What are Keyword Modifiers and How to Use Them Effectively

Keywords are the foundation for boosting your website’s Google ranking but ranking on popular keywords can be challenging. This is where keyword modifiers come into play. With keyword modifiers, you can significantly enhance your chances of securing the top spot on Google.

Small additions to your primary keywords can help you target your audience more specifically and compete on less competitive keywords, giving you an edge over your competitors.

Understanding Keyword Modifiers and how to use them in your content would enhance your digital marketing efforts. This article will help you discover what keyword modifiers are, how to find them, how to use them, and much more.

What are Keyword Modifiers?

Keyword Modifiers are extra words that you add to the primary keyword to make it more specific. It helps you refine the keywords and make you reach a specific audience.

When adding keyword modifiers to your primary keywords, you usually add them in front or end of the keyword. It would look something like this-

Keyword Modifiers | Primary Keyword | Keyword Modifiers

For example- if your Primary keyword is “French classes” then the keyword modifiers would be “Best French Classes in Delhi” wherein “Best” and “in Delhi” are keyword modifiers.

You can imagine these keyword modifiers as something that narrows down your keywords helping you in reaching the right people.

An added advantage of using keyword modifiers is the reduced competition on those keywords. You’re no longer competing with everyone offering the same thing as you do but competing in the niche market.

Why Use Keyword Modifiers?

To answer this question, you have to understand how Google ranks a website. Google uses multiple ranking factors to evaluate a website and based on that evaluation rank the website.

But the problem is that every SEO follows these ranking factors first thing when they start the SEO process. So, the entire game becomes who does it better which if you ask me is not the right place to be especially if you have limited resources.

This is where keyword modifiers come into play, as these modifiers can alter certain aspects of the keyword while maintaining its meaning, helping you achieve more precise results with reduced competition.

Let’s take an example of “SEO Company” as our primary keyword. If you look at the SEMRush tool to find keywords. You have a keyword difficult score which determines which are the keyword difficult to rank.

When we type in only our primary keyword the tool shows a keyword difficulty of 70%.

But look what happens when we enter the keyword along with the modifiers- “SEO Company in Delhi”. The keyword difficulty score for “SEO Company in Delhi” keyword shows a difficulty score of 42%.

Now for the primary keyword of “Dog Food” the keyword difficulty is 37%.  

When we add modifiers- “cheap dog food 20kg” the keyword difficulty is 20%.

Keyword Modifiers can also be used to better target your audience by providing what they want which increases the chances of conversion.

There are various types of keyword modifiers that you can use to get a keyword variation. The next section talks about in detail…

Types of Keyword Modifiers

There are various types of keyword modifiers that you can use, which are as follows-

Question keyword modifiers

According to Backlinko, 14.1% of Google searches are question keywords which makes it a very important keyword modifier to add. The question keyword modifiers that you can add to primary keywords is-

• How
• What
• Where
• Why
• Who
• Which

Example- “What is the best dog food for German Shepard?”, and “Where to find the best dog food?” in these two keywords, the bold part is the keyword modifiers added to the primary keyword of dog food to modify the keywords.

Person Keyword Modifiers

You can narrow down a keyword by specifying who will use it. For example, if the keyword is intended for teens, adding ‘teen’ to your keywords can act as a personal keyword modifier. Some of the person keyword modifiers are

• Teens
• Students
• Adults
• Men
• Women
• Children
• Kids

Example- Best cargo pants for kids, Men shoes

Color, Size, Material, and Brand Keyword Modifiers

Keywords that contain variations of some sort like color, size, and material can be keyword modifiers. For instance-

• Color- Blue, Yellow, red etc.
• Size- XL, XXL, 42, 9, 10, etc.
• Brand- Nike, Canon, Under Armour, etc.
• Material- Polyester, Cotton, spandex, etc.

Example- Red T-shirt Nike, “Red” and “Nike” are the keyword modifiers.

Price Range Keyword Modifiers

Adding a price range to keywords is another common way to refine them and create a distinction. When people shop online, they often have a specific price bracket in mind, which is why including a price range in your keywords makes sense. Typically, people add the price range at the end of the keywords, for example:

• Under Rs.1000
• Under Rs.500

Example: best smart watches under Rs.10000

Verb Keyword Modifiers

In the context of a keyword, the verb represents the action being performed. Some examples of verb keyword modifiers are as follows-

• Buy
• Find
• Get
• List
• Compare
• Locate

Example- List of Indian PM, Compare laptops, List of cities in India

Adjective Keyword Modifiers

Adjectives help your keywords provide additional details related to the primary keyword. Including these details can help you deliver more precise results that your audience is looking for.

