Keywords are the queries that people like you and me type when searching for something on a search engine like Google. So lets take an example. Suppose you want a sport shoes from Adidas you’d probably type Sports Shoes Adidas or Sports Shoes from Adidas.

Now we do this everyday. Search for info or a product. We use particular words that we think are what describe that product. In short, you type a relevant query for the product (shoes) from a particular brand, here Adidas.

In the earlier phase of the buying cycle the person may simply type shoes. The single, generic term shoes implies things about the searcher’s intent.

1. The searcher is not sure what type of shoes to buy - sports or leather
2. The searcher is also not sure of the brand of shoes he wants to buy from

In the more advanced phase the searcher may type sports shoes. It has a little more intent and a sub-group of the query shoes. It is more targeted than someone simple searching for shoes.

Now sport shoes Adidas implies a particular intent.

• The searcher has done his research about sports shoes
• He has made up his mind to buy it from Adidas

As you can see the keywords are likely to have intent behind them. By merely looking at keywords you can make a guess about the searcher’s buying cycle.

This is the reason that most of the time keywords like sports shoes Adidas have more competition than simply shoes.

This post has briefly discussed about the importance of keywords and what they really are. In the next post I’ll show you some simple methods for finding keywords that are profitable and also less competitive!