Quality web content is at risk of falling under the radar if it’s missing a commonly overlooked search engine optimization (SEO) tool: Keywords.
Keywords are just how they sound; words or phrases people search for online. Although the quality and relevancy of your content should always be your priority, effective use of keywords is one of the most powerful tools when optimizing web content for search engines.
Finding the perfect keywords isn’t always easy. Useful tools for finding keywords relevant to you are SEMRush, SECockpit, Ahrefs, SpyFu, and Google AdWords Keyword Planner, among others. Each of these tools has its own unique specialties and focus points. Although putting your eggs in one basket isn’t usually a good call, focusing heavily on Google is recommended since it’s responsible for 94% of total organic traffic.
Search for the most popular keywords in your niche using one of the tools above. Then all you must do is choose the ones with the highest probability to attract an audience to your site.
There are nine types of keywords: short-tail, long-tail, short-term, long-term, product defining, customer defining, geo-targeting, LSI and intent targeting. Your website will not need to contain every type of keyword. Identifying the variants that best fit your content will provide the most benefits in the long run.
The easiest way an SEO newbie can incorporate keywords into his or her site is to use a combination of short-tail and long-tail keywords. Short-tail keywords, or “head words”, are three words or less and highly competitive. An example of a relevant short-tail keyword for a business that sells bikes would be “bicycle.” Long-tail keywords are specific phrases and usually more than three words. “Bicycle cruiser for two people” would be an example of a long-tail keyword. This type is increasingly important because 50% of search queries are four words or longer.
You have a list of keywords! Now what?
Once you have identified some keywords that relate to your business, you’ll just need to incorporate them into content!
First and foremost, think of your reader. Try to include keywords that answer any potential search queries someone might have relevant to your business. The most seamless route to incorporating keywords is to create blog posts around these selected words. The most targeted keywords can go in a headline or title, while secondary keywords can be incorporated in title tags, meta descriptions and introductions.
Try not to appease the almighty Google bots by overstuffing your content with irrelevant or unnecessary keywords. Repeating keywords can help your ranking to an extent – however, an overly keyword-dense article can get penalized by Google, leading to an adverse result.
SEO is an ever-evolving tool that can increase traffic to your site and improve your business. Keep up with any emerging trends and consult with SEO professionals, like the team at 3D Digital, to take your website to the next level.