Some examples of Adjective keyword modifiers are as follows-

• Best
• Cool
• Cheap
• Fastest
• Affordable
• Popular
• Quickest
• Lightest
• Smallest

Example- Cheap flight to Mumbai, best digital marketing agency in Delhi, Cool goggles for men

How to Find Keyword Modifiers?

Now that you are convinced of using the Keyword modifiers and understand the types, you need to find Keyword Modifiers.

The best place to find keyword modifiers is Google. Open Google and start typing your primary keyword. Once you enter your primary keyword, you’ll be suggested different keywords in the dropdown.

Here are some examples-

For the primary keyword “Flight Ticket” you’ll have Google auto-suggest provide you with the following suggestions-

You can use these suggestions like “Flight Ticket Price” to use keyword modifiers for the second time, making your targeting more precise.

The reason I like Google Auto Suggests is that these are the keywords that people use to search for something on Google. It makes much more sense to work with auto-suggested keywords when creating content, as this ensures you’ll always attract an audience.

There is also a tool that I love using which is called Answerthepublic.com from popular digital marketer Neil Patel.

This tool helps you organize all the keyword modifier options available for your primary keyword and presents them in one place.

You’ll find all keyword modifiers under the related tab. Apart from keyword modifiers, using this tool you can explore more keywords and explore the topic in its entirety helping you cover the topic comprehensively.

How to Use Keyword Modifiers Effectively?

After learning all the aspects of a keyword modifier, you are now required to apply what you’ve learned so far to an effective SEO strategy.

To formulate an effective SEO Strategy using keyword modifiers, you have to consider how to use them and what to consider for choosing a suitable keyword modifier.

Primarily you have to understand two important things i.e.- The buyer’s journey and consider search Volume for those keywords.

Understanding the Buyer’s Journey

Keyword Modifiers are effectively used when you understand the buyer’s journey. There are various aspects of the buyer’s journey and for each aspect, a user’s search pattern changes.

The buyer’s journey is also known as a Sales funnel, anyone who is searching for something can identify themselves within these stages.

At each stage, potential customers search for different types of information.

• Awareness Stage: This is the first stage where you would identify your problems or needs. In this stage, modifiers like “how to,” “guide,” or “tips” really help in attracting customers.
• Consideration Stage: In this stage, you evaluate solutions and modifiers like “best,” “top,” “reviews,” or “compare” work well. People are primarily doing their research and finding the best solution for their problem
• Decision Stage: In the final stage, people are ready to make the purchase, and modifiers like “cheap,” “affordable,” or location-specific terms such as “near me” or “online” are effective in capturing customers

Search Volume Considerations

Any meaningful search term can be considered a keyword, but in SEO, it’s crucial to identify valuable keywords (good search volume). Without this, your SEO efforts may lack direction and impact.

Your keyword modifiers help your keywords to be specific, however, it is also important for them to have a good search volume. A highly refined keyword might have low competition but if no one is searching that term, then it won’t bring traffic.

Keyword modifiers might give you first-page ranking on Google, but the trade-off will be the traffic. For this strategy to work, you have to strike a balance between the search volume and keyword.

For example- If you use SEMRush and search for the primary keyword “Shoes” the monthly search volume tends to be 670.5K but the difficulty level for this keyword is 51%.

Once you add the keyword modifier “Shoes for men under 1000” the monthly search volume comes out as 18.1K with a difficulty level of 21%.

There is a huge difference in the search volume but since ranking on the lower search volume is easy, it is a trade-off that you have to make.

Conclusion

In my 13+ years of experience, I’ve witnessed the SEO field evolve dramatically. The algorithms have shifted from an obsession with backlinks to a more comprehensive approach, prioritizing quality over quantity for sustainable growth.

One this that hasn’t changed is the importance of keywords. The keywords modifiers have become more apparent over the years making a world of difference in your search ranking.

I’ve worked with countless businesses to improve their SEO strategies and one thing that I’ve leveraged to create opportunities is the keyword modifiers.

The most difficult part of SEO is to bring in the first 1000 monthly traffic to the website and trust me, keyword modifiers are best at helping you achieve this milestone.

These keywords not only help your website rank but also help you in getting the right customers boosting your conversion rates.

I’ve seen first-hand how using keyword modifiers, a business with limited resources can thrive and attract traffic.

When it comes to SEO, it is not about ranking high on popular keywords, but it is about formulating the strategy according to the resources in hand and It’s about being smart with your approach.

Remember, SEO success is about working smarter, not harder.