Finding and using keywords is one of the most crucial elements of any SEO marketing strategy. Yet it’s also one of the most frequently misunderstood. Over-optimize your keywords, and you’ll likely end up with copy that sounds like it was composed by AI. But if you ignore or underutilize keywords, reaching your target audience will be much more challenging.
But optimizing your keywords for SEO doesn’t need to be a stressful experience. And, with the right know-how, key phrases can be the key to growing your business’s online presence.
What Is Keyword Optimization?
Keywords and phrases are targeted terms added to web pages and content to improve search rankings on sites like Google. Such words are discovered through research and optimized through careful placement within web page content.
The core idea is to use phrases in your content to “speak the same language” as the search queries of your target audience. The purpose is not to please search engines but to ensure that your content aligns with the questions of your potential customers.
The Benefits of Using Keyword Optimization
1. Drives Targeted Traffic to Your Website
Some people have the misconception that keywords are there to somehow “trick” Google into ranking pages high. But what keyword optimization does is make it easier for search engines to understand what your content contains. As a result, they can better match your content with the correct search queries. The result is not just more traffic but qualified traffic that is relevant to your brand.
2. Increases Conversions
Because a good keyword strategy results in qualified, relevant traffic, the users on your web pages are more likely to be invested in your brand. This means they’ll be more likely to be interested in the products and services you offer, meaning your conversion rates will rise.
3. Helps You Write Relevant Content
Keyword optimization doesn’t just help you improve content. It enables you to discover what content you want to create in the first place. That’s because finding key phrases, known as keyword research, helps you discover what your audience is looking for online.
A Step by Step Guide to Keyword Optimization
Step 1: Conduct Keyword Research
Before using key phrases, you must find them by conducting keyword research. To do this, start by brainstorming all the words, queries, and terms you can think of that relate to your brand.
When doing this, it can be helpful to consider the following:
– The products and services you offer.
– The keywords that your competitors are using to rank.
– The problems and questions your ideal customer faces.
– Any market research you’ve conducted.
If you are stumped, look through relevant forums and social media to see what questions people are asking about your industry.
Once you have your initial list, you can use keyword tools such as Google’s keyword planner and SEMrush to help identify specific target phrases. The trick is to target queries that bring in relatively high volume but feature low competition (i.e., your competition isn’t targeting them as much).
Step 2: Create Keyword Clusters Based on Search Intent
Once you’ve created your initial list, you’ll likely find that many key phrases ask the same thing. And to avoid creating duplicate content later, it’s important to group these similar phrases. This strategy is sometimes known as ‘keyword bucketing’ or ‘keyword clustering.’
For example, if you were a marketing agency, you might end up with ”SEO tips’ and ‘SEO advice.’ Both phrases have the same search intent: the user tries to find helpful strategies to improve their SEO. There would be no point in targeting these keywords separately. Instead, it would be better to group these.
Step 3: Use Keyword Clusters to Map (Or Audit) Content
Once you have your keyword clusters, you can use them to map your site’s content in a logical manner.
The best way to start this process is by targeting the keywords most applicable to your products and services, your main pages, and landing pages. Then you can target more specific, informational key phrases with blog content.
Mapping your content using clusters this way helps to ensure you avoid something known as keyword cannibalization.
Keyword cannibalization is where you end up competing with yourself on SERPs by targeting the same keyword across multiple pages, making it much harder to outrank competitors.
4. Optimize Keyword Placement
Once you’ve planned your site, it’s time to create content. And it is at this stage that many people get confused.
The most important thing to remember is that the main focus shouldn’t be cramming as many keywords into your content as possible. Instead, consider them signposts that help your audience (and search engines) navigate your pages.
Generally speaking, you’ll want to ensure your keywords appear in the following places:
– The web page’s URL.
– The title of the page.
– In at least some of your subheadings.
– Early in the first paragraph.
– In the last paragraph.
– In your meta tags and meta descriptions.
– Within image alt text and file paths.
– Throughout your page’s copy.
Your keywords and their synonyms should make up around 2% to 3% of your page’s total word count. Just remember to only use them in a way that sounds natural to your audience.
5. Regularly Update Keywords and Content
One of the biggest mistakes people make regarding keywords is assuming you only need to do keyword research once. But a successful keyword strategy is an ongoing and ever-evolving process.
The most successful marketers regularly check and update their keywords list and audit their content. And that means assessing customer feedback and other metrics to evaluate what is and isn’t working.
It may seem like a lot of extra work. But you must stay current with what your customers are searching for online and how best to reach them if you want to remain competitive.
Now that you know how to find and optimize keywords in your content, you should be able to apply the methods you’ve learned here to your marketing strategy. And so long as your content is of high quality, the result should be more traffic, qualified leads, and sales.