With the way the internet has altered the business landscape, keywords are of prime consideration to any business owner. You might be asking yourself why. Keywords allow search engines (like Google, Bing, and others) to find, index, and rank your business. While keywords get the most traction in business articles and blog posts, they are also valuable assets to captions, descriptions, and even alternate text. Knowing how to properly use keywords is a valuable skill when it comes to content creation. How can you use keywords in your business? Consider the following.
Finding and selecting the right keywords
You don’t want to pick keywords that are overused or overly competitive. Websites such as AnswerThePublic.com and QuestionDB are two places (both free!) where you can interact with keywords and questions typically asked about them. The benefit to websites like this is that you can see what potential customers and clients may be looking for and what words they are using to search for businesses in your industry.
How many keywords should you use?
Generally speaking, five to ten keywords is sufficient for most purposes. If you are writing an article, a good idea is to create some keyword hierarchy, with your article centered around a primary keyword and secondary keywords related to your primary to support it. Another term for secondary is “long-tail.” If you struggle to incorporate keywords into your writing, limit how many you use. Though keywords are important, your content is, too, and should not degrade in quality just because you want to squeeze one more searchable word into the mix!
Where should you use them?
If you have a meta description for your website (usually 20-25 words, or 160 characters), incorporating a keyword will be of tremendous benefit to you. Regardless if you have one or not, imbedding keywords into your articles or blog posts is a great way to make them searchable on the internet. Google has a tendency to focus on the first 200 words of a blog post, so a good rule of thumb is to place your primary keyword in the first sentence, or the first paragraph. If you can manage it without degrading your writing, add a secondary keyword in the first paragraph to support the first. Other places to stick keywords include the last 200 words of an article, in headings, anchor links, and image alt-tags (accessibility text for images embedded into your website).
Need assistance with incorporating keywords into your website content? Schedule a consultation with me to discuss your needs!