Keywords — the Building Bricks of the Internet make your Marketing Work

A picture may paint a thousand words, but how far will that image get you in the overloaded digital indexes that drive traffic around the Internet?

Google’s AI gets better each year and can automatically recognise the content of photos or transcribe the soundtrack of a video. However, for a large part of the Web, the keyword is still king and is the easiest way for a computer to understand what you or I am trying to communicate online.

Keywords are the basis of how many digital platforms work. They sit at the heart of SEO, where your content strategy should be built on finding relevant keywords, keyword phrases and questions that are also sought out by your customers. They define the way that search works for queries across Google and are essential for creating an effective Google Ads campaign.

They power the search and algorithms for your favourite social media platforms. How do you get found on LinkedIn by prospective employers, clients or customers? Well, by populating your LinkedIn profile with relevant keywords that reflect your experience and perhaps where you want to be in future too. How does advertising on Facebook seem so eerily accurate that your phone might be listening to your conversations? Well, your keyword searches, likes, written updates and messages all help build up a social profile of who you are and what you like.

Try applying for a job today and your application may well be sifted out or through the process depending on the keywords in your CV or online application.

Keyword hashtags power the incessant feeds that fall down our screens from Twitter, connecting disparate thoughts and people and creating communities around ideas and messages. One moment #Isis is a river in Oxford, the next a terrorist organisation banned by the Government. Keywords can be tricky too and can mean many things, shifting to the whims of the news cycle, mass communication or even new books, films or songs. Wap was an outdated mobile operating system, now its a hit record by Cardi B.

Navigating the shifting sands of the keyword-powered Internet can be a difficult task, but is an essential one for marketers. No brand or campaign name should be chosen without some searches across Google, Twitter and elsewhere. What does it mean now, in the past, in another country? Is it unique or are there 10 other companies using this brand name already? Is it slang for something dark and terrible?

Which keywords get the most traffic? Which are relevant to my audience — what do they search for, what do they call themselves, what are their questions, where do they go, how do they find me? Which keywords do my competitors choose? So many questions relying on careful research and assessment of the value and relevance of keywords.

Build your digital house well, plan and choose your keyword bricks carefully, as they can define you, make you famous or trip up and bite you.