[작성자:] Nouri Nisrin GP

Keyword strategy is crucial for the success of both organic and paid search campaigns. Deciding which primary keywords to target for advertising and how to optimize for organic search results through SEO are key factors that can determine the success of a campaign.

However, creating a strategy for every possible keyword is nearly impossible. Instead, we need to categorize keywords based on their characteristics, search intent, and search volume, and then develop targeted strategies for each category.

Search engines continuously analyze content across the internet to provide users with the best possible search results. They keep track of nearly all content on every website and webpage in real-time.

What are Primary Keywords and Secondary Keywords?

From an SEO perspective, a primary keyword, also known as a focus keyphrase, is the main term or phrase that a webpage is expected to rank for in search engine results.

In essence, a primary keyword is the main keyword that the page is optimized for. Typically, primary keywords have high search volumes and, if they rank well in the SERPs, can drive significant organic traffic.

On the other hand, secondary keywords add context, value, and depth to the content. These are more closely related to the search intent. Secondary keywords include all keywords that are closely related to the primary keyword being targeted on a page. Synonyms, subtopics, and long-tail keywords can all be considered secondary keywords.

Including secondary keywords in subheaders and body text allows you to cover various aspects of a topic, helping Google better understand the content of the page.

?SEO Case Study: The Power of Keyword Analysis

From a performance marketing perspective, primary keywords are high-volume terms directly connected to your product or service, often with high CPC and intense competition.

In contrast, secondary keywords usually have lower search volumes, are less directly related to your product, or consist of long-tail keywords made up of two or more words. These generally have lower CPCs and face slightly less competition than primary keywords.

Primary Keywords vs. Secondary Keywords

The relationship between primary and secondary keywords

Primary Keywords as the Core of Content Marketing

Primary keywords are the cornerstone of content marketing. For instance, if your company sells yoga clothes, yoga clothes might be your primary keyword. This is the term that best represents your market and is also the most frequently searched term related to your business. Therefore, the most crucial aspect of content marketing is to choose the right primary keyword.

Secondary keywords, while related to the primary keyword, are more specific. For example, secondary keywords for yoga clothes could include womens yoga clothes, short-sleeve yoga clothes, yoga clothes prices, recommended yoga clothes, and yoga clothes brands. These more specific terms are easier to rank for in search engines and often have lower CPCs and less competition in search ads.

Why are Secondary Keywords as Important as Primary Keywords?

Why should you use secondary keywords in content marketing? If you create content targeting high-volume keywords and rank well, you will attract a lot of organic traffic, which seems great for content performance. However, secondary keywords play an equally important role.

For example, imagine that a company writes a high-quality blog article on IT technology, including explanations of technical terms and real-life examples. However, upon analyzing the incoming audience, they find that the article attracted as many students studying the subject as it did industry decision-makers and engineers. While it succeeded in ranking well for a high-volume primary keyword, it also attracted traffic from students who were primarily interested in learning, not buying.

Although organic traffic is generally beneficial, its more valuable when it leads to conversions. This relates to search intent. When people search for solutions to problems, they use more specific terms. Returning to the yoga clothes example, someone searching for yoga clothes might just be curious about their appearance, but someone searching for short-sleeve yoga clothes prices likely has a clear purchasing intent.

Thus, if you only focus on a primary keyword strategy, you may miss out on potential customers with a higher likelihood of conversion. By effectively utilizing secondary keywords, you can attract a more diverse audience, which can significantly improve performance.

Lastly, primary and secondary keywords are closely linked and essential components of your strategy. Primary keywords represent the core of your market, while secondary keywords help capture search intent and attract a broader range of users. By effectively setting and using primary and secondary keywords in content marketing, you can build a more successful marketing strategy.

How to Choose Effective Primary Keywords

When selecting primary keywords, consider four key factors:

Search Volume

High search volume keywords can generate more traffic for your website. Monthly search volume indicates how often users search for a term, showing the popularity of that topic.

Properly ranking your webpage for a keyword can increase its visibility. Low search volume keywords might have less competition, but they also offer fewer opportunities to appear in search results. Finding a balance is essential.

Keyword Difficulty

Choosing a primary keyword with an acceptable level of difficulty maximizes your chances of appearing in search results. Keyword difficulty is often assessed based on the quality of content already ranking for that keyword and the number and quality of backlinks pointing to those pages and domains.

For example, let’s examine the keyword SEO using Ahrefs Keyword Explorer.

The keyword has a monthly search volume of 119,000 with 56,000 clicks, especially in markets like the U.S., where Google dominates. This high volume explains why English-language documents often rank high even on Korean Google for SEO. The keyword difficulty is also very high due to intense competition.

