Head terms, also known as head keywords, are one of the most important concepts to understand when it comes to both search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.
But what exactly is a head term and why should you care about targeting these high volume keywords?
This comprehensive guide will explain everything you need to know.
What Are Head Terms?
A head term, or head keyword, refers to popular keywords and key phrases that drive a very high search volume. They sit at the peak of search volume charts, often generating thousands or even millions of monthly searches.
Photo Credit: Backlinko
As you can see in the chart above, head terms are concentrated at the beginning, which reflects their high search volume. The long tail represents more niche keywords with lower search volume. Head keywords with their high search volumes tend to be super competitive when it comes to getting good rankings.
It requires a lot more effort to rank well for the keyword “marketing” that gets 50,000 searches per month versus something more specific like “content marketing for financial services” that only gets 300 searches.
Here are some examples of head terms versus long-tail keyword comparisons:
- Head term: digital marketing
- Longer-tail variation: content marketing strategies
- Head term: website design
- Longer tail variation: responsive web design techniques
- Head term: search engine optimization
- Longer tail variation: local SEO ranking factors
Why Head Terms Matter for SEO and PPC 
Head terms are extremely valuable for both SEO and PPC because they represent what internet users are frequently searching for. Tapping into these high volume keywords can drive a lot of visitors to your site.
However, there are also risks if you solely focus on the most competitive head terms without thinking about relevance, intent, and long-tail variations.
Driving Organic Traffic with Head Terms
When it comes to organic search and SEO, ranking well for head terms can generate massive amounts of relevant traffic to your website. Head terms help search engines properly understand what your content and offerings are about. If you can rank on the first page for head terms, you can tap into thousands of monthly searches from people interested in your products or services.
However, because head terms are so competitive, they need to be balanced with longer-tail keyword variations that are easier to rank for. An effective SEO strategy utilizes a healthy mix of head terms and long-tail keywords. Too many niche long-tail keywords won’t result in enough search volume, while only targeting the most competitive head terms carries the risk of low rankings.
Improving PPC Performance
The temptation in pay-per-click advertising is to aggressively target the highest volume and most recognizable head terms. However, many of these have low commercial intent. Someone searching for a generic term like “software” is usually not ready to make a purchase. They are at the early research stages.
Alternatively, longer-tail variations like “CRM software free trial” show more intent and readiness to buy. The keyword research process for PPC is about finding the right balance between volume from head terms and commercial intent from more specific long-tail queries.
Types of Search Queries
When doing keyword research and considering which terms to target, it helps to understand the main types of search queries performed by users. The three main types are:
Transactional Search Queries
Transactional search queries indicate a user is ready to make a purchase now or in the near future. These involve searches with commercial intent to find a product or service to buy. Examples include:
- [product or brand name] + “buy”
- [product or brand name] + “purchase”
- [product name] + “pricing”
- “[local service] near me”
Transactional queries directly relate to the buyer’s journey and shoppers who are in the late consideration or ready to purchase stages. They demonstrate commercial intent which makes them good potential keywords to target in pay-per-click ads.
The goal is that when someone searches with transactional intent, your PPC ad is shown to capture that lead. Similarly for SEO, ranking well for commercial transactional queries gives you a better chance of gaining a new customer.
Informational Search Queries
Informational search queries indicate a user is still in an early research phase trying to learn more about a particular topic. These are often broader, not showing much commercial intent.
Examples include:
- “What is [concept]?”
- “How does [software] work?”
- “Benefits of [product type]”
While informational queries don’t directly convert, they play an important top-of-funnel role for SEO in terms of answering user questions, establishing your site’s expertise, and moving visitors further down the buyer’s journey.
Navigational Search Queries
Navigational search queries demonstrate an intent to simply find a specific website or webpage rather than research or buy something. These involve searches for:
- Brand names
- Company names
- Website URLs
There is still value in ranking well for branded navigational queries. But otherwise these searches have minimal commercial value. Optimizing for informational and transactional queries will be more impactful for conversion rates.
Best Practices for Keyword Research
Conducting comprehensive keyword research is crucial for succeeding with both SEO and PPC. As we learned above, head terms drive high volumes but focusing solely on the most competitive phrases risks low conversion rates. Here are some best practices to follow:
Find the Relevant Long-Tail Variations
Leverage keyword grouping tools to discover relevant long-tail variations of your primary head term targets. Look for keywords that maintain search volume while also demonstrating increased commercial intent. Being too niche risks not enough searches, while generic head terms often lack buyer readiness.
