20 Types of Keywords: Guide for SEO Campaign

As search engine users, we obviously know the keywords, and we usually use keywords to find things on the internet. Keywords have become the bridge connecting the user to the content indexed in the search engine’s library. No surprise that the search engine optimization, also called SEO, always uses the most frequently used target keywords by people in order to make your content easily found by the users. Therefore, the inclusion of target keywords is essential and needed in SEO campaigns to ensure the content ranks on the first page. In this article, we will discuss what is the meaning of keywords and types of keywords, as well as why keywords are important for SEO and businesses in general. 

What are keywords in general?

Keywords are the short words that depict the content you are looking for. These words are the essential parts you need to input into the search engine to find the information or content in the search engine library. The more details of the keywords or key phrases are entered into the search engine, the more accurate the signal to the engine to generate better results on the search engine page. 

However, keywords are designed to be flexible and can be anything. It can actually be in short or long forms, depending on what you are looking for. Even with a single letter or number, it is also classified as a keyword. For instance, if you want to find out about monkeys, then you just type “monkeys” in the search engine bar, and they will process and show the relevant information and related content. 

If you want to find more specific information, then you cannot only type the general keywords, such as monkey. You have to be more specific, like add the location and monkey species or other characteristic related to the monkey that you are looking for. For example, the types of monkeys in Africa. Then, the search engine will process and show results only for monkeys in Africa instead of general information about monkeys. 

Why are keywords important for business?

Since more and more people use search engines as their own assistant to find information, the use of keywords is becoming more crucial. This is also a new strategy and opportunity for websites or business owners to gain influence and market their brand to internet users. So, if the websites are able to optimize their content with the high traffic keywords, then their website will be easily found by the users on the search engine results page (SERP). 

For business, the form and usage of keywords are an essential part to understand what people search on the search engines, especially your target audience. If your page is easily found by the target audience or potential customers, it will improve brand awareness in general, and more and more people will recognize your brand. If a business can improve its brand awareness. As the brand awareness rises, there are more likely that people will trust your company, buy your products or services, and be loyal to your brand instead of using products from other brands. 

Thus, knowing high traffic keywords is indispensable to improving SEO content. It must be included in your title and mentioned in the articles to ensure that your article is relevant to the users who need to find the same related information. However, you need to ensure the keyword is incorporated accordingly to ensure that it is not naturally merging or keyword stuffing, which makes your article perform badly on the Google search engine after publishing. 

Talk about Google ranking, in their recent publication, they mentioned that it wants to focus on the content that is useful and prioritize the reader to be ranked higher on their platform. Therefore, the keyword stuffing that previously could boost the ranking on Google will no longer be recommended for SEO content. The US tech giant also points out that there will be no punishment for the creator to use artificial intelligence (AI) to make high-quality content. Therefore, people can use AI generative, but the AI content tends to damage the authoritativeness due to the similarity to other articles and a lack of authenticity. 

Types of Keywords: What you need to know? 

After understanding the general meaning of keywords and how important keywords are for businesses, we need to know what types of keywords there are. Keywords can be categorized into 20 different types of keywords. These keywords in SEO are distinguished by character and functions to differentiate the usage for implementing an SEO campaign. Check the list of 20 types of keywords below. 

Type of keywords based on length

SEO is closely monitored in relation to the search intent as a target keyword on a search engine. Therefore, it also targets the length of the keywords to reach the specific results or general results from the search engine. Here is the list of three types of keywords based on their lengths. 

1. Short-tail keywords

Short tail keywords can have a similar meaning to general keywords with only one to three words. These keywords mostly cover a broad range of topics and obviously have a huge search volume compared to others. The example of short tail keywords is monkey, spaghetti, guitar, and others. Those words show that they are 3till general and have more information that can be dug deeper by adding more keywords. 

Pros: Short tail keywords generally have more search volume than the medium and long tail keywords. Therefore, the short tail keywords are indeed useful for brand awareness and make people recognize your brand easily. 

Cons: Despite having more search volume, short-tail keywords tend to be more generic and highly competitive. Thus, for small businesses, they will likely find it hard to compete with the huge businesses that have famous brands. 

2. Medium-tail keywords

A medium tail keyword is the combination of short and long tail keywords, usually containing two or three words. No wonder the medium tail keyword or mid tail keyword has become an alternative to bridge the short and long tail for an SEO campaign. The example of mid-tail keywords is “women’s party dress,” “men’s sneaker shoes,” “men’s casual t-shirt”, “what is padel,” and others.  

Pros: Mid-tail keywords are the best recommendation for SEO because it has quite a higher search volume and are less competitive. 

Cons: Despite less competition, mid-tail keywords are quite difficult to rank. The content must be good and high-quality in order to rank higher on the Google search engine. 

