In SEO, along with various other forms of Internet marketing, a lot of mention is made of keywords and keyword research. They do all play an important part in any SEO campaign, and it is important to understand exactly what they are and where their importance lies.

Literally speaking, a keyword is a word within a body of text that is most relevant to the topic of that text. In web content development and SEO, the term keyword is typically used to mean either keyword or keyphrase. A keyword is the word or phrase that an Internet surfer uses when searching for relevant pages or websites. If your page is deemed to be relevant and useful to that word or phrase then it will show up in the search engine results.

Choosing keywords for your pages that match the phrases that surfers use can help to increase traffic. Typically, though, the keywords and phrases are more competitive in terms of the number of pages that are competing for the coveted top spots in the search engine results.

Keyword research, typically involving the use of online or offline software, identifies the keywords that surfers use. Keyword research also indicates the number of sites that are competing for that term. It consequently identifies the best keywords for you to target, whether they be niche keywords with fewer competing sites but fewer monthly searches, or more generic keywords with lots of potential traffic but a lot of competition.