Kinds of Keywords: Related Vertical Keywords

Keyword ResearchHaving tackled local search through discussing Geo Targeting Keywords, we now move on to one of my most favorite kind of keyword. Related vertical keywords has to do with your creativity and your ability to adopt a searcher’s and marketer’s story-telling mindset.

What are Related vertical keywords?

These are the keywords that are related to your company and niche. These keywords are keywords of industries and markets that are closely or somehow related to your industry or market. Let’s take our scuba diving company’s vertical keywords for example:

  • Water sports
  • Surfing
  • Liveaboard cruise
  • Technical diving
  • Underwater photography

Why are related vertical keywords important?

That is the million dollar question. Why indeed would you want vertical keywords in your site?

Well one really good reason is that these are the keywords that are owned by industries and markets that are not in direct competition with you. These are the keywords owned by companies that you might probably want to create a partnership with.

Given that they are not in direct competition with you, you can safely and easily ask them for a link exchange and they would most probably be inclined to say ‘yes’ due to the fact that it can only result to a win-win situation for the both of you.

And since these keywords are vertical, you would most probably be using some of it in your site without having to target and build on them. If the company you want to exchange links with sees that, they most probably won’t let the chance to get links from you slip away.

If your link exchange with the vertically related company is good, it will most probably attract new customers and drive a good amount of traffic to your site.

Related vertical keywords also provide a good variety of keyword options for your site. Sometimes you find a good keyword you can target through experimenting on vertical keywords.

All in all, related vertical keywords are very important. They should be one of the vital building blocks of your keyword research and optimization process. Look up every related vertical keyword possible for your company and use those keywords to find niche blogs and/or companies out there and perform any of the linkbuilding strategies you have in mind with them.


This entry is part of the SEO Hacker School series:How to do Keyword Research

This is the last lesson of the Kinds of Keywords Guide Series of SEO School

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Sean Si

About Sean

is a Filipino motivational speaker and a Leadership Speaker in the Philippines. He is the head honcho and editor-in-chief of SEO Hacker. He does SEO Services for companies in the Philippines and Abroad. Connect with him at Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. Check out his new project, Aquascape Philippines.