Let’s Take the Mystery Out of Keywords

There seems to be some kind of mystery associated with keywords, but it’s not as confusing as they try to make it. Your keywords are based on what you do—I’m a content marketing expert, so obvious keywords for me are words like marketing, online marketing, content marketing and internet marketing.

What would people be keying into a search engine to find you?

A good approach is to think about what words people would be keying into a search engine to find you, then capitalize on those words. Use a tool like Google adwords to gain an understanding of how often people are searching for these terms. If the numbers are large, there are a lot of people using those terms—that means there’s a lot of competition. A better strategy is to identify words or phrases that are still meaningful and relevant for you, but for which there is less competition. With less competition, there’s a better chance your site will show up in a search. In general, the more words in the keyword phrase, the smaller the search result—but also the more specific it could be to what you do.

The trend these days is not to be limited by a keyword alone; rather, think of keyword phrases or long-tail keyword strategies—these longer phrases that are even more definitive about what you do have a better chance of reaching your specific audience.

How to use keywords in a landing page or blog

You can’t trick Google anymore by filling a page with a bunch of nonsense and blatant keyword stuffing; quality content has never been more important. Keywords don’t need to be repeated throughout the page. Do use the keyword in your headline, and let this drive the page’s topic and keep it closely focused. Avoid awkward sentences and phrases where you’re trying to work in your keyword phrase. The goal is to inform the reader, not search engines.

Keywords don’t need to be an exact match

Use closely related words and phrases--this is more natural than trying to overoptimize a page by deploying one keyword a number of times. Searches will use a wide range and combination of words and phrases to find what they’re looking for. The content on your site should be varied enough to meet that search engine criteria while still adhering to one overarching theme.

Struggling with keywords and content marketing? Talk to us at Top of Mind Marketing. We’re content marketing experts.