Analyze Metrics Beyond Volume
Volume is important but look at other factors like competition level, suggested bid price, and performance history of that keyword for your site if available. Find the right balance between search volume, competitiveness, and conversion potential.
Align Keywords to Funnel Stages
Use broader informational keywords for top-of-funnel content to attract visitors early in their journey. Target transactional keywords for product and service landing pages geared towards converting visitors who are closer to a purchase decision.
Monitor Performance Over Time
Leverage analytics to see which keywords are driving actions for your site over time. Expand your targeting for the best performing queries. Avoid spending too much time or budget on head terms that aren’t proving to be relevant or converting for your business.
Conducting diligent keyword research takes effort but pays off tremendously in the end through higher quality traffic that converts at a higher rate for your SEO and PPC campaigns.
Optimizing Your Website Content
Conducting the keyword research is an important first step, but you also need to actually optimize your site content to target those head terms and long-tail variations. This includes things like:
Using Primary and LSI Keywords
- Primary keywords: The main 1-3 word keyword targets, usually head terms or shorter variations with commercial intent. These would be “content marketing“, “PPC services”, etc.
- LSI keywords: Other relevant keywords and related phrases known as latent semantic indexing terms. These help search engines further understand the overall topic of your content while also capturing secondary keyword searches. For example broader terms like “digital marketing”, “search ads”, and long tail variations like “small business content marketing”.
When creating pages and writing copy, focus on organically incorporating your researched primary keywords and LSI keyword variations throughout each piece of content. Avoid awkward over-optimization.
Optimizing Individual Pages
When publishing content pages and guides around particular subjects relevant to your business:
- Research related head term and long-tail keyword targets
- Incorporate the primary keywords into meta titles, headers, image names
- Include latent semantic keyword variations in the body content
- Follow on-page SEO best practices like appropriate content length, optimized media, effective formatting
Really focus on maximizing individual pages for selected head terms and long-tail variants based on your earlier keyword research and topic clustering.
Updating and Improving Existing Content
Don’t just focus on new content. Set reminders to revisit and update existing site content as needed:
- Refresh outdated statistical data
- Check there are no broken links
- Incorporate newer related keywords that are trending
- Tighten up page copy, trim excess fat
- Add new relevant charts, images, videos
Keeping your content updated and consistently improving it over time will also have SEO benefits in showing search engines your site’s expertise stays current.
Tracking Your SEO and PPC Efforts
After putting in all this effort to research and target optimized keywords, it’s crucial to leverage analytics to track the actual performance of your campaigns over time.
For SEO, focus on monitoring:
- Organic keyword rankings in Google Search Console – Where do your target keywords rank currently and how has that changed month over month?
- Search volume patterns – Is the search volume for your top keywords growing or declining? Should you shift focus to rising long-tail opportunities?
- Traffic sources – Are organic searches making up a higher % of your traffic pointing to SEO success?
For PPC, keep a close eye on:
- Click-through-rates – How have your CTRs on ads trended? A rise likely indicates greater relevance.
- Conversion rates – Are your conversions from paid search going up over time as you optimize targeting?
- Keyword costs – Are certain head terms too expensive to maintain positive ROI? Consider reallocating the budget.
- Landing page experience – Do product and service pages need further optimization for converting searchers?
Continually monitor both macro level traffic trends as well your granular keyword performance. Remove lagging head term targets, while doubling down on rankings for queries demonstrating consistent value driving actions for your business.
Final Steps
Hopefully this comprehensive guide has helped explain exactly what head terms are and why they are so crucial to understand for both SEO and PPC. Here are some recommended next steps to get started:
- Conduct an audit of current keywords driving traffic and conversions
- Leverage a keyword grouping tool to discover new optimization opportunities
- Research not just volume but factors like competitiveness and intent
- Align keywords to stages of the buyer’s journey
- Track new keyword targets you are optimizing for over time
Getting keyword research and targeting right does take effort, but pays off tremendously in higher converting search traffic.
Targeting the right strategic mix of head term and long-tail keywords aligned to commercial intent is key for success with both SEO content and PPC campaigns.
Hopefully this guide provided a helpful overview of exactly how to leverage search intelligence to drive more traffic and conversions.
