The Key to Keywords: Unlocking the Power of Search Engine Optimization
Keywords are a fundamental aspect of search engine optimization (SEO). By targeting the right keywords, you can attract the right type of traffic to your website. Finding the right keywords and using them effectively might seem like a daunting task, but don’t worry — by the end of this article, you will have the information you need to use keywords to your advantage!
What are Keywords
Before we fully dive into keywords, it’s important to understand what they are exactly.
Keywords are the words and phrases that people type into search engines (such as Google) to find the information they’re looking for. The search engine then searches its index for webpages that contain those keywords and returns a list of results to the user. As such, using relevant keywords on your webpage can help it rank higher in the search result for those keywords.
Choosing the Right Keywords
Now that you know what keywords are and why they are important, you might be asking, “how do I choose the right keywords?” The keywords you choose can make or break your search engine optimization efforts. Here are some things to consider during your keyword research process:
Relevance
One of the first steps in keyword research is to identify the keywords that are relevant to your content. By using relevant keywords, you can attract the right audience to your website. Conversely, using irrelevant keywords may lead to a high bounce rate, which can negatively impact your website’s search engine ranking. If you summarize everything on your webpage down to simple phrases, they should be the primary keywords that you want to target.
Search Volume
Search volume refers to the number of times a specific keyword is searched on search engines. Ideally, you want to choose keywords that have a high search volume as it indicates that there is a high demand for the content related to that keyword. You can use keyword research tools (such as Google Keyword Planner or SEMrush) to analyze search data and find keywords that are frequently used by your target audience.
Search Competition
Search competition refers to the number of websites that are competing to rank for a specific keyword. Choosing highly competitive keywords can make it difficult to rank high in search engine results. On the other hand, choosing keywords with low competition can increase your chances of ranking higher in search results.
In summary, you should target relevant keywords with high search volume and low competition!
There are two general types of keywords:
- Head keywords: these are broader terms, such as ‘research’.
- Long-tail keywords: these are longer, and more specific phrases, such as ‘social psychology research findings from Carleton University’
We suggest targeting long-tail keywords because they tend to have higher conversion rates. Despite having lower search volume, long-tail keywords are easier to rank for due to high relevance and low competition.
Where to Put Keywords
As previously mentioned, using relevant keywords on your webpage can help it rank higher on search engine results pages. Now that you’ve chosen the right keywords, you might be inclined to cram as many as possible into your content — this is called keyword stuffing. We strongly advise against keyword stuffing for the following reasons:
- Search engine penalties: Search engines can detect when your webpage is stuffed with too many keywords. They may penalize keyword stuffing by lowering your webpage ranking or by removing your webpage altogether from search results.
- Poor user experience: Keyword stuffing may confuse or frustrate your webpage visitors because it can make the content difficult to read and understand. This poor user experience may decrease engagement, diminish conversions and harm your search engine rankings.
- Reduced Credibility: Your website visitors can tell when your content is written primarily for search engines (rather than for them). If your visitors associates your website with poor content stuffed with repetitive words and phrases, they will lose trust and confidence in you.
So, where should you place your keywords? The best practice is to use keywords naturally and strategically. You should focus on creating quality content that is optimized for those keywords. This means incorporating the keywords into your website content in a natural and relevant way, while also ensuring that the content is useful and valuable to your target audience.
Besides using your keywords naturally in the body of your content, you can also place them in the following strategic places:
- Page title
- Headings and subheadings
- Anchor text for links
- Image alt tags
- URL
- Meta description
Remember, the focus should always be on creating high-quality content that provides value to your audience, rather than simply using keywords to try to manipulate search engine rankings. By using keywords strategically and naturally, you can improve your search engine rankings and attract more traffic to your website.