What are SEO (search engine optimisation) keywords?

What are keywords used for in search engine optimisation (SEO)?

Keywords help you plan a page around the words customers use. SEO (search engine optimisation) means making a website easier for search engines to understand and people to use. A keyword can be a whole question, such as “who repairs leaking taps in York”, rather than a single word.

Think about the next job you want to win. A plumber who repairs boilers needs a page that explains that service. A page about bathroom fitting answers a different need, even if the same firm offers both. Start with the work, then choose the search terms.

If you want help matching your services to useful searches, our SEO service for small businesses explains the work involved.

How does search intent change the keywords you choose?

Search intent is the task behind a search. Someone asking “why is my tap dripping” wants an explanation. Someone searching “tap repair York” may want a tradesperson. Choose a page that solves that task: a helpful guide for the first search, and a clear service page for the second.

Before you write, search the phrase yourself and look at the results. Are they guides, local service pages, shops or comparisons? This is a useful clue about what people expect. Results vary by place and time, so treat your search as a sense check rather than a fixed rule.

A broad term can hide several needs. “Boiler” could mean shopping, repairs or instructions. “Annual boiler service York” gives you much more to work with. Only target it if that is a service and area you actually cover.

What is the difference between head and long-tail keywords?

Head terms are broad, popular searches such as “plumber”. Long-tail keywords are less frequently searched terms, often more specific, such as “plumber for a leaking kitchen tap in York”. Long-tail describes search demand, so a phrase does not become long-tail simply because it has several words.

For a small firm, specific phrases can make the page easier to plan. You know what to explain and which customer you are helping. Search demand alone does not tell you how hard a term will be to rank for. A narrow search still needs a useful page and a service you provide.

• Head term: “cleaner” leaves the type of cleaning and location unclear.
• Specific service term: “end of tenancy cleaning” names the job.
• Local service term: “end of tenancy cleaning York” names the job and place.
• Question term: “does end of tenancy cleaning include the oven” needs a clear answer.

How should a local business use service and town keywords?

Combine the service you provide with the place you genuinely serve. “Emergency electrician Bristol” is more relevant to a Bristol electrician than a national search for “electrician”. Explain the work, coverage and enquiry route on the page, using facts you can support.

Do not invent offices or create a page for every town by swapping its name into the same copy. A location page should help someone in that area decide whether you can serve them. Real project photos, practical coverage details and relevant customer questions can help, when you have them.

Our guide to SEO for tradesmen connects keyword choices with local pages and the wider job of helping nearby customers find you.

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How can you find keywords for free?

Start with customer questions, your service list and the searches already bringing people to your site. Google Search Console can show search queries where your site appeared. Google suggestions can give you ideas to investigate. Neither method requires buying a keyword research subscription.

1. Write down the services customers actually ask for, using their words.
2. In Search Console, open Performance, then Search results and the Queries tab. Use the UK country filter if that matches your market.
3. Look for queries relevant to a service page. Compare impressions and clicks separately: appearing in a result is not the same as a visit.
4. Type a service into Google and note useful autocomplete suggestions. Check the results before choosing one.
5. Put each promising phrase beside the page that could best answer it.

Google’s Search Console Performance report guide explains the query and page views. The report concerns your own site’s visibility, and some queries are omitted for privacy. A new site may have little data.

Suggestions are ideas, not monthly search-volume figures. Do not label a suggestion popular or easy to rank for without evidence. You can still choose it because it accurately describes a real service.

Where should keywords go on a page?

Use a clear version of the main topic in the page title, main heading and opening explanation. Use related words where they help describe the service. Keep the address readable, and write image descriptions that explain the actual image. Every choice should help a visitor understand the page.

Google’s SEO Starter Guide recommends useful content and descriptive titles, and explains that its systems can understand related searches without every exact phrase being written out. You can write naturally. The keywords meta tag does not help Google Search.

Here is a made-up planning example for a plumber who really covers York:

• Page title: Tap repairs in York | Your business name.
• Main heading: Tap repairs in York.
• Opening: Explain which leaks you repair, where you travel and how to request a visit.
• Useful detail: Say what a customer should tell you and what affects the quote.
• Contact step: Give a working enquiry form or phone number.

This example is a writing plan, not a claim about a real company or its rankings. Keep an existing page address if it already works; adding a keyword is not a reason on its own to move it.

Why does keyword stuffing hurt?

Keyword stuffing repeats phrases or lists places mainly to manipulate search results. It makes copy harder to read and breaches Google’s spam policies. There is no useful reason to force “plumber York” into every sentence when a normal explanation would help the customer more.

Google’s keyword stuffing policy names unnatural repetition and blocks of locations as examples. Read your draft aloud. If a repeated phrase sounds awkward, replace it with the word you would use when talking to a customer. There is no keyword-density percentage you need to hit.

A useful page answers the questions behind the search: can you do this job, do you cover my area, and how do I contact you? Repeating a term cannot replace those answers.

What should you do after choosing your first keywords?

Choose one important service page and improve it before planning lots of new articles. Give that page a clear topic, an honest explanation and an easy enquiry route. After search data builds up, review the queries and enquiries to see whether it is reaching the people you hoped to help.

AI can help group a list of customer questions or suggest a draft heading. Check every suggestion against your actual services and locations. An AI tool cannot tell you your search volume or guarantee a position simply by writing a confident answer.

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