Keywords are valuable elements for effective content creation and to make the website rank high in search engines. Search engines use these keywords as a milestone for filtering results. It is thus important to ensure that content developers know how to use and place the keywords appropriately so as to yield a better chance for the content to get indexed and ranked. The following guide would help content developers get an idea on how to safely and effectively place the keywords in a content or blog post.
The Best Keyword tool to use for Content Marketing:
There are few tools for keywords that help in positioning them for better SEO and these are discussed here,
The Google keyword tool:
This is the basic tool for everyday purpose and is excellent for prospective identification of keyword variations that could be sure hits in content.
The keyword grouping tools:
The keyword groupers and the niche finder tools are also free to use and would sort keywords automatically into relevant desired groups.
Trend-based tools:
The search engine tools for keyword search and trends will help in figuring out topics that experience a spike in search volume instantly. The tool also helps to identify how the volume of keyword for a set of terms has changed over time.
Competitor’s keyword identification tools:
This tool helps to know the keywords that the competitors are targeting. Examples of these tools are Alexa, Compete, etc.
The frequency of using a keyword on a page:
Ideally, there is no prescribed number of times a keyword has to be used on a web page. Its occurrence will vary depending on the type of content that is been created, the length of the content and other SEO factors. Content developers should focus more on the value, uniqueness, and relevance of the keywords rather than on their number and rate.
Most importantly the keyword should be relevant to the content that is been created. It should appear naturally in the content at a reasonable frequency and rate so that both the search engine and the reader are able to clearly understand what the content is about.
Places to insert keywords in the content:
Knowing where the keyword has to be used in the content marks its visibility, ranking, and success. The following are the places to insert the keyword appropriately.
Title tag:
Title tags are the places the search engines scan first. These appear as the actual link on the results page of the search engines. The title bar is one of the most important places to emphasize the keyword and the title should use the most important keywords in the content. The title tags are those the visitors will see in their browsers, SEO is about pleasing both the search engine spiders and the human visitors. People use the title tag as an important means of navigation and identification and thus it needs to be well crafted with the most important keyword of the content in it.
META description :
There are a number of Meta description tags within the header that only the search engines can see. The Meta description is what that gets listed in the search engine along with the title. The Meta description content should be written as concise and as meaningful as possible. The search engines look at only the first 150 characters of the description tag, so the window is limited to provide the apt keyword in the content. Sometimes search engines take only half of the content from the Meta description and search for the rest from other pages. Thus, it is important to incorporate the keywords in the first line of the Meta description.
Meta keywords tag:
It is still unclear on how the search engines value these keywords. Websites try to fill the tag with all possible keyword combinations, with the hope that search engines would grab on to something. But search engines have altered their ways on how they weight this tag in the search algorithm. Of late, it is all about how these Meta keywords relate to the content on the page. Thus, it has become important to use keywords that are relevant to the website in general and be specific to the defined pages.
Keywords in headings and Sub-headings:
One important trick to highlight the keyword in the content is to put them in the titles and subheaders and to bold them. This action would not only emphasize the importance of the content that follows but also help people to skim through the website content quickly. The heading also should be kept clear, relevant and concise to the core.
Keywords in the page content:
The page content is the heart and soul of the website; it is the backbone of the entire website and the business. In the first place, the content is what that attracts and links people and draws the attention of the people towards the website. Keyword density is an important consideration in writing the content. Most writers try hard to incorporate their target keyword into the content as often as possible but due care has to be exerted on not to overdo it.
Overcrowding the content with keywords would seem like trying to sell the content and impart a horrible feel to it. It becomes irritating to read such content and creates a bad impression in the minds of the readers. Its rate of conversion also decreases considerably. The adequate density of the keyword is probably between 3-5%. It is okay to bold and makes the targeted keyword stand out from the rest of the content; doing so would reinforce the readers towards a strong decision.
Also, a single page of the content should be optimized for a single keyword and this one to one rule should be followed throughout the content.
Links:
Using links such as ‘click here’ are not SEO friendly and is not a good practice to use in the content. Search engines determine the strength of the link depending on the use of specified keywords in it. The best links are used in their algorithms and they also estimate on how relevant the links are. Search engines also help in building the relevancy between a specific keyword and a particular page.
