Seed keywords are short (1 – 2 word) search phrases that do not include modifiers. The intent behind a search for a seed keyword is rarely clear but it’ll often get the most amount of searches.
A good example of a seed keyword is “washing machine”
- There’s no modifiers such as “cheap” or “Bosch” – so the intent isn’t 100% clear
- It’s between 1 and 2 words (some seed keywords can be more than 2 words but it’s uncommon)
- There’s a large volume of searches (around 169k per month in the UK according to ahrefs)
Seed keywords are also known as “primary keywords”, “head keywords”, “main keywords” and “root keywords”.
Is It Possible To Rank For Seed Keywords?
Yes and we have done it in a few industries, although it’s important to note that it will very much depend on the keyword.
The intent behind some seed keywords can be determined based on what’s ranking in Google. If there are a lot of information pages ranking then a blog post like this one that explains what it is is likely to do well. And if there are a lot of product category pages ranking, another product category page is likely to rank.
How Can Seed Keywords Help My Website?
Even if you can’t rank for them – seed keywords allow professional SEO’s to easily find keyword ideas. These are known as “long tail keywords”.
Using a tool like ahrefs, you can input your seed keyword into the keyword explorer and select the “phrase match” menu item from the drop down.
This will then bring you back a list of long tail keywords that contain your seed keyword.
These keywords are great for growing your traffic and increasing your topical relevancy!
