Search term

Search term = user input, Keyword = SEO focus. Many search terms mean one keyword (variants/typos). For SEO: 1 focus keyword per page in title, H1, URL, text. Operators like "", site:, - and filetype: help.

A search term is initially anything that an internet user enters into the search box of a search engine like Google or Bing. Often, the term is equated with "keyword," which is essentially not wrong—but nevertheless, a fine differentiation can be made between the two terms.

What distinguishes the search term from the keyword?

A search term, as mentioned, is what is entered into the search box. A keyword is ultimately what the web is searched for after the search command. There can be multiple search terms for a keyword, for example, if a word is misspelled. This then leads to the correctly spelled keyword. Keywords are also considered from the perspective of SEO optimization, while search terms can be attributed to the user side.

Search term: Importance for search engines, users, and webmasters

Generally, search terms, like keywords, can be distinguished between shorthead (terms with only one word) and longtail terms (consisting of multiple words).

For search engines, the search term plays a crucial role, as it provides information about what is being searched for. The more precisely the search term is chosen, the more relevant the results can be in the SERPs.

For website operators or web content writers, the keyword also plays a significant role as it needs to be incorporated into the website and its contents. To achieve this, the webmaster must filter suitable keywords that connect their products and services with searching internet users. This is accomplished through detailed keyword research and subsequent analysis. Each subpage should define a search term, or keyword, that should be found in various "positions" within the page so that search engines like Google can display the content as relevant results.

The advanced Google search

If you want to search the Internet as precisely as possible with a search term, you should consider some tricks that can be used in Google search. We are talking about operators that can be used. Here are some examples of Google operators:

"xy": If you want to search for a sentence or a sequence of words in an exact order and wording, you can enclose them in quotation marks. Google now limits the search results to websites where exactly this word order appears.
Site: if this command is entered with a corresponding website behind it, only results on this website will be displayed.
– : With a simple minus, search terms or phrases can be excluded from the results.
* : The asterisk acts as a placeholder for letters, for example.
Filetype: This command can be used to search for specific file types, e.g., PDFs.
# : With this command, you can find hashtags on specific topics.
Loc:“placename“: With this command, a search term can be limited to a specific location, e.g. Loc:“Stuttgart“ bicycle
@: Social tags can be found here.

There are many more operators that can be useful, but these are probably the most common.