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Types of Keywords Your Business Needs To Know – Which Should You Use?

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Published on June 6, 2025

Snippets of colored paper with the word "keyword" written on them

Understanding different types of keywords is an SEO basic you have to master, particularly if you’re looking to boost traffic to your site, improve your rankings, and generate relevant content for your audience. Targeting the right terms can help you convert visitors into loyal readers or customers.

But different keywords help in different ways. I’ll give you a beginner-friendly glossary of the most common keyword types below. Though for more information on keyword research and optimizing your site for SEO, I recommend checking out the guides I’ve linked to throughout this article.

Keywords by Search Intent

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Keywords are the phrases and terms people use when searching online, whether that’s via Google or other search engines. As a result, keywords can be grouped by search intent.

When carrying out keyword research, there are four main keyword types to know:

Informational – The user wants to find information on a topic
Navigational – The user wants to find a specific brand, website, or page
Commercial – The user wants to research a company, product, or service
Transactional – The user is ready to buy a product or service

Why is search intent valuable to know?

Once you understand the intent behind the keyword, you can use this data to shape what you write about. Not only does this benefit searchers, since they’ll be able to find what they’re looking for more easily, but understanding search intent can benefit businesses as well.

By featuring the right target keywords, Google will be able to scan your content and display it under relevant search terms. Getting your pages to appear for informational or navigational keywords can boost brand awareness, visibility, and authority within your niche. Ranking for commercial keywords can help you drive valuable and engaged traffic to your site, and transactional keywords can help increase sales.

Keyword Length

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Keywords can also be broken down by length:

Short-tail keyword – e.g., “pet beds”
Medium-tail keyword – e.g., “pet beds for dogs”
Long-tail keyword – e.g., “eco-friendly pet beds for small dogs”

It’s a good idea to diversify the types of keywords you target. Short-tail keywords are usually more competitive because the words can be more generic or commonly searched, but you can reap a lot of traffic if you manage to rank for them. On the flip side, long-tail keywords aren’t as competitive and draw in ready-to-convert readers.

➡️ Use our SEO glossary page to boost your knowledge in this area.

Other Keyword Types

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Besides search intent and keyword length, there are other keyword types that can be handy to know about:

Primary keyword – This keyword should be the main focus and angle of your page
Secondary keyword – This keyword should support your content’s primary focus
Branded keyword – This keyword includes the brand or product name
LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords – These are keywords related to your primary keyword to provide search engines and readers with extra context
Local keywords (or geo-targeted keywords) – These keywords will include a specific location to target local searchers

Written by:

Emma Ryan Writer

Emma is Lead Writer at Website Builder Expert, having first joined the team in 2022. She manages the website's topical content strategy to help website owners navigate the highs and lows of being online. Emma also specializes in following the development of leading website builders Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify, through hands-on testing and research. Her work and expertise have been featured in Startups.co.uk, Digiday, TechRound, Industry Today, and Digital Information World.