A keyword is an important concept in computer programming and Internet protocol. It can have very different meanings depending on the context; A programming keyword is very different from a keyword used in managing search engine functions. It can be important to understand what keywords are and how they work when creating a website or programming.
When creating a website on a particular topic, it’s important to consider how people would search for information on that topic.
In computer programming terms, keywords are used in a variety of computer languages. Often these are predetermined phrases or words that trigger a specific function or behavior. Keywords in this context are also sometimes called reserve words, meaning that they cannot be used in the programming language for anything other than their intended use, such as user-defined names or files. Some programming languages include keywords that actually have no function in the current version, but are reserved for inclusion in later versions. Examples of languages that use keywords include COBOL and C languages.
Keywords are often used to define which ads are shown on a website or search page.
In the context of the Internet, a keyword is a very different concept. When using an Internet search tool, the user typically types a word or phrase to search for. The search engine will return a list of sites that contain the word or phrase, usually ranked by the number of times the word is used on the web page. The word or phrase that matches the search results is known as the keyword.
One of the most important ways that websites generate traffic is through the proper and comprehensive use of keywords. People are generally much more likely to click on the first few sites that appear on a results page, so making sure a site stays near the top is vital to a site’s popularity. The practice of creating keywords or key phrases that will place a page at the top of a search engine results page is known as search engine optimization, or SEO.
Choosing the right keywords for a website involves understanding the search habits of the general public. When creating a website on a particular topic, it’s important to consider how people would search for information on that topic. There are online programs that can perform statistical analysis on how often a term is searched for, but much of keyword choice is common sense. Shorter terms are often better than longer ones, while common phrases may be more common than specific terms. For example, on a website dedicated to selling cheese, a simple keyword like cheese will be searched for more often and therefore might be a better keyword than something like cheese making, where can I buy cheese, or Jarlsberg .
On the Internet, keywords can also be used to define the advertising of a page or website. Many advertising programs link displayed ads to keywords on a website. For example, a site where all keywords are related to cats will likely have ads related to cats, cat food, animal shelters, or pet shelters. For this reason, beware of terms that have dual or alternate meanings; A computer security website that uses spam as its main keyword may end up with ads for corned beef and corned beef instead of antivirus programs.
Choosing the right keywords for a website involves understanding the search habits of the general public.
