September 29, 2015

Keywords Everywhere

When we talk about search engine optimization, there is always mention (or lengthy discussion) of keywords. If you’re not paying attention to keyword usage on your web pages, you won’t be able to get the most out of your search engine visibility! But did you know that a savvy knowledge of keyword placement can benefit you beyond just your website?

Moz.com recently wrote a blog about how a strategic use of keywords can be implemented into your agency’s web pages, marketing efforts, and content topic development. Yep, you read that right: keywords can give you that extra boost in visibility all across the board.

That’s a pretty loaded paragraph of information I just threw at you, so let’s hit some of the highlights and unpack all this a little bit.

Keywords on a web page

There’s a stark difference between being strategic with your use of keywords and being just plain spammy. Does a quick scan of the content on your page look like it’s been generated by a virus that’s really obsessed with one or a few select keywords? If that’s the case, you probably need to tone it down a bit. An ideal amount of keywords would find them placed in the following areas:

  • In the title of the page
  • In the meta description of your page
  • Within the first paragraph of the page
  • In the image filename or alt text
  • Sprinkled throughout the page in a natural way

Does that sound easier said than done? Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it, I promise.

Marketing with smart keywords

Have you ever given much thought to strategic keyword placement in the email newsletters you send out? What about keywords on your business cards? These are just a couple of instances where it pays to be intentional with the keywords that you use.

Look to your agency or company’s mission statement to get an idea of what some target keywords would be. Are they specific and helpful in defining your company’s purpose? Can they be contained within a couple of concise sentences? Employing these keywords can take you to the next level in your marketing strategy.

Content topic development

One of the best ways to create content is to see what your users are looking for, and then craft your blog posts around that. So how do you find out what the people are looking for? Your analytics results, of course! Google Search Console (formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools) gives you a comprehensive list of popular search terms that people are looking for when they’re directed to your site. If you see that people are looking for a certain form or service that your agency provides, you can create and publish content about that query to help boost your visibility even better. How cool is that!

Roll up your sleeves and get to work!

As with any search engine optimization tactics, the strategic placement of keywords is really learned only through trial and error, experiments, and dead ends. It’s important to keep track of the data you collect during these trial runs by generating reports in Google Analytics (or whichever tracking tool you use) so that you can see the progress you’ve made, and figure out how to keep improving. Go get ‘em, tigers!

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