Breadcrumbs:
These are the best opportunity for incorporating keywords in the content. Breadcrumbs help people navigate across the website and pinpoint exactly where they are on the website. Content developers have to ensure that their breadcrumbs link offers enough detail on what the web pages are. They should also not be very lengthy and should have one to three words at the maximum.
ALT attributes:
The ALT and the title attributes were originally created for usability reasons and they are diverted for use in SEO purposes as well. There is the best opportunity to indulge additional text with keywords on the page that is meant for optimization. These attributes should not be written from the perspective of the keyword alone and should be kept relevant to the aspect in question. They should not be used to duplicate content on any other part of the website. They should also be not stuffed with keywords, else they will become useless.
Embedded web pages and images:
Embedded file names are not the things that people see in the actual content but are the best ways to get more keywords into the page. File names can be written in anyways but should not be labeled vague. Visitors will see the web page and its file name when they click on a link, so it is important to use a file name with keywords in it for usability purposes.
For such reasons, it is important to enable permalinks in HTML website and WordPress so as to have good control over file names. Another instance to use keywords appropriately in the content is to name the image with the keyword than to name them vaguely as image 01, to help search engines leverage on them better.
What to avoid while inserting Keywords in the content:
There are some warnings from content experts with regards to the use of keywords in the content. These practices are not valuable from an SEO perspective and might create a bad influence on the minds of the readers as well. These practices are,
- Writers should not overuse the keywords. Search engines are becoming smarter and can easily differentiate between contents that are stuffed with keywords than the ones that have a natural flow of keywords.
- It is important to insert keywords legitimately to help readers find appropriate information for their questions in search engines.
- If search engines suspect the websites for using keywords just for SEO, it will penalize them. It will stop indexing and ranking the pages.
- Keyword stuffing is nothing but a clear waste of time.
- Only 1-2 target keywords should be included in a piece of the content.
- Anything more than the optimal keyword density comes as spam for the webpage.
- Related keywords should come automatically and naturally when writing the content.
- Keywords should be relevant and also applicable for the content if the word is odd and does not fit into the content, and then its correct version is to be used to make sense.
- Though the keywords are the soul of the content, what is more, important is the content quality. Any write up that is been riddled with keywords would get plainly rejected by search engines as it is not of any help to anybody.
How to make a website rank high by using a competitive keyword:
Search engines are like an ocean and to swim in it effectively with positive results acquires a considerable amount of effort and patience. This particularly holds true for new websites and contents that are relatively low on authority. There are all chances for them to be out of luck and be kicked out of optimization. Some important tips that really work in ranking a website with keywords are,
- Creating unique content with authoritative resources that are based on specific keywords is the first key for search engine rankings. If the business is able to afford rich content that defines a competitive keyword, not been touched by anyone else, then they are ranking on the top. Such unique and competitive contents are known as cornerstone contents.
- Links count a lot for search engines. It is possible to acquire a large number of links within a short time frame with a compelling piece of content and outreach links.
- Targeting the keyword with video is an excellent approach to rank high, as only a few websites use videos for marketing than normal text. Most successful brands rank high in search engines with a targeted video on the first page of their websites.
- Another best practice is to target the content with a lot of long-tail keyword variations. The next step is creating an index page, optimizing the main keyword and then to house all the relevant content.
- Businesses looking for a competitive content and keyword should consider an exact match domain name; such an effort invites a lot of weight with search engines. Search engines are taking action to decrease the ranks of sites that have exact domain matches.
Conclusion:
Search engine optimization will become simple with the best content optimized with keywords for web pages. Research shows that more than 95% of the website visitors look only at the first page of the search results. Half of the clicks on the search engines go with the first three results. So if the keyword goes wrong, then it might hurt the business seriously.
The benefits of getting organic traffic for the website are doubled when the people click through the website from the list of relevant search results. Lower organic traffic translates into fewer leads and fewer conversion rates. Thus optimal keyword insertion and quality content are important for improving sales through online web pages.