Keywords - The Dos and Don'ts

​Keyword Identification is critical to creating content. Selecting keywords related to your niche should be your top priority. The quality of these keywords is critical for better ranking in search engines. Researching the right keywords for your website can place your website in the main results or hide it away from your audience. You're looking for word combinations that people will regularly use when searching.

The million dollar question is: How can I do this and get the best results? I have prepared an article that will guide you through the process in 3 steps:

• Step 1 Keyword Research, Ranking, Identification and Selection
• Step 2 - Keyword Placement and Density
• Step 3 - Keyword Marketing

Before I go any further, it's important to understand that keywording is one of several important steps in your SEO strategy. This alone will help but it's not the final solution for ranking

If you've already written several pages of content, that's alright, but the best course of action is to start with keyword research, selection and density. Trust me, this is time well spent. If search engines understand what you’re all about, it's easier to include your website in the results. Follow the steps I have mentioned below and your website will enjoy better ranking in search results.

Step 1
Research, Ranking, Identification and Selection: This should be the first step while building your content, because it will be built around the keywords and phrases which have been identified at this stage. This stage is critical and if not done correctly you won't achieve the desired results. There are different ways to identify how people search on the web.

1) Think about what keywords you would choose while you search for certain products or services. Think from a customer point of view and not from a search engine or SEO point of view. Collect and write it down. I suggest using a spreadsheet so that it will help you in the stages as well. 

2) Another option is to ask your customers and friends how they search on the net to find your business. People think differently and might not use the same keyword phrase to find that product or service. This will be a source of target keywords. Collect and store them.

3) Keyword suggestion tools. There are 100's of tools on the web some of them are free and others charge a fee. This link will help you out to select the one that works best for you. Type in your keywords and phrases into these tools and you will find 100's of keyword suggestions for a particular product or service along with monthly search stats. They also indicate how much competition there is for that particular keyword phrase. It's always more challenging to rank for high search volume keywords. Choose keywords that are less competitive, so that your website will rank well for that particular keyword phrase in search engine results. Try to include long tail keywords (4 words or more). They are often less sought after and can provide a competitive edge.

Once these steps are done, use your spreadsheet to determine the ideal keywords. Google likes websites with more content. Why do you think Wikipedia is usually the #1 result in any search? Build a spreadsheet that will list the relevant keywords for your business compared to the search volume and competition it faces to be well ranked. As mentioned before, try to choose less competitive keywords. After this stage is completed, it's time to start building content for your website.

​4) If you’ve already published your website, check your web logs and gather keywords that people use to  find your site. This will guide you to adjust your content. Make sure to register your website with Google Search Console as it captures the queries used to find your site.

Step 2
Placement
This is an important step. Why? Because if the keywords are not placed properly, the search engine spiders will have a difficult time identifying and storing information from your web pages. Your most important keyword should appear in the title of the page at least once. Next, the same or related keywords should be on the heading of the page. Also use a related keyword while starting a paragraph and throughout the web page evenly. The density factor is discussed below. 

Density
Search engine robots are very intelligent spiders they can determine when you're trying to cheat them. They index web pages to determine how many times a keyword has been used on a particular page and can flag a website if it identifies word stuffing. Now you see now why keyword density is so important - it can hurt your ranking! An ideal rate would be between 10-15 % of keyword density on the page (based on the total amount of words).

Use different keywords related to a phrase so that the words are picked up by search engines. If the job is well done, search engines will determine a page or website as relevant and identify it as authoritative content. For example, a search for the keyword "dog supplies" shows numerous related terms like "dog supplies online" "dog supply store" etc. Select words and related expressions that will help better identify your website within the market it represents and build your content avoiding keyword concentration.

Step 3
Marketing
After curating your content with regards to keyword identification, density and placement, you're ready to kickstart your keyword marketing. Guest posting and article submission are good ways to do that, but always check the domain rating of the website or blog you're evaluating. Low ratings will not give you the internet juice your website craves. Make sure you are allowed to include links in your article (pointing to your website) and that the links are DoFollow as opposed to NoFollow.

Use your spreadsheet with the selected keywords to place them in your article as links to make them your anchor text. These will eventually be picked up by search engines and become keywords related to your website.

Also consider including your site in relevant business listings. Search for the term "business listing {name of city where your business is located}". Some are free, others are paid and several of them provide DoFollow links to your website. The more external links pointing to your website from relevant websites (content and rating) the better. Search engines read this as authority and reward it with a better ranking.

And remember, this is not a sprint, it's a marathon. If you are well prepared slowly but surely your website will increase in importance and start showing up in search results. Make sure your design is user friendly, the content is easy to find and you offer several contact options. Visitors don't spend time on websites that they can't find what they're looking for. Happy keywording!

Target Practice Pro is your go-to digital marketing solution for planting marketing seeds and boosting your business. Call us now or schedule a talk.