What Are the Keywords on the Website?

I still have conversations like this. Sometimes a client asks me to add a large keyword cloud to the footer: services, cities, districts, and dozens of slightly different search phrases. In other cases, someone finds a field labelled “Keywords” in a content management system and insists that it must be filled in because, surely, the field would not exist if it did not help rankings.

These requests show how much SEO has changed—and how strongly the old understanding of keywords is still with us. Years ago, page optimisation often looked almost mechanical. The target phrase was placed in the title, the opening sentence, the final paragraph, and several subheadings. Writers counted repetitions, measured keyword density, and debated whether a page was “optimised enough.”

Today, that approach is not only outdated; it can prevent us from understanding what keywords are actually for. Google analyses a page much more broadly. It looks at meaning, search intent, related concepts, page structure, examples, images, and the context in which particular phrases appear. Modern SEO optimisation therefore begins not with counting repetitions, but with understanding the answer a user expects to find.

That does not mean keywords have become irrelevant. Quite the opposite. Without them, it is difficult to understand what an audience is looking for and which words people use when they describe their needs.

What are keywords in simple terms?

Keywords are the words and phrases people use when they search for information, products, services, companies, or solutions to a problem. A query may be extremely short—“dentist,” “laptop,” “web design”—or it may describe a need much more precisely: “website design cost,” “build an online store for a small business,” or “how to choose keywords for a website.”

To Google, a query is not simply a string of characters. It represents an expectation. The person may want an explanation, a comparison, a price, a particular company, or a way to take immediate action.

For a website owner, keywords provide a rare opportunity to look at the business through a potential customer’s eyes. A company may describe its service as “integrated digital solution development,” while real users search for something much simpler: “website design,” “build an online store,” or “how much does a business website cost?”

This is why keyword work does not begin with finding places to insert a phrase. It begins with understanding what problem the person is trying to solve and how they describe it. Ideally, this work should happen before new pages are written, as part of a broader process of preparing a website for SEO.

A search query, a keyword, and a topic are not exactly the same thing

In everyday SEO work, these terms are often used interchangeably. That is convenient, but it can also create confusion because each one describes a different part of the process.

A page about eCommerce development, for example, may appear for queries such as “eCommerce website development,” “build an online store,” “online store development cost,” “website for selling products,” and “custom WooCommerce development.”

This does not mean every variation must be inserted into the copy word for word. These phrases describe a broader topic that the page should explain clearly and completely.

One page can rank for hundreds of search queries

Website owners often judge performance by one keyword: “Where do we rank for website design?” It is an understandable question, but it reveals only a small part of what is happening.

In practice, a page rarely receives impressions for one phrase alone. Even a narrowly focused article can gradually begin to rank for different word orders, questions, synonyms, and more specific versions of the same need.

After many years of working with websites, I can remember very few pages that received stable search visibility from only one keyword. Usually the opposite happens: a page is built around one clear topic, and over time Google starts showing it for dozens—or sometimes hundreds—of related searches.

The report below shows a real example from a Ukrainian-language medical article. It ranks for more than 200 organic keywords. Some closely resemble the article title, while others are phrased as questions or descriptions of symptoms.

This is one reason modern SEO increasingly relies on topic clusters. One page explains the basic concept, another provides a practical process, and a third examines common mistakes. The pages should not repeat one another, but together they can cover the subject much more completely.

The same principle applies to editorial planning. Instead of publishing unrelated articles whenever a new idea appears, it is better to decide what role each page will play and how it will support the others. We explore that process in more detail in How to Create an SEO Strategy for Content.

Where can you find keyword ideas?

You do not need an expensive SEO subscription to begin understanding how people search. A surprising amount of useful information is already available directly in Google.

This is not a replacement for full professional research. It is the first layer: a quick way to see how users phrase their questions and which directions are connected to the main topic.

Google autocomplete suggestions

Begin typing a broad phrase into Google, and the search box will suggest possible completions. These suggestions are influenced by popular searches, language, location, and current trends.

A broad query such as “website design” can immediately reveal several directions: cost, companies, services, examples, artificial intelligence, or do-it-yourself solutions.

This is more than a list of phrases. Each variation may represent a different situation. Someone searching for cost is probably comparing providers. A person looking for free tools may want a website builder or tutorial. A query involving AI may reveal a new topic that barely existed a few years ago.

One search box can therefore suggest several landing pages, articles, or sections within a future guide.

People also ask and related searches

Google often expands a topic with related questions or connected searches. The exact block changes depending on the query, but the purpose is similar: it shows what users tend to explore next.

These blocks are useful for more than collecting additional phrases. They can show which explanations are missing from an article, which questions deserve an FAQ, and which broader subjects should become separate pages.

This is exactly why the keyword topic is better divided into several distinct articles: one explains what keywords are, another shows how to choose them, and a third examines the mistakes businesses make during the process. If each page answers a different need, the pages support one another instead of competing.

A keyword matters only when we understand the intent behind it

Two queries can differ by a single word and still lead to very different search results. To demonstrate this, we compared “web design” with “web design cost.”

The difference appears small, but Google interprets the two searches differently.

For “web design,” the results are broader. They may include explanations, inspiration, tools, courses, agencies, and general information. Google cannot be certain whether the user wants to learn, find examples, hire a company, or explore the subject.

Adding the word “cost” changes the situation. Pricing guides, agency rates, project estimates, and commercial pages become much more prominent. The person is no longer exploring the topic in general; they are trying to understand a budget and compare possible providers.

“Web design”

A broad or mixed intent: explanations, tools, inspiration, courses, and service providers.