Relevance to Your Target

To use keywords correctly, they must be highly relevant to your business. Well-chosen keywords help your website or blog rank high in search engines and reach more potential customers. If your primary or secondary keywords aren’t relevant to your business, its difficult to achieve high rankings. Keywords used in your website or blog posts must align with the content. If they dont, visitors might leave disappointed, reducing your site traffic.

Regularly reviewing and updating your keywords to match the latest trends is also crucial. As the business environment constantly changes, consistent review is needed to select the right keywords. Additionally, leveraging emerging keywords can help reach more customers.

Search Intent (SERP)

When creating content that includes a primary keyword, first ensure it matches the searcher’s intent and expectations. SERP (Search Engine Results Page) refers to the page displayed when users enter a keyword into a search engine. It lists various websites that help users find the information they seek.

Understanding search intent is vital for both content marketing and SEO. It helps in creating better SEO strategies and producing more relevant content that attracts more visitors. Its not enough to aim for high rankings; content must also align with the specific keywords users are searching for.

For instance, a search for travel destination recommendations might show top-ranking travel websites, but changing the search to overseas travel recommendations could yield different results. Understanding and selecting keywords based on search intent is a crucial aspect of SEO and content marketing.

How to Find Secondary Keywords

Autocomplete Suggestions

Even if secondary keywords have lower search volumes than primary keywords, they can be highly effective in targeting specific audiences.

For example, when searching for B2B marketing, autocomplete suggestions reveal related secondary keywords. If B2B marketing is the primary keyword, suggestions like [B2B marketing strategy], [B2B marketing trends 2024], and [B2B marketing meaning] become secondary keywords.

Related and Additional Searches

Secondary keywords can also be identified through related and additional searches displayed on Google.

Synonym Searches

inding synonyms or related terms for your primary keyword involves strategic thinking, research tools, and an understanding of the keyword’s context.

To discover related secondary keywords, follow these steps:

1. Clearly define your primary keyword.Understand its core meaning and context.
2. Consider variations and potential synonyms.
3. Use a dictionary to find alternative terms.
4. Identify long-tail keywords that are specific variations, often including synonyms.
5. Pay attention to language nuances and regional differences.
6. Explore forums, social media, and user-generated content related to your niche to understand the language and terms your audience uses.
7. Read industry publications and authoritative content to identify commonly used keywords and synonyms.
8. Gather feedback from your audience through surveys or reviews to identify additional keywords and synonyms.

Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest can be useful for finding synonyms, variations, and commonly used terms.

How to Optimize Content with Primary Keywords and Secondary Keywords (On-page SEO)

Even if you find the perfect primary keyword, it wont rank well unless its integrated effectively into your content. To gain organic traffic, you need to create content based on search intent.

In this section, well explain how to optimize content using Technical SEO or On-page SEO:

• Title Tags: Include the primary keyword in the title to make the topic clear to both users and search engines. Aim to place the keyword at the beginning of the title.
• First 100 Words: Use the primary keyword at least once in the first 100 words of your content to clarify the topic.
• H1, H2, H3 Tags: Include primary keywords in various headers to structure your content and build a hierarchy.
• Meta Description: Use primary keywords in the meta description to encourage users to click on your page when it appears in SERPs.
• Alt Text: Include primary keywords in the alt text of images to improve accessibility and rank higher in image search results.
• Video Content: Add the primary keyword to the video title, description, and tags to improve visibility on video search platforms.

Conclusion: Primary Keywords and Secondary Keywords are Key Elements in Marketing Strategy

In conclusion, appropriately using primary and secondary keywords is crucial for content marketing, SEO, performance marketing, and expanding website traffic. This requires careful and step-by-step planning.

First, choose the appropriate primary keyword and then find relevant secondary keywords based on it. Create high-quality content based on these keywords and incorporate them into your marketing strategy.

By doing this, you can achieve higher rankings in search engines, allowing more people to access your website. Therefore, continuous analysis and proactive management, including keeping up with the latest trends, are necessary.

Ultimately, the effective use of primary and secondary keywords is an essential requirement for successful online business operations.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO involves organizing the content on your site so that search engines can better understand and rank it.

Essentially, this process helps ensure that your content is not overlooked by search engines like Naver, Google, or Bing, and is ranked higher in search results.

Ultimately, it allows you to communicate to search engines what content users are looking for.

Search engines generally favor websites that are friendly to them. In other words, they prioritize sites that are optimized for search engines. Therefore, its crucial to refine your sites content to appeal to search engines.

By carefully following the SEO guide proposed by Growth Marketing Agency, you can significantly improve the efficiency of your search advertising.

The Importance of On-Page SEO

Improving the user experience should start with setting goals that benefit website users, which includes search engines as part of your audience.

Through on-page SEO, you can help search robots better understand your sites content.

Well-optimized content is more likely to be analyzed effectively by search robots and classified as higher-quality content in search results.