3. Long-tail keywords

A long-tail keyword is the opposite of a short-tail keyword, containing more than three words. This keyword is used for finding more specific topics to get the details of the information. Examples of long tail keywords are “what are the best SEO content writing tools in 2026”, “how to find the volume of a sphere”, “how to delete a page in Kami,” and others. 

Pros: Long-tail keywords are commonly far less competitive compared to the medium and short-tail keywords. Thus, using these keywords is the best way to be able to compete and rank on the first page of SERPs. 

Cons: Although long tail keywords tend to be less competitive in comparison with other counterparts, they have less traffic or less search volume than the medium and short tail keywords. 

Type of keywords based on search intention

As we mentioned, keywords are phrases that represent the topic the users need or search intent. There are classifications of keywords based on the search intention. The following keywords are the words that users want to find on search engine platforms. 

4. Informational keywords 

Basically, people use search engines to find many things, including knowledge, and this leads to the concept of informational keywords. By using informational keywords, people or internet users can find and collect as much information as possible from the search engine. Examples of informational keywords are “tips to find the best competitor analysis tools”, ” how to change a bicycle tire,” “why do people need a validation on social media,” “how to study math effectively,” and others. 

Ideal for: Informational keywords are important for creating a useful and helpful article on your website, as well as showing what your service or product is within the article. In addition, these keywords are typically used to answer the question about something that needs deep research, which can give your website authority. 

5. Navigational keywords

When we need to reach a specific website, the profile of a popular celebrity or influencer, you can use navigational keywords. These keywords are straightforward and contain the name of a website, organization, company, or famous name. For example, “Peso Pluma official Instagram account,” Starlink customer service,” Disney+ pricing plans 2026, “Wise official website,” and others. 

Ideal for: Navigational keywords contain a specific name or company. Therefore, it is useful for optimizing the homepage and brand pages in order to ensure the websites can be found easily on search engines. Basically no need for extra effort to optimize navigational keywords as long as Google has indexed your brand in its library. 

6. Commercial keywords

Commercial keywords are used by users to find topics related to the commercial when they need to buy something. These keywords have a function to confirm the user when they need to decide whether to buy some products or not, and if there are other options. Examples of commercial keywords include “What is the difference between MacBook vs Windows,” “Best Antivirus for MacBook in 2026,” “Comparison between Perplexity vs ChatGPT, ”ChatGPT alternatives,” and others. 

Ideal for: Commercial keywords are very applicable for promoting products through SEO content articles. By creating content with these keywords, you can show the advantages of your service and products compared to your competitors. This content will also play a crucial role in the user’s decision to buy the products. 

7. Transactional keywords

Transactional keywords are commonly found when internet users are ready to take action or buy some products. It could be “purchase”, “buy”, “order”, or “discount,” which represent that users or visitors are ready to act. Examples of transactional keywords include “order now to get a discount,” “purchase the limited edition shoes,” “buy one t-shirt, get one shirt,” “order MacBook laptop now and get the promo price,” and others. 

Ideal for: Transactional keywords are designed to directly access the landing page, product or service page, and checkout pages on your website from the results of the search engine page. 

Type of keywords based on location

In this world, location is part of our daily lives. When we need to do our activities, we need to know the location we are looking for. No surprise if the location keywords or geographical keywords are needed by all people to find the location of tourism sites or culinary sites, and even the cultures in some places. 

8. Local keywords

Local keywords are the added phrases to be more specific about the location. These include location, such as regions, cities, towns, and neighborhoods or communities. Examples of these keywords are “fuel station in Los Angeles,” “plumbing in Berlin,” “supermarket near Beverly Hills,” “Marketing agency in the New York Metropolitan Area,” and others. 

How to find local keywords: Local keywords are quite easy to find by using Google My Business and Google Maps. In order to find the high volume of local keywords, you need to use SEO competitor analysis for local SEO and other tools. 

9. National and Global keywords

National keywords are phrases with a broader geographical area than local keywords. Instead of looking for local or some services or businesses near a specific location, these keywords are crucial for increasing the visibility of the company in the national scope. Examples of national keywords are “convenience stores in the United States, and others. Unlike local keywords, national and global keywords are more common, and without mention country, the search engine is more likely to specify based on your country or region. 

Type of keywords based on research for SEO 

Based on research, there are different types of keywords. These keywords are important to ensure that you can conduct research clearly, whether it is for an SEO campaign or other marketing strategies. The following keywords were distinguished based on the research process. 

10. Seed keywords

Seed keywords are the key basic or short-tail terms that have a broad meaning. These keywords can be the first things you need to search for when finding a specific term. Thus, seed keywords are the initial step to find the more detailed and accurate keywords. Examples of seed keywords are “artificial intelligence,” pilates,” “shoes,” “soccer players,” “MacBook review,” and others. 

11. LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords

Latent Semantic Indexing keywords, or shortly, semantic keywords, are conceptual or synonym phrases of the primary keywords. Therefore, these keywords have a function to assist the search engine in understanding the meaning of the topics of the content. Examples of LSI keywords are “Napolitana pizza recipe,” “Email marketing automation,” “grinder coffee makers,” “blog monetization,” and others. 

12. Primary keywords

When we write SEO content, we know that there is a primary keyword. These keywords are the focus keywords for writing SEO content. Each of websites need one primary keyword, and this is a way to avoid keyword cannibalization. Therefore, the primary keyword is the main keyword to optimize the page to be able to compete with others. 

The primary keyword is typically chosen because it has a high volume and hopefully can bring more visitors to your website. Primary keywords can be short or seed keywords and mid-tail, depending on the search volumes. Examples of primary keywords are “influencer marketing,” “digital marketing,” “affiliate marketing,” and others. 

13. Secondary keywords

Secondary keywords are the phrases that are related to the primary keywords and are commonly similar to or a synonym of the focus keywords. The inclusion of secondary keywords is important to give a variety of keywords in an article. It will help Google or other search engines to understand what your content is about and give you a reward to rank on top of the page. 

In addition, secondary keywords vary; they can be short-tail or long-tail keywords, but they are commonly long-tail with lower search volumes. An example of a secondary keyword is “content marketing for beginners” with the primary keyword being “content marketing”. 

Type of keywords based on competition

The different types of keywords can also be subcategorized depending on how fierce the competition is. These keywords need to be understood by parties involved in SEO or social media. By these identifications, they can follow the less competitive keywords to grab a chance to get a higher ranking on Google SERP. 

14. Highly competitive keywords

Highly competitive keywords are mostly common keywords that people frequently use in search engines. The high competition is because these keywords have a huge search volume and are generic, as well as very saturated and hard to win. These keywords are typically used by the big companies that have a robust domain authority.  Example of highly competitive keywords, including travel, adventure, debt, insurance, and others. 

15. Medium competitive keywords

The lesser competitive keywords compared to the highly competitive keywords are medium competitive keywords. These keywords are not quite saturated and still have potential to be a primary keyword. Medium competitive keywords commonly have moderate search volume, and typically come from medium and long-tail keywords that are still achievable in an SEO strategy. Examples of medium competitive keywords are “how to find the volume,” “how to get a ranking,” “what is influencer marketing,” common bank account types,” and others. 

16. Low competitive keywords

As the name suggests, low competitive keywords are the key phrases that are less frequently used by search engine users. Therefore, these keywords are usually very specific and have a longer tail compared to highly competitive and medium competitive keywords. However, some of the low competitive keywords have a high search volume, and it can be an alternative for an SEO practitioner to get a ranking on SERP. Examples of low competitive keywords include “how to find the volume of a sphere,” “how to learn calculus in a short time,” “what are the best bank accounts for children,” and others. 

Other types of keywords based on functions

Other than the keywords mentioned above, there are other types of keywords you need to know. These keywords also play a critical role in many purposes, especially for conducting an SEO campaign. 

17. Branded keywords

Branded keywords are the terms that contain the brand or product names, aiming to find a specific product from a certain brand. These keywords normally have a high conversion rate because they mention the specific brand to buy or intend to learn more about those brands. However, branded keywords are generally for a brand or companies that have famous brands or products. Examples of branded keywords include “Adidas Shoes,” “Lacoste t-shirt,” “Mercedes-Benz cars,” “New Apple iPhone,” and others. 

18. Exact match keywords

Exact match keywords, also known as perfect match keywords, are the search terms that have a match with the keywords in the search query. These keywords are going to come out when we try to find with other words, but the SERP shows the different keywords that have the same meaning. Exact match keywords are pivotal for SEO because it has a role as an alternative to the primary keywords that are highly competitive. Therefore, by implementing exact match keywords, you can boost the clicks on your website. For example, exact match keywords include new lip products, new lipstick, and new lip tint, which have quite a similar meaning. 

19. Negative keywords

Negative keywords are the phrases that you can add to avoid appearing in the opposite search results. These keywords are generally used for pay-per-click (PPC) on advertisements. Negative keywords are crucial for avoiding your ad content from showing up on different search intents. For instance, you are promoting luxury bags through recent innovative marketing, but you can use cheap as a negative keyword to ensure it does not appear on the different target audiences. 

20. Evergreen keywords

For an SEO practitioner, evergreen keywords are the go-to keywords for conducting an SEO campaign. Evergreen keywords are timeless content that is still relevant in the long run and can be short-tail or long-tail keywords. In contrast to the seasonal keywords, these keywords will consistently be searched by users and are not going to fade in the short term. Examples of evergreen keywords include “how to reduce fat,” “how to maintain stamina during sport, ”“what is a reptile,” and others. 