“Web design cost”

A stronger commercial intent: pricing, budget ranges, agencies, and project estimates.

This comparison explains why keywords should not be grouped simply because the wording looks similar. The search results themselves reveal which type of page Google currently considers the best answer.

Business owners sometimes ask, “The phrase is already on our page, so why is Google not showing it?” The issue may have nothing to do with the number of repetitions. The page may simply answer a different question from the one Google sees behind the query.

That is why looking at the actual search results is often more useful than relying on an automated score from an SEO plugin.

What types of keywords are there?

Keyword classifications can become complicated very quickly. For a practical introduction, however, it is enough to understand the main types of search intent.

The boundaries are not always absolute. One query may have mixed intent, and the results can change over time. Even so, this basic classification helps determine what kind of page a user expects to see.

How can you evaluate the potential of a keyword?

Google suggestions provide ideas, but they do not show the full picture. Once you have an initial list, it is useful to estimate how often people search for the phrases and what additional variations exist.

Google Ads Keyword Planner is one accessible source. It can show approximate average monthly searches, seasonal changes, related terms, advertising competition, and other commercial indicators.

The screenshot shows dozens of variations around the website design topic. But the numbers should not be treated as an automatic answer to the question, “Which keyword should we choose?”

First, Keyword Planner was built mainly for Google Ads, not as an exact forecast of organic SEO traffic. Second, search volume says very little about the business value of the person behind the search.

In paid campaigns, the keyword list must also fit the campaign structure, user intent, budget, and bidding model. A high-volume phrase can consume money without producing useful enquiries. This is why keyword selection should be aligned with the broader pay-per-click strategy, rather than based on volume alone.

Why the highest-volume keyword is not always the best one

High-volume keywords are attractive because the numbers look impressive. A website owner may assume that ranking for a broad phrase will automatically create a steady stream of new customers.

In reality, broad queries often combine several different intentions, attract strong competition, and bring visitors who are nowhere near making a purchase. Google may also show a mixed result page containing articles, videos, marketplaces, large brands, directories, and commercial services.

A person searching for “web design” may want to hire an agency, find design inspiration, learn the profession, use an AI tool, build a student project, or compare website builders. The traffic may be large, but the audience is difficult to predict.

A query such as “website design for a dental clinic” will be searched far less often, yet the need is much clearer. For a studio with healthcare experience, that visitor may be far more valuable.

How the role of keywords has changed

Not so long ago, content optimisation was often reduced to a formal checklist: use the keyword in the title, repeat it in the opening paragraph, add it to several subheadings, maintain the desired density, and include every variation from the brief.

Some of these recommendations had a sensible foundation. A clear heading and natural terminology still help users and search engines understand the subject. The problem began when readability and usefulness were sacrificed for exact-match repetitions.

I still see echoes of that older approach. Some clients ask for a keyword cloud in the footer—a long list of services, cities, and phrases separated by commas. Others point to competitors whose pages end with dozens of nearly identical links and assume the same technique must be responsible for their rankings.

The idea is also reinforced by older content management systems and tools that still display a “Keywords” field. A website owner sees the field and makes a perfectly understandable assumption: if it is there, filling it in must help Google.

However, the meta keywords tag is not used by Google as a ranking signal. The presence of a field in an old CMS, theme, or plugin does not make the field valuable.

This does not mean every old principle should be discarded. The main keyword may still appear naturally in the title, introduction, and subheadings—simply because the page is genuinely about that subject.

What changed is the logic. Keywords were once treated as instructions for a search engine. Today, they are better understood as evidence of how people express their needs.

How does Google understand a page today?

Google no longer treats a page as a bag of words in which it must find a required number of repetitions. It analyses the document as a whole.

This is why a short page containing twenty repetitions of the same phrase does not automatically outperform a detailed resource that uses the exact keyword only a few times.

Google is trying to determine not only whether the words appear on the page, but also whether the user is likely to receive a satisfactory answer.

At the same time, it would be a mistake to move to the opposite extreme and ignore keywords completely. If a page never uses a clear, recognisable description of its own subject, it may become difficult for both people and search engines to understand.

Good content neither hides keywords nor puts them on display. It uses them where they are naturally required to explain the idea accurately.

Do you need to use every keyword you find?

No. A list from Keyword Planner or an SEO platform is research material, not an instruction to force every phrase into the copy.

Many searches differ only in word order: “website design cost,” “cost of website design,” and “how much does web design cost?” To a reader—and often to Google—these are close variations of the same need. There is no reason to create awkward sentences simply to include all of them.

Other phrases may represent different intentions and require separate pages. A query about free website design, for example, may not belong on a commercial agency service page. A tutorial or comparison of free tools would be a better answer.

Common keyword mistakes

Even a well-researched keyword list does not guarantee results. The more important skill is interpreting it correctly.

Common problems include choosing only the highest-volume terms, ignoring search intent, creating several pages for almost the same topic, targeting phrases that do not match the real service, forcing every variation into one article, and failing to examine the search results before building the page.

These problems deserve a separate discussion, which is why we examine them in 6 Common Keyword Selection Mistakes.

We will also prepare a separate practical guide to choosing keywords for a website—from the first list of ideas to grouping the queries across appropriate pages.

Final thoughts

Keywords have not disappeared. Their role has changed.

They are no longer a collection of commands that must be repeated as often as possible for Google. They are a way to see how people describe their needs, what they hope to find, and how close they may be to making a decision.

Modern SEO therefore does not begin with the question, “How many times should we repeat this phrase?” It begins with a more useful question: what did the person really mean when they entered this phrase into Google?

Only then can we decide which page, structure, and answer they actually need.