What is the difference between a keyword and a keyphrase?

You’ve probably heard that keyword research is an essential first step in optimizing your website. But what exactly is a keyword? And what is the difference between a keyword and a keyphrase? In this SEO basics post, we’ll explain the difference between the two.

What is a keyword?

Keyphrase versus long tail keyword
You’ve probably heard of long tail keywords. Most of the time, they consist of more than one word. So what’s the difference between a long tail keyword and a keyphrase? Keyphrases always exist of more than one word, while long tail keywords may consist of more than one word. They don’t have to. In addition, a keyphrase can either be general (puppy training) or specific (puppy training for deaf dogs), but a long tail keyword is always very specific (puppy training location in LA).

A (focus) keyword is a word that best describes the content of your page or post. It’s the search term you want to rank for with a certain page. So when people search for that keyword in Google or other search engines, they should find that page on your website.

Example

Let’s say you own a website about dogs. You’ve just written a blog post about puppies. The keyword that describes the content of that post best is probably: “puppy”.

What is a keyphrase?

A keyphrase has mostly the same definition as a keyword! So, a (focus) keyphrase is a phrase, consisting of a few words, that best describes the content of your page or post. It’s the search term you want to rank for with a certain page. So when people search for that keyphrase in Google or other search engines, they should find that page on your website.

Example

Let’s use the previous example again. You still own a website about dogs, but this time, you’ve written a post about how puppies can become obedient. The keyphrase that best describes the content of this post could be: “puppy obedience training”.

What is the difference between a keyword and a keyphrase?

Though a keyword or a keyphrase both describe the essence of what your post or page is about, there’s one difference: keywords are single words, and keyphrases are made up of a few words.

Read more: Keyword research: the ultimate guide »