SEO Keywords
How to Optimize Keywords for SEO?
SEO Basics
SEO — Search Engine Optimization — can be defined as a set of strategies and actions that are taken to improve a website’s rank on any number of search engines. The main goal of SEO is to increase both the quantity and quality of traffic to a website. Typically, there are two types of SEO — organic and paid.
Organic
Your website’s traffic, for instance, might come from organic search traffic, meaning from folks looking for specific information online or readying to make a purchase. And, if during their search your website happens to “organically” or “naturally” pop up it is largely because the keywords you’ve used in your site’s content directly matches the search query. In other words, you’ve just organically gained traffic! In fact, “organic search drives 51 percent of all visitors to B2B and B2C websites.”2
A company can work toward a first-page ranking by following a number of steps, from researching, choosing, and strategically implementing keywords throughout their website, to increasing their site’s legitimacy with the addition of quality content as well as internal and backlinks. And while optimizing your website organically for search engine ranking certainly doesn’t have to cost you a dime to execute, it is often quite difficult to achieve first-page ranking this way, not to mention that the efforts involved can be very time consuming.
Paid Search
For those who wish quicker results or require immediate attention to promote the launch of a new service or product line, there are paid methods that will help drive targeted traffic to your website. Google Ads, for instance, is arguably the most popular paid-per-click (PPC) advertising service. It is also an impressive tool for building brand awareness. Google Ads not only caters to businesses in just about every market but it also fits just about any budget. As a customized service, Google Ads also offers assistance in finding keywords, creating ad campaigns, and developing effective content. And, since these ads are paid for, they generally appear above organic search results and help companies more readily stand out.
And while it ultimately comes down to preferences, goals, and budget, focusing initially on getting your website noticed organically might be a great place for you to start. So, without further ado, let’s dive right in to organic SEO best practices focusing on the very first step: keywords.
Keywords
KEYWORDS, when related to SEO, could be explained as the words and/or phrases that an ordinary person enters into a search engine. People type in keywords when looking for general information, wishing to solve a problem, or researching a product or service to purchase. If people are searching for information related to your company’s products or services, high-quality content on your site with just the right keywords will help lead them directly to you! That is why we investigate, explore, and “test” keywords — we need to understand the general search behavior of potential or current customers and we most definitely need to understand the keywords they commonly use. With a little bit of elbow grease, we can then craft our content accordingly, ensuring we provide the appropriate keywords to attract them to our site where they will hopefully find the solutions they require.
Following an effective SEO strategy will help you to improve the legitimacy of your website, increase relevant searches, gain new customers, help the larger online community with high-quality information, and generate long-term success.
How Do I Know Which Keywords to Use?
Ahh, this is indeed the million dollar question! Below, we will provide three main suggestions to help answer this valuable question.
Industry Knowledge
Never underestimate your industry knowledge and goold old-fashioned common sense — being that you are already an expert in the products and services you sell, you likely already know the commonly asked questions your costumers ask you — jot these down as they are likely a rich library of valuable keywords!
The Search Bar
A second option is to add industry-specific words into your search engine’s search bar in order to explore the extra keywords that automatically appear. These terms don’t just magically appear — they are the terms that are most commonly used by searchers using that particular search engine, so make sure to add these to your growing list. Of course, you will have to again, refer back to your industry knowledge and common sense to rule out the terms that don’t fit your products or services.
(The Google search bar usually gives you options based on the first word you write, showing you what people are most likely looking for.)
Keyword Tools
A third option is to use a keyword tool such as Google’s Keyword planner tool. This tool will provide certain strategic information about each recommended keyword for you to analyze, compare, and ultimately add to your keyword library. Once you have a healthy number of quality, industry-specific keywords chosen, it is time to start creating content. But where do you place these keywords within your content, how often should you use them, and how many should you use? Again, all excellent questions answered below.
Where Should Keywords be Placed?
One important point to understand is that search engines are made by code. In other words, the browser is automatically trying to understand what each post and/or website is advertising. This is determined by performing quality test every time a site is created and an article is published. The keywords, titles, images, and videos are all analyzed. The main goal for this analysis is to understand for whom the information could be important and whether or not your content is clearly understood and relevant to the search query. For this reason, we need to grasp not only our customers’ needs but also how the engine runs.
Let’s begin with the most recommended location for keywords to achieve good organic positioning. Each of them has been described below:
- The article’s (or post’s) title — this is the most influential place and keywords should be added at the beginning. And although the allowable number of characters in a title is one hundred, it is important to understand that Google will only display sixty-five characters.
- Page Description — even though this description will not influence your position on the results, it gives you the chance to attract customers by further describing what your article or post is about.
- Body Content — this is all the information included in the article and will definitely be where the majority of your keywords will be embedded. Not only single keywords can be used but also long-tail ones, synonyms, antonyms, and different variations. But be careful – as we want to publish clear and coherent content to engage readers, using keywords in a hasty manner should be avoided at all times.
- Header Tags — each title and subtitle should be tagged in one of the Header Tags known as H₁, H₂, H₃, at the HTML code. Your main title should be tagged as H₁, followed by subtitles (H₂, H₃, etc).
- Formatted Text — adding bullet points and bolded keywords helps the search engine and readers to understand what is important
- Links — connecting your article to a related one within your site by adding internal links is always a good idea. And, if you have referred to other sources of information, it is always best practice to add external links. The trick here, is to add hyperlinks using a keyword.
- Graphics — keywords should be added to the title, description, and the graphic itself.
- Call to Action (CTA) — you could also insert the keywords in yoru call to action (CTA) at hte end of the posting
- “People Also Ask Box” — as you might have noticed, Google offers a box with the most common questions people ask and has added them to search results — goldmine! Entitle your articles with some of these keywords. Write them in the form of a question then immediately answer them using the same (or related keywords).
What is Keyword Density?
Keyword density indicates the ratio between the number of times a keyword appears with respect to the total number of words a text has. How many times should you add a keyword to an article? Again, great question but not so easy to answer. Some experts will tell you that in any given article, your keywords should appear a minimum of 4 times. And although it is our experience that it should be any less than this, how many you add is highly subjective.
A few years ago the number was considered important. However, nowadays the exact quantity will actually not make a difference. The real trick is actually to ensure they are written in a natural way and don’t at all seem forced into the content. The same rule applies to keyword length. You might also try to include different, creative linguistic variations to your keywords and sprinkle them throughout your content.
Do You Want to Learn More about Keywords?
We hope you have enjoyed this article. If you would like to know more about this topic, stay tuned! We plan on publishing many more!
Author: Virginia González
REFERENCES
Leist, Rachel. “How to Do Keyword Research for SEO: A Beginner’s Guide.” HubSpot Blog, blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-do-keyword-research-ht.
“What are keywords and what are they for on the Internet?” Rock Content, 8 Aug. 2019, rockcontent.com/es/blog/palabras-clave.
Coppola, María Eugenia. “The 11 best free tools to search for keywords.” HubSpot Blog Homepage, blog.hubspot.es/marketing/7-mejores-herramientas-gratuitas-para-buscar-keywords.
“What is keyword density and how does it relate to SEO?” Blog Mailrelay, Email Marketing, 10 Sept. 2020, blog.mailrelay.com/es/2019/04/04/densidad-de-palabras-clave.