keyword
Also called: keyphrase, search term, keyword phrase
A keyword is the word or phrase a person types into a search engine, and the term an SEO chooses to target on a page so it ranks for that search. In practice the keyword is the marketer's chosen target, while the exact wording a user types is called the search query.
Keyword vs. search query
Keywords and search queries are not the same thing. A search query is the exact text a user types, misspellings and all. A keyword is the target you pick to optimize a page around. Google matches the two loosely: its language systems can understand how a page relates to many queries even when the exact terms are missing. Google’s own example is that some people search “charcuterie” while others search “cheese board” for the same idea.
Keywords get sorted two ways. By length: head terms (short, high-volume, vague intent like “running shoes”) versus long-tail (specific, lower-volume, stronger intent like “running shoes for flat feet”). By intent: informational, commercial, transactional, or navigational. One term can sit in several buckets at once.
Google’s advice is to use the words people actually use and place them in prominent spots (title, main heading, alt text, link text), while writing for readers rather than repeating terms. Overdoing it becomes keyword stuffing, “filling a web page with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate rankings,” which violates Google’s spam policies.
By 2026, exact-match keywords matter less than the concept behind them. AI Overviews and tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity answer around entities and meaning, so a page should cover the whole topic, not chase a single string of text.
How it affects your traffic
Picking the wrong keywords is where most traffic quietly leaks away. Chase a head term with a difficulty score you cannot beat and you land on page five where nobody clicks; target only exact strings and you miss the dozens of related queries one strong page could pull. The real work is matching realistic keywords to search intent, mapping one primary target per page to avoid cannibalization, and covering the surrounding entity so AI answers cite you too. That mapping is the first thing we do in an SEO Consulting engagement, before a single page gets written.
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