust content, more links, higher topic authority, etc.). These keywords can also sometimes be referred to as head terms.

Long-tail keywords are queries that are multiple words, or are phrases and are more specific to a topic with very specific user intent. These terms have lower search volume, but are easier to rank for and tend to have very specific user intent.

Why pick a medium- or long-tail keyword instead of the higher volume query? They are significantly less competitive. If you, a small regional news outlet from Niagara Falls, are writing about flu shot clinics availability, you’re much less likely to rank for the head term “flu shot clinics.” However, if you consider long-tail keywords, like “flu shot clinics niagara falls,” you can get more regional traffic.

Short-term keywords take more time — and content — to rank well for, whereas long-tail terms (because they’re more specific) are more easily fulfilled. About 15 percent of daily Google searches are new, according to Ahrefs, and those searches tend to be long-tail keywords.

Branded and non-branded keywords

Branded keywords are the queries associated with a brand, and are used to navigate information from a specific news outlet. These are unique to your website’s domain.

For The New York times, branded queries would include:

NYTimes;
New York Times games;
nytimes cooking.

Branded queries are navigational queries — people who search them are usually trying to get to a specific page on your website. Branded keywords can be a shortcut for users (i.e., it’s faster to type “nyt cooking” than navigate to nytimes.com and click the Cooking vertical from the navigation). The click-through rate for branded queries also tends to be higher (50 per cent or more of people who search for brands click on the top ranking page).

Branded keywords are part of an organization-wide search strategy. Think about how readers search for beats or the sections of a publication — i.e., “NYT business,” “WSJ investing” — or for specific, marquee writers. An organization should optimize homepages, author pages and category pages keeping these branded searches in mind.

Non-branded keywords are the opposite — they are queries that don’t reference your brand or domain.

Pro tip: Check your GSC data for the list of the top branded and non-branded keywords sending you traffic already. SEO tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs are typically able to filter branded from non-branded keywords pretty easily, too.

Striking distance keywords

Striking distance keywords refer to phrases your publication ranks for, but in positions 11-30 (pages two and three of SERPs). These terms are ranking for content your publication has already written, but the stories need to be optimized to increase visibility on search.

Striking distance keywords have potential for generating more traffic if you can improve your publication’s ranking by a few positions. According to Backlinko, the first position has a CTR of 27.6 per cent, with the second and third positions seeing around 16 per cent and 11 per cent CTRs, respectively.

By moving from the second page of SERPs to page one, your through rates and overall traffic are likely to rise.

THE 201

Now that we know the types of keywords, let’s dive into some keyword considerations that you should keep in mind when optimizing your news outlet.

Keyword ranking

Keyword ranking is when your site’s content shows up for keywords in search engine results pages (SERPs). This is the main goal with using keywords in your headlines, URLs and across your site. The crux of SEO is improving your publication’s ranking in results pages — reaching more potential subscribers or answering important reader questions.

Keyword difficulty

Keyword difficulty refers to how much competition there is for a specific term. This is also referred to as “SEO difficulty” or “keyword competition.” High-competition keywords are more difficult to rank for, while low-competition keywords are easier to get your content to surface, but also have lower search volume.

Target moderate- to low-competition keywords with decent search volume, especially when building areas of authority. It’s wise to go after a combination of higher and lower competition keywords as part of your search efforts.

SEO tools like the Keyword Difficulty Checker from Ahrefs or SEMRush’s Keyword Difficulty tool will show how hard it will be to get into the top 10 search result spots for any keyword.

Keyword stemming

Keyword stemming refers to the process of reducing a search phrase to its “stem” or root term. If a reader used “buy” in a query, the search algorithms will understand that “bought,” “buying” and “to buy” are variations of the “stem” term.

Keyword cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization occurs when a single website unintentionally targets the same query across multiple stories or pages. This happens when the topic of those pages is too similar, or they are targeting the exact same term.

As a result, you’re competing with yourself. Multiple pages competing for the same limited story place in the Top Stories carousel or other spots in SERPs, and splitting the traffic.

Because news is quick and ever-changing, multiple stories will rank for the same keyword. Sometimes, this is what you want as you may have multiple assets on the same subject. But sometimes, the competing stories are providing different, out-of-date information. The goal is to ensure the most up-to-date stories are ranking and giving readers the best information.

You can use this structure for a Google query to check if your content is getting cannibalized: site:yourwebsite.com + target keyword. Check that search term again in a normal Google search. Where does your content rank in SERPs?

Pro tip: If multiple stories are ranking for the same keyword and you don’t want that to be the case, consider de-optimizing the page you don’t want to rank. Remove the main-focus keyword in the headline.

Keyword stuffing

Keyword stuffing refers to the bad, old-school SEO tactic of adding the same keyword(s) to a webpage over and over again in hopes of boosting rankings.

This could be a block of text containing the key terms, but no additional context, or a group of keywords that are not written in natural, human prose (i.e., in a news story about the Prime Minister, it would look like: Prime Minister, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trudeau, Prime Minister Trudeau, etc.). Another common black-hat tactic is adding the keywords using white text on a white background (invisible to readers, but not to Google, which reads the HTML).

Readers and Google both consider this to be spam. It’s a bad tactic that could put your site at risk for a manual action, which could plummet your rankings. The focus should be producing journalism with high-quality information that effectively fulfills a reader’s need.

Keyword density is a related concept that refers to the percentage a keyword is used in a given story (it’s determined by taking the total number of words in a piece and dividing that figure by the frequency of a keyword).

There’s no guideline, but above two per cent keyword density risks being considered spam. SEMRush or Yoast have tools that will alert you when there is concern.

To avoid stuffing or high keyword density, write like a person for people and identify your secondary search terms. Use the main-focus keyword in the headline and URL, and as high up in the story as organically possible. Then, use those secondary and related phrases in the meta description and within the body copy.

Keyword gap analysis

A keyword gap analysis is the process of identifying the keywords that competing news organizations rank highly for, but that you do not. It is where competitors are taking advantage of a gap in your coverage.

This is a strategic analysis that will outline the high-value terms that you should target with fresh coverage and expert analysis. It’s important to remember these keywords should be aligned with your news outlet’s goals and editorial objectives, and within your ideal content expertise area. Don’t chase keyword gaps you can’t fulfill with good, quality journalism.

A keyword gap analysis can be part of a larger competitive analysis.

The bottom line: There are many, many different kinds of keywords, and many different ways of looking at them. Consider this your glossary as you strategize around keyword research (which we’ll dive into next week).

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