# What are Keywords?

{% hint style="info" %}
**Definition**: A word or phrase that people type into a search box to find content on the Internet
{% endhint %}

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### What Role do Keywords play in Generating Inbound Organic Traffic to your Website?

Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility and ranking of a website or web page in [search engine results pages (SERPs)](https://github.com/sageseo/sage-docs-help/blob/main/seo-terminology/broken-reference/README.md). Keywords are one of the main factors that search engines use to determine the relevancy of a website or web page.

When a user enters a query into a search engine, the engine scans its index of websites and web pages to find any that are relevant to the query. The relevancy of a website or web page is determined by a number of factors, one of which is the number of times that the site or page includes the query keyword.

### An Example Search Query

![Figure 1 - Keywords are the equivalent of search terms](https://795053713-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FW3Fnow0tPFABJrlRC35Y%2Fuploads%2FJMXUQP1q3yGoCl6cvZHu%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=12c2472b-d200-425c-9b25-e4458f323698)

In the search box above, "best places to live in florida" is an example of a single keyword from Google's perspective.

Google ranks websites for keywords. A "keyword" is a search term made up of one, or many, words.

Other examples include:

\--> "pilates studios near me"

\--> "potty training a dog"

\--> "nausea"


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