4 Ideas From Semalt On How To Choose Keywords

Choosing the right keywords is one of the most important factors when creating a search campaign. These types of ads are displayed to all on a well-known search results page. It is these keywords that determine the acquisition of potential customers for the business and the subsequent success or failure of our activities. An advertisement positioned on poorly chosen keywords may appear in a good position but not be profitable. On the other hand, it may also appear infrequently and at the bottom of the search results page, which means that our website will not receive the appropriate number of visits. This is why it is so important to pay attention to the process of selecting these keywords and then to regularly analyse the keyword results in the Google Ads interface.
Find out 4 ways to choose the right keywords for a campaign to make the most of their potential among your competitors and find customers for the services or products offered by the company.
What keywords are

Basically, keywords are phrases that a user enters into a search engine when looking for products, services or information. As an answer, he / she gets a search results page with the best organic (for which SEO is responsible) and paid (for which the Google Ads tool is responsible) results best suited to his / her question. Thus, by selecting the appropriate list of keywords, our advertisement is displayed as a response to a query entered by potential customers. If the message contains the phrase entered - which is important for assessing its accuracy from Google's point of view - the chances that our ad will occupy high positions, and thus that the customer will click on it, are much greater. It is also important to know whether the landing page (on our site) to which the ad will lead the customer will actually meet his or her request.
Detailed keywords vs general keywords
Now let's take a look at the detailed keywords and the general keywords. Let's start with the detailed keywords.
Detailed words
Detailed phrases are more often recommended. These are keywords directly related to the subject of the ad. The customer who clicks on such an ad is usually more interested in a given product and converts better on the page. Specific keyword-based ads only appear for activity-specific keywords and are more relevant to your query.
The quality of our ads also increases compared to our competitors, so we are more likely to appear high in the search results. This affects the likelihood of acquiring potential customers for our company. Additionally, it should be remembered that the competition in the case of specific keywords is less, so we can attract a customer at a low cost. This is important for low-budget campaigns. The downside of choosing such keywords is, however, that overly specific keywords may not allow you to reach larger groups of people.
Advantages of specific keywords:
- the ads are better suited to the keyword entered in the Google search engine;
- thanks to them, we can get a higher conversion rate than for general keywords;
- less competition = lower costs and more searches for which we will show our ad;
- a greater chance that our ads will occupy high positions in the search results.
Disadvantages of specific keywords:
- fewer potential customers who will be able to go to our site thanks to the advertisement.
Example of use:
If you sell TVs, you can choose specific keywords like "4k 50-inch TV", which is one of the types of TVs you offer. Thanks to this, the ad will be displayed to people who are looking for such TVs.
General words
In order to reach the widest possible audience, more general keywords are used in addition to specific words. These key phrases are usually one or two words long and are entered into the search engine by people who have not yet decided on a specific type of service or product. They can be useful if we want to make our customers aware of our business. However, this is a very early stage in engaging a potential customer. Additionally, it should be remembered that getting high in the search results for this type of keyword can be very difficult and expensive because our ad competes with a large number of other ads to appear on the first page of results. The downside is also that the ad will be less tailored to the user's needs. It is necessary to frequently analyze such keywords, whether they are not displayed on non-business inquiries.
Advantages of general words:
- a larger group of potential customers that we reach in the search engine;
- building brand awareness by generating traffic for our website.
Disadvantages of general words:
- higher cost per click for this type of phrase;
- advertising less suited to customer inquiries;
- high competition in bidding for high positions;
- the customer is at the initial purchasing stage.
Example:
If your campaign has a large budget (e.g., owned by a department store), you can choose a general keyword such as "televisions". Such an ad can be displayed to people who are looking for various TVs, but also, for example, to people who are looking for a place where they can repair their TV. Therefore, when dealing with general keywords, beware of negative keywords.
Keywords with location vs without location
Keywords with localization

It is recommended that you create a keyword campaign with localization. This is especially important if the campaign is about local activities, such as restaurants. Remember the name of the town, district and even the name of the region. Keywords containing these names will be displayed to users using mobile devices with enabled location, customers looking for service providers near where they are, as well as people looking for a given service in a specific place. As in the case of specific words, our competition will be smaller, and the chance that our ad will rank high in the search results and the customer will convert increases.
The advantages of words with localization:
- ads are better suited to the query of potential customers;
- the greater probability that the client will use our services;
- higher conversion rate obtained by given keywords;
- less competition = lower costs and more searches for which we will show our ad.
Disadvantages of words with localization:
- fewer potential customers who will be able to go to our site thanks to the advertisement.
Example of use:
Let's go back to our example with a restaurant. We can choose keywords with a location, such as "French restaurant Canard Saintongeais". If someone is looking for a Saintongeais duck restaurant, there is a high probability that he / she will click on an ad displayed on Google Ads and visit the place.
Words without localization
They work well if we want to reach a large group of recipients, and operate globally online or anywhere in the world. As with general keywords, clicks will be higher, so we need to allocate more budget to our campaigns and website promotion. We recommend creating a separate campaign for these keywords and restricting it by IP to a particular location.
Advantages of words without localization:
- a larger group of potential customers that we reach in the search engine;
- building brand awareness by generating traffic for our website;
- the possibility of narrowing the campaign's reach by IP.
Disadvantages of words without localization:
- higher cost per click for this type of phrase;
- advertising less suited to customer inquiries;
- high competition in the bidding for high positions.
Example of use:
We can choose the keyword: "French restaurant". However, we must remember that the ad may be displayed to a person who is far from the restaurant, and after visiting our website, the customer may decide that the distance is too large and decide to choose another place.
The indispensable tool for choosing keywords
So far, we have discussed the rules to remember when choosing keywords for our campaign. Now that we have the basics, let's look at the tool that can help us prepare the right keywords more quickly and efficiently
The Dedicated SEO Dashboard
The tool we should start with is the Dedicated SEO Dashboard, which is a keyword planner available to everyone, even SEO beginners.

We start by entering examples of keywords that characterise the products or services we offer. Based on factors such as the statistical frequency of hits or the current click-through rate, this tool tells us which keywords should be added to our campaign. Of course, for each word, information on the expected results is available, such as the monthly number of searches or the approximate cost per click (CPC). In addition, the tool offers us to automatically combine the keywords into ad groups that we can use almost immediately in our campaign. And that's not all, this tool has other very important features that I invite you to discover on demo.semalt.com.
Summary
We recommend that you start creating your campaign by adding specific keywords and phrases containing location information, as our experience shows that potential customers from these campaigns are more valuable. If budgets are sufficient, you can add general phrases and no location.
Analyse all your keywords and then decide which ones give you the best results. Based on these analyses and the phrases suggested in the keyword planner, your keyword list should be updated regularly. In addition, duplicate keywords should be avoided in your account to ensure that campaigns from the same advertiser do not compete for a position on the search results page.