{"id":1016,"date":"2026-10-02T10:35:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T10:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/?p=1016"},"modified":"2026-10-02T10:35:46","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T10:35:46","slug":"what-are-keywords-and-how-to-choose-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/what-are-keywords-and-how-to-choose-them\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Keywords and How to Choose Them for Your Website"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Keywords<\/strong> are the words and phrases people type into search when they look for information, a product or a service. They are also called search queries. The set of queries a website is optimized for is its <strong>semantic core<\/strong>, or keyword set. One thing matters: a keyword is not \u201ca word you have to repeat in the text\u201d but the answer to the question behind the query.<\/p>\n<h2>Why keywords matter<\/h2>\n<p>Keywords connect what your business writes with what customers search for. Without them it is easy to create a good text nobody will find. A keyword set helps to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Understand demand.<\/strong> Which questions and phrasings people really use, not the ones that seem logical to you.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Build the website structure.<\/strong> Each group of queries gets its own page, and the structure of sections reflects the customer\u2019s logic.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Plan content.<\/strong> You can see which blog topics are worth writing and in what order.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Help search engines.<\/strong> A page that clearly answers a query reaches the right results more easily.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Prepare advertising.<\/strong> The same queries are used in search ads.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Types of queries<\/h2>\n<p>The most important thing about a query is the user\u2019s intent. It decides which page you should show:<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Query type<\/th>\n<th>Example<\/th>\n<th>Which page to show<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Informational<\/td>\n<td>what is a landing page<\/td>\n<td>A blog article<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Commercial<\/td>\n<td>how to choose a web studio<\/td>\n<td>A comparison article or a service page<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Transactional<\/td>\n<td>order website development<\/td>\n<td>A service page<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Local<\/td>\n<td>SEO services in your city<\/td>\n<td>A service page tied to the city<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Brand<\/td>\n<td>your company name<\/td>\n<td>The home page<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2>High-, mid- and low-frequency queries<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>High-frequency.<\/strong> Short and general (\u201cSEO\u201d, \u201cwebsite\u201d). Many people search for them, but the intent is vague and competition is high.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mid-frequency.<\/strong> Two or three words, for example \u201cwebsite promotion\u201d. A balance between volume and precision.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Low-frequency (\u201clong tail\u201d).<\/strong> Longer, specific phrases: \u201chow to check website speed\u201d. They are searched less often, but the intent is clearer and competition is lower.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For a new website the long tail is usually the most practical start: it is easier to reach visible positions for such queries.<\/p>\n<h2>How to choose keywords for a website<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Define topics and services.<\/strong> Write down everything the business offers and the questions customers ask.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Collect base queries.<\/strong> From your own experience, search suggestions, conversations with customers and competitor pages.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Expand the list.<\/strong> Add synonyms, phrasing variants and refinements with a city, price, reviews or comparisons.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Clean the list.<\/strong> Remove irrelevant queries, duplicates and those that do not match your offer.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Group by intent.<\/strong> Combine queries that the same page answers into one group.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Assign groups to pages.<\/strong> One group, one page: this way pages do not compete with each other.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Assess competition.<\/strong> Look at which pages already rank and whether you can answer better.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>We do this work within our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/services\/seo\/keyword-research-structure\/\">keyword research and website structure<\/a> service.<\/p>\n<h2>How to use keywords on a page<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Page title and H1.<\/strong> The main query should be in both, in a natural phrasing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>First paragraph.<\/strong> Give a direct answer to the query right away.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Subheadings.<\/strong> Use additional queries as section topics.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Main text.<\/strong> Write for people: queries should sound natural, without pushy repetition.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Images and address.<\/strong> Image descriptions (alt) and the URL also help if they match the content.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>How to prepare texts for search queries is covered in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/services\/seo\/seo-content\/\">SEO content<\/a> service, and the technical basics are described on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/services\/seo\/technical-seo\/\">technical SEO<\/a> page.<\/p>\n<h2>Common mistakes with keywords<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Several pages for one query.<\/strong> They compete with each other and get in each other\u2019s way in search results.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ignoring intent.<\/strong> An article that tries to sell does not fit an informational query, and vice versa.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Only high-frequency queries.<\/strong> It is hard to reach the results, and visitors arrive with a vague intent.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Keyword stuffing.<\/strong> Pushy repetition spoils the text and does not help rankings.<\/li>\n<li><strong>One-time selection.<\/strong> Queries change, so the keyword set should be reviewed from time to time. A regular <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/services\/seo\/seo-audit\/\">SEO audit<\/a> helps.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We wrote about how search changes together with AI in the article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/seo-in-2026-new-rules-and-how-to-get-your-website-to-the-top\/\">\u201cSEO in 2026\u201d<\/a>, and the general approach to the service is described on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/services\/seo\/seo-services\/\">SEO services<\/a> page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Keywords are the queries people type into search when they look for information or a service. We explain what keywords and a semantic core are, which types of queries exist and how to choose keywords for your website step by step.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1036,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions\/1036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theonebly.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}