Where to add keywords in an SEO article

For better SEO implementation on your page, you need to incorporate the target keywords in almost all parts of the SEO article. Here are the 10 of the places to insert your target keywords in the article. 

• Body of the content: The body of the content or page content must include the target keywords. The insertion of target keywords is important to ensure that your article is about a specific topic. However, you need to avoid keyword stuffing and ensure that they are incorporated naturally into the paragraph. 
• URL or slug: The URL or slug is the link to redirect to your specific page. The insertion of the primary keyword in the URL is important and makes it easy to read and as simple as possible. 
• Meta title: Meta title, also known as the title tag, is the title that shows up on the Google SERP. The inclusion of the primary keyword in the meta title is essential to ensure that the search engine knows that this is the right page based on the specific search intent. However, you can also add more to the title to entice visitors to your website
• Meta description: Meta descriptions are shown below the meta title on the SERP. This description is used by the search engine to determine that this page is related to the specific keyword. In this description, you need to add an attractive description with a high search volume to attract more visitors to the website. 
• Page title: Title of article or H1 must contain the primary keyword to give a signal that this is the right article or content for specific keywords. Not only is it used by the robot to identify the topic, but also used to attract the human readers.  
• Subheadings: Below the title, there are subheadings (H2) that are important for a listicle format on a content management system (CMS). The inclusion of keywords in subheadings is essential to make the search engine easier to identify that your topic is relevant to certain keywords. 
• Image Alt: Image alt on SEO articles is often neglected by the writer or website owner. The inclusion of keywords in image alt tags, this makes the image easier to appear on the Google SERP. This is because search engines like Google can identify the image through the alt or alternative text. 

List tools to find different types of keywords in SEO 

In order to find the different types of keywords above, you need to use SEO tools. Without these tools, the journey to find the types of keywords will be hard and require more time to do some research. We have collected some tools you can use to find many types of keywords for SEO. 

1. SEMrush 

SEMrush is one of the most popular keyword research tools among professionals. They offer several great features to promote your page in SERP. You can also use their free version, but it is more suitable for beginners with limited options. 

2. Google Ads Keywords Planner

It is a built-in tool attached to your Google Ads account. It is free and easy to use, but mostly used for advertisement, which highlights PPC, or pay-per-click, rather than SEO. However, SEO writers can also consider researching popular keywords on search engines. 

3. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is another useful and comprehensive SEO tool to promote your page. They specialized at keywords ranking and may be helpful for an SEO writer, and it offers a free version with limited to only three searches for keyword in a day. 

4. Mangools 

Mangools has good reliability in helping users improve page visibility through keywords. They are deemed as budget-friendly for professionals and also provide free keyword research with a limited 5 searches per day. 

5. Wordstream

Wordstream offers a free keyword finder tool for advertising and SEO campaigns. It displays the search volume and the level of competition for keywords you are looking for. 

Conclusion

By knowing different types of keywords, you can now identify the keywords based on their functions. The distinction of keywords is very useful for people who are involved in marketing, whether for advertising or SEO. As SEO evolves along the way, you need to follow the latest search engine principles for content to rank higher on their platforms. For now, the inclusion of a bunch of keywords is not recommended, and they must be incorporated naturally to prevent keyword stuffing. Also, you need to focus on creating SEO articles that are helpful for readers instead of only pursuing a higher rank in the SERP. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Types of Keywords

1. Why do we need to use keywords in an SEO campaign? 

The usage of keywords in SEO is indispensable. Keywords are the key for the parties involved in marketing to understand the user intention, particularly what the highest volume keywords are used by your target audience to generate traffic to your website. 

2. Do types of keywords only work for SEO campaigns? 

No, when we use social media, we also use types of keywords to find the relevant information. The inclusion of keywords in social media is also crucial to find accurate information about the products or the specific username of the influencer. It also impacts the moderation on the social media system to filter and minimize irrelevant content based on keywords. 

3. What are the types of keywords based on their length? 

There are three types of keywords based on their length. These keywords are short-tail keywords, medium-tail or mid-tail keywords, and long-tail keywords. All of the types of keywords, based on their length, have advantages and disadvantages, and are used depending on the SEO strategy. 

4. What are the common types of keywords used for executing an SEO campaign? 

The types of keywords that are commonly used for conducting SEO campaigns are short-tail, mid-tail, and long-tail keywords. On the other hand, primary and secondary keywords are also commonly used in executing and researching SEO content articles to ensure they hit the target. 

5. What are the types of keywords based on geographical area? 

There are three types of keywords based on geographical area, including local keywords, national keywords, and global keywords. The most significant of these keywords are local keywords that mention the name of the region, cities, and neighborhoods as a further explanation about what users want to look for in a search engine.