How, where, and why we prioritize Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an ever-changing landscape and needs a finger on the pulse at all times. But there are certain fundamentals that stick, regardless of time and space – and SEO Keywords are one of those constants.
With thousands (maybe millions) of keywords to choose from, having a measurable plan, a keyword strategy, and a theme to target, SEO keywords can quickly become overwhelming. Without effective SEO, even the most well-designed website can fail.
So we’re here to get you started with the basics of building successful SEO:
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a crucial element of a strong digital marketing strategy. A focus on SEO helps to increase the visibility and relevance of your website in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page), which boosts your ability to be seen by potential customers. By amalgamating a variety of techniques, SEO can improve a website’s ranking in search results, optimize content with relevant keywords, build quality backlinks, and ensure a website’s technical structure is search engine friendly.
Effective SEO can help increase organic website traffic, create higher engagement rates, and, ultimately, increase conversions. SEO is an ongoing process that requires regular touchpoints and optimization to stay current and ahead of competitors in the search results.
Why is SEO So Important?
In today’s digital landscape, search engines are the primary way that people discover new websites, products, and services, and how they are written can make or break the results.
SEO keywords are the words and phrases that people use online to search for information. By weaving relevant SEO keywords in your website’s content, you can help search engines and web crawlers understand what your website is about and improve your odds of ranking higher in SERPs. By ranking higher in SERPs, your website will be more visible to potential customers, which can lead to increased:
- brand awareness
- brand loyalty
- web traffic, and ultimately,
- sales
How to Use SEO Keywords
Using SEO keywords is fundamental in boosting your website’s visibility and search engine results and attracting organic traffic. Here are a few key guidelines for researching and developing SEO keywords on your website:
- Conduct Keyword Research: Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs help to identify relevant and high-traffic keywords related to your website’s niche and measured against your competitive market.
- Use Keywords Throughout Your Content: Weave relevant keywords through your website’s content, headlines, meta descriptions, alt tags, and body copy. It should sound natural and flow with the website’s tone of voice. Aim to use 1x keyword per page and use it in 3x different places.
- High-Quality Content: Engaging content should answer questions, guide users through a journey (UX), and should provide value to your target audience. Once these themes are identified and categorized by web crawlers, relevant quality content can help boost your website’s authority and overall ranking.
- Long-tail Keywords: Long-tail keywords or phrases are a little more specific and targeted to a niche. The right long-tail keywords can help hone in on ranking for more specific searches and attract more qualified leads.
- Wireframe Optimization: Optimize your website’s URL structure, internal linking, and wireframe mapping to make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your website’s pages and be guided by existing navigation.
Where to Use SEO Keywords
Where you use SEO keywords on your website is equally as important. Here are three key places to use SEO keywords for optimal SEO:
- Content: Incorporate relevant keywords naturally in your website’s content and body copy, like headlines, meta descriptions, alt tags, and body copy. Avoid keyword stuffing (or overuse), and keep the content engaging, high-quality, and providing value.
- URLs: Optimize your website’s URLs to include relevant keywords that describe the page’s content. For example, instead of using generic URLs like “www.yourwebsite.com/page1,” use descriptive URLs like “www.yourwebsite.com/keyword-page” that accurately reflect the page’s content.
- Title tags: Use relevant keywords in your website’s title tags, which appear as clickable headlines in search engine results. Including relevant keywords in your title tags can help improve your website’s ranking for specific searches and attract more clicks from organic traffic.
5 Tips for Prioritizing Keywords
With the millions of keyword options (and growing), how you prioritize which keywords you use is the final piece of the puzzle. Narrowing and niching down the selection can be difficult, but StellaPop lives by the following five:
1. Keyword Relevance:
Choose keywords that are relevant to your business, products or services, and the interests of your target audience. Your content needs to align with your audience’s search intent to improve your chances of higher SEO ranking.
2. Search Volume:
Identify high search volume keywords that your target audience is using to find your products or services to attract more organic traffic.
3. Competition:
Check competition levels for each keyword and prioritize those with lower competition levels to rank higher for the search.
4. Long-tail Keywords:
Prioritize long-tail keywords that are more specific and targeted to capture lower competition and to attract more qualified leads.
5. Business Goals:
Keywords that align with your business goals, like increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or driving sales, can help you focus on the keywords that are most important to achieving those goals and optimize your website accordingly.
SEO shouldn’t feel confusing, but in the case that it does (and we are counting on the fact that it will) – go ahead and give us a call!