Basic Guide to On-Page SEO

? Checklist 1: Title

The title is the first on-page SEO element users encounter, meaning it influences the first impression of your content.

The <title> element tells search robots what the page is about. Its essential to create accurate and unique title texts that reflect the pages theme and include the <title> element.

However, if a document has more than one <title> element, search robots need to analyze which title aligns with the page content.

This can lead to your page being classified as low quality. Additionally, excessively long titles can negatively affect your rankings. Be particularly careful when publishing series content to avoid having multiple pages with identical titles.

When multiple pages share the same <title>, search robots struggle to determine which page is most relevant, leading to poor content classification. Prioritize creating unique titles for each page.

? Checklist 2: Summary/Description

The meta description tag summarizes the pages content.

Its best to write the summary in several sentences and ensure each page has a unique description since search engines often use these summaries as snippets in search results.

If multiple pages have the same meta description, search robots may categorize them as duplicate content.

? Checklist 3: H1 and Alt Attributes

Similar to the title, the <H1> element is used as a subheading to represent the page’s content. If more than one <H1> is found in a document, it creates a structure that search robots may find difficult to understand.

The structure of your content can influence whether it is preferred by search engines.

Similarly, if your content images include descriptive (Alt) elements, the document becomes easier for search robots to understand. To build effective on-page SEO, include explanatory sentences that describe the topics of your page content and images.

SEO-Friendly URLs and Indexing Efficiency

While many factors need consideration during site construction, focusing on URLs can be a basic yet effective way to improve user metrics.

A URL is a protocol that indicates the location of a resource on the network, typically referring to a webpages address.

The most positive approach is to structure URLs in a way that reflects the classification of the content, making them easy to understand.

To create SEO-friendly URLs, use a top-level domain that is familiar to users, such as .com, .net, .co.kr, or .kr. Unfamiliar domains may be mistaken for spam or inappropriate sites, so it’s advisable to choose a popular domain. Additionally, it’s recommended to use a unique domain that matches the sites nature rather than relying on a generic domain provided by your web hosting service.

Understanding search engines is crucial when structuring your URL. Its important to develop a URL structure that is easy for both users and search engines to interpret. Minimizing URL parameters and avoiding fragment identifiers or hashbangs (#!) is essential since search engines cannot interpret these formats. Each page with different content should have its own unique URL.

Furthermore, search robots extract and process links within web pages as candidate URLs for indexing. Therefore, its important to mark up internal links in a way that search robots can easily interpret. For instance, providing standard link URL information helps search robots effectively navigate internal pages. Additionally, dynamic link changes can cause issues with search robot interpretation, so its recommended to use static markup for links.

Search robots repeatedly collect and deliver web content to search engines. However, not all collected documents are indexed; those deemed unnecessary are removed from the index. To improve indexing efficiency, its crucial to identify and prevent conditions that might lead to non-indexed documents.

? Checklist 4: Lack of HTML Content

In some cases, certain web pages use pure JavaScript for navigation without employing HTML markup. Search engines may consider these pages to have no content and exclude them from indexing.

Its advisable to use HTTP response codes instead of JavaScript.

? Checklist 5: Soft 404 (or Soft Dead)

When building and managing a site, its crucial to maintain HTTP response codes for error pages.

In case of exceptional errors on the site, appropriate guidance pages should be provided to users, and specific HTTP response codes should be assigned to each case.

The Core of On-Page SEO: JavaScript

Most websites use JavaScript to enhance user experience. Recently, many developers have adopted frameworks that convert web pages into single-page application (SPA) platforms.

In SPA sites, JavaScript plays a decisive role in determining the structure of web pages.

Search engines also evaluate and interpret the impact of JavaScript during the collection and content interpretation process.

Therefore, when building a site using the SPA method, its necessary to optimize JavaScript for search engines.

? Checklist 6: Checking for Disallowed Collection

Occasionally, some sites disallow the collection of resource URLs like JavaScript or CSS by search robots.

Check the content of robots.txt to ensure that search robots can collect JavaScript. Also, verify in advance whether Naver search robot IPs are blocked.

? Checklist 7: Fragment (#) URLs

Fragments are rules created to specify a particular position within a page.

Search robots remove the fragment part during URL interpretation. If your site URLs are built with SPA fragment URLs and each URL represents independent content, its necessary to convert them into permalinks.

JavaScript-based page construction does not necessarily exclude a page from search visibility. Search robots determine collection priorities for web pages based on algorithmic importance, given their limited collection resources.

However, even if a page is collected, it doesnt guarantee indexing or search visibility.

Therefore, its important to continuously update your SPA site to reduce the likelihood of being categorized as non-essential content while increasing the chances of being prioritized by search engines.

Schema: The Key to On-Page SEO Success

Structuring content logically and organizing it into ‘structured data’ can significantly enhance SEO.

