A word or phrase a person types into a search engine, or that a piece of content is optimized to rank for.
Why it matters
Keywords are the basic unit of search intent — understanding what keywords an audience actually searches, and how much competition exists for them, is foundational to any SEO or paid search strategy.
In a sentence
"We're ranking well for our branded keyword, but we still have work to do on the broader, higher-volume category terms."
Related terms
- Often confused with: Topic (a keyword is a specific search term; a topic is the broader subject area a piece of content covers, which may target several related keywords at once).
- Synonyms: Search term, query.