5 Ways To Optimize Your Keywords For SEO
Having a well formed strategy is key to putting your brand on the map in today’s fast-paced and ever-complicated online world.
SEO optimization is one aspect of your online strategy that should not be taken lightly and is one of the key elements that can help you keep your content ranking high on the SERP (search engine result page).
Making sure that you have the right keywords is just part of the equation, you also have to ensure that these keywords are well placed and properly phrased within your content so that it is easily readable and coherent. Moz states that around 8% of search queries are phrased as questions.
Optimizing your keywords isn’t a clear cut affair as Google’s algorithms are evolving and getting more sophisticated day by day. As such it’s necessary to stay on top of things and constantly learn new ways to keep a steady flow of traffic coming into your site and stay on top of the search results.
Here are 5 ways for you to do just that.
Conduct A Keyword Audit
Running an audit on a regular basis for your existing keywords will help you check your on-page and off-page SEO. It will also highlight any issues such as broken links and defective pages.
These audits are where you can leverage online tools such as Moz, SEMRush, and WooRank to fix any underlying issues and help optimize your site visibility,
ranking, and mobile usability.
Follow Keyword Trends
Hopping on a trend, or Trend Jacking can get you some serious traffic if you get on board at the right time. If you’re already seeing a ton of articles on a particular
topic it probably means that you’re too late, tools like Google Trends and Soovle can help you identify upcoming or seasonal trends.
Don’t Forget Mobile Keywords
Keywords can change depending on what device the user searches from, for example, searches on mobile can be a lot more concise if searched using the
device keyboard but can be longer if voice search is used.
If you run a traditional brick-and-mortar business then make sure that your Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) data is up to date. Don’t forget to properly
optimize your Google My Business page so that you rank high up when people look up brands or businesses in your niche.
Avoid “Keyword Stuffing”
This is a process where an article or any piece of written content is stuffed chock full with keywords in the hopes of having the content rank high. What this does is make the content seem incoherent and poorly written, not to mention, search engines have become quite adept at sniffing out content of this nature and will rank these pages lower.
Know Your Audience
Nothing is more important than your target audience, your efforts will be in vain if you do all the steps mentioned above and optimize everything to suit but then find out that your keywords are being looked up by people looking for something else entirely.
Remember to research your keywords and identify if any keywords you plan to use are also popular in other niches and avoid them as much as possible, this
will help you filter out unnecessary traffic and help you attract the right audience.
Researching the right keywords for your business and optimizing them to suit can provide the best ROI of any SEO-related activity. There is no right number of keywords for SEO, you must research the most relevant keywords for your business and employ a handful of curated keywords while avoiding the temptation of “Keyword Stuffing”.
Make sure your keyword lists are constantly updated and have the courage to experiment, this can yield some incredible results if you play your cards right.