Examples include relational databases. From a search engines perspective, content organized in a structured format is much easier to interpret.

The process of defining web content as structured data has been ongoing, thanks to the continuous efforts of the community and related organizations. More details can be found at schema.org.

Various search engines, including Naver, use structured data to deliver search results that match the characteristics of the content.

Typically, this involves structuring the information of specific content into detailed attributes that correspond to the type of content, then adding it to the web page. Navers search robots automatically collect this information, organize it according to the contents characteristics, and use it in search results.

Structured data, as defined by schema.org, was officially recognized as a web standard by the W3C in 2015, and standardization efforts have been active ever since. The structured data proposed by this organization consists of data types and attributes. Data types are combinations of attributes based on the characteristics of a web page or content. Based on this, multiple data types can be combined to add structured data to a single web page.

Attributes represent detailed information about a web page or content and are elements that make up a data type. For example, in the case of audio content, attributes might include playback time or the number of plays.

Schema.org supports three language formats for structured data: Microdata, RDFa, and JSON-LD. Naver recommends using the widely adopted Microdata or JSON-LD formats. After building structured data, its essential to validate it to ensure correct implementation. Schema.org provides structured data testing tools and detailed pages by data type for validation or to check examples written in different language formats.

Conclusion: SEO is a Fair Starting Point, but Success Depends on Effort

How many clicks does it take for users to find the right information in the sea of data? Some users may leave immediately after realizing they haven’t found what theyre looking for, while others may delve deeper into your content.

The content that search engines prefer depends not only on its quality and quantity but also on how well you understand on-page SEO.

While no one can fully understand everything about search engines, increasing the likelihood of being selected by them is a basic principle of marketing.

In the ever-evolving world of digital marketing, SEO translation emerges as a crucial strategy for expanding your online presence across borders.

More than just converting text from one language to another, SEO translation involves a nuanced approach to ensure that your content not only communicates effectively but also ranks high on search engines in different regions.

SEO Translation vs. Regular Translation: It’s Not Just About Words!

Picture this: Regular translation is like using Google Translate for your Tinder bio. Sure, it gets the basic message across, but will it make someone swipe right? Probably not. SEO translation, on the other hand, is like having a savvy local friend rewrite your bio to make you irresistible in a new city. See the difference?

What Sets SEO Translation Apart:

1. Keyword Magic: We don’t just translate; we transform. We dig deep to find those juicy keywords that’ll make search engines in your target market sit up and take notice.
2. Cultural Finesse: Remember that time Joey from Friends tried to speak French? Yeah, we avoid that level of cultural confusion. We make sure your content resonates locally, no matter where it lands.
3. Search Engine Charm: Each search engine has its quirks. Google might be into long-tail keywords, while Naver in Korea might prefer its content short and sweet. We speak all these languages fluently!
4. Structure Makeover: We don’t just translate your content; we give it a full SEO makeover, from headers to meta descriptions.

The Impact: Because Who Doesn’t Love a Good Success Story?

Now, I could throw a bunch of impressive-sounding statistics at you, but let’s be real – those can be as made up as my chances of ever enjoying Cheonggukjang (sorry, Korea, I tried!). Instead, let me share a real story from our agency’s treasure trove of experiences.

A Tale of EdTech Transformation

We recently worked with an EdTech client who wanted to take their Korean content global. Their previous translations? Let’s just say they were about as effective as using a flip phone in the age of smartphones.

The problem? Their translators were treating Korean-to-English translation like a word-for-word marathon. Languages are like fashion trends. What’s chic in Korean could be a major faux pas in English.

For example, we found titles like “???? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??” translated to “The best method for effective online learning”. Not terrible, but about as SEO-friendly as a cat video is to dog lovers.

Our approach? We put on our SEO dancing shoes and:

1. Restructured titles to front-load keywords: “Online Learning: Top Strategies for Effectiveness”
2. Dug deep into keyword research (nerd alert: we love this stuff!)
3. Sprinkled in related terms like “e-learning hacks” and “digital study tips”

The result? Their English blog traffic shot up faster than my caffeine levels on a Monday morning. We’re talking a serious boost in organic traffic, better search rankings, and more social shares than a cute puppy video.

Want to Join the SEO Translation Party?

Listen, in today’s digital world, it’s not enough to just speak the language. You’ve got to speak the language of search engines AND international audiences. It’s like being fluent in human and robot at the same time – and yes, it’s as cool as it sounds.

So, are you ready to take your website from “lost in translation” to “found in every nation”? Here at Growth Marketing, we’re not just translators; we’re your global SEO sidekicks, ready to help you conquer the digital world, one keyword at a time.

Contact us and let’s chat about turning your website into a multilingual, traffic-attracting, conversion-generating superhero. In the immortal words of every travel influencer ever, ‘The world is waiting!’ (Just make sure it can find you online first!