Keyword research is important when working on content marketing and that can go for websites, blogging, Adwords or PPC campaigns and even to print marketing; but here, we are talking about internet marketing. On the internet, you want to use words that are associated with your business (keywords) but words that your consumers use, not just you. There will be many variations and don’t you worry, Google is smart enough but you have to be sure to put these keywords in your blog/website content. But in order for the consumers to find your stuff, the search engines have to find it to index it which in turn gives you the potential to be found in search. You still with me? If not, do a search on my website for SEO or check out some of my blogs, if they aren’t listed in this blog.
After the keyword research
Now you know what keywords you need on your website, be sure that you are sprinkling them throughout your content – you know, the words on the page that the readers actually see, and hopefully read. However, as you are sprinkling these keywords about… don’t get carried away by overdoing it and keyword spamming the heck out of your reader – you’ll lose them quickly!
Take the time to research your keywords, then sprinkle them in your content, don't stuff! Click To TweetExplain the page with keywords on the page
Remember, the point behind a specific page is to explain A product or service or write a blog about A topic. Are you seeing the bigger picture here >>>> A <<<< not explaining ALL of your services on a page, but the one services. I think it is relevant to freshen your memory about a blog I wrote about The Secret to Pages on your Website.
Explain the page with keywords in the meta data
Further, the even bigger picture, is to explain that product or service in the content, then do the same in the meta tags, header tags (h1, h2, h3) or alts tags, staying within the character limitations – all the while using the keywords that are associated with that service or product. This will make it super clear to search engines what this page is about which gives you a higher chance to be found in the search engines results for similar or exact keyword search queries for the same keywords.
Don’t get carried away by stuffing keywords in everywhere
Surely you can explain what your product or page is without stuffing the heck out of the keywords. For say you are a car dealership and are writing content for the services page, you might want to steer clear of text like – We service all cars, makes and models such as service for Ford cars, service for Taurus cars, service for Saturn cars, (okay, I’m not a car person).. but I think you get the point of the redundancy of it all. You can get some of those words in with more than a sentence and in one place talk about cities, another mention the types of vehicles you service, cars, pickup trucks (versus pickups, trucks, pickup trucks)… you get the point?
One last thing – Content
If I could express one other point since we are talking about keyword rich content – please please please be sure that all of your pages have content on them, you know, those words. Don’t waste a page by not putting content on them and be sure it is quality content, not keyword stuffed content!
Bottom line:
If you have a page, you should have plenty of keyword rich content – simple! Click To TweetThis one was a little more basic, but hopefully you will go back and take a look at each of your pages or blogs and ensure that it is clear and evident what each page is about with keyword rich content and optimized pages using simple ninja SEO tricks that you can do! Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me with questions or to enlist my search engine optimization or marketing consulting services.
Have you done research on your keywords?
~Kristen
Good information. I’ll implement these tips ASAP. Thanks.
Thanks so much Glen, glad they were helpful
I recently hired a writer to help create content for my site. She recommended a 1% keyword density rate. Is that enough to grab the search engine’s attention? Thanks!
It depends on who you ask. I’d say, use the keywords, naturally, that is key! Thanks Krissi!
Really good point about NOT keyword stuffing! Thanks so much!
Thanks Kathy, glad it was informative.
Did you know that we are working on keyword research this week with our coach? It has been more than 1 year since we did a keyword update, our blogs and product descriptions have gone in a new direction and the timing is now. Your blog is icing on the cake. Thanks
I didn’t… but I’m good like that Roz! LOL It’s always to refresh.. just like words and phrases come and go, so do our businesses! Great job.. glad to be the icing! 😉
Funny that this is your subject this week, because in writing my blog this week, Yoast said I used my keyword too much. Never happened before. And I wasn’t trying to use it a lot, it just came out that way. So I had to go back and replace some of the uses with “it.” I have a question for you: you say to make sure every day is content/keyword rich. What about pages that are for videos only or registration forms? Does Google ding your website for that?
You weren’t the only one Carol! Don’t worry about Yoast, be sure that you use the key terms, in a variety of different ways, all that is natural to the consumer who is reading it. Pages that have videos should have content on them anyways, because the search engines can’t read them, just like pictures. Similar.. forms are a great way to use… “should you have any questions about my products in x, y and z… ” great place to do a general overview. 😉
Funny you should mention keyword-stuffing, My content management system warned me today that my blog article contained more than five keywords (the word was “women”). Well…since it was about women and for women, I spent about 1 minute trying to figure out other ways to use the word. Gals? Girls? Females? Finally I said screw it and let it go as it was. If the computer gods want to call it spamming, so be it.
It appears, Jackie, that I was right on for a lot of folks this week. Glad that folks are reevaluating their keywords. I wouldn’t worry too much about saying women 5 times in your content because you usually write long pages/blogs. The concern would be more relevant if you have said it 5 times in a short paragraph of 250 or 400 words, make sense?
Excellent guide to using keywords, Kristen!
I am always bookmarking your content — it’s so easy to understand and it’s stuff I really need to get to.
Thanks!
So glad my blogs are a great resource for you Cathy! Thank you!
I’ve got questions, Kristen.
1. Will Gootle penalize your content if they think you’re KW stuffing? In the way Jackie suggested.
2. Seriously? You run your KW searches on everythng, every day?
3. Would you do a blog on Yoast?
I’m not Google, but just guessing here.. Google could penalty, but likely won’t if you have one blog that is a little heavy in keywords.. but take the whole thing in context.. your footprint on the internet and are you providing value, has that been proven, do you have the authority.. if all is good in the world.. chances are, it won’t make much of a difference. Remember, Google is looking our for their customers.. the consumers.. and they want to provide a good experience… so if Google provides the consumer with pages folks stay on, then they are doing their job.
I do NOT run kw searches on everything, every day.. but I DO run keyword researches on every client and review occasionally, not regularly.
I have done a blog on meta tags, using Yoast as an example. What specifically are you needing? Check this blog out Sharon. https://www.avisualbusiness.com/got-your-snippet-on/
Hmm, great concept – I can always tell a spammy page from the randomly-placed keywords in the midst of nonsensical paragraphs LOL
Maybe I’ll start giving those people this link and tell them they need some guidance! Baha! Love this 🙂
OMG.. YESSS don’t you have that.. like at the top or bottom of a page, a whole long list of keywords, do you think that will actually work? Wow! Thanks Natalie!
Great tips for using Keywords in the content.
hansoftech.com
You definitely need to be using keywords in your content as well as all of your meta data, when possible!
Kristen.
I love the article on key word’s and really learned a lot from this art ice and what google wants and considers’ keyword stuffing. Thanks for the great post.
Lori English
Why thank you Lori. No keyword stuffing! Use natural over all!