Keywords. Why are they so important and how can you use them?

If for example, you are using keywords only to be found on search engines, then you my friend are really losing out on loads of ways to give your website visibility to your ideal target audience.

This post will explain the best ways to optimize keywords for your entire marketing strategy.

Optimization for Your Website

Below is a list of places in which you should place your main keyword or key phrase to fully optimize for searching. This will increase traffic to your website.

•Included in the beginning paragraph of your sites first page.
•You should also include this in the contents page (in a casual manor).
•Filenames for images, as well as ALT text.
•Throughout your page you should include your keyword in as much content as possible (without over doing it of course).
•The ‘meta’ description of your page. This may not increase optimization, however it will be bolded when a user searches the keyword and the results show your webpage amongst others.
•The SEO title of your page. This is a vital part for optimization of a keyword on-page.

Content Topic Development

If you are attempting to create some sort of content which will bring more traffic to your website by improving your sites visibility in search, then you need to be creating content which revolves around keywords or phrases that the consumers are using, to search for the content they are after.

There are two main ways of doing such a thing.

First of all, you need to create good, interesting information, which your target audience (readers) will be attracted to.

Once you have found the content that will bring the consumers, you can go back and find the keywords used (in search) to find this information. You can then input more of those words or phrases which will, in time, bring more traffic to your website.

On the other hand you could take a different approach all together. You can research the best keywords in the industry and find out which words would be suitable to create interesting content. Use this as a basis to find topic ideas.

If you record your findings on a daily basis then you will always know what your audience wants to see, which, in a way means you will always have traffic coming to your website.

Using that approach allows you to utilize the keywords and use them to create a strategy for content. With benefits such as organic traffic going to your website.

Branding

If you are looking to create a brand for your business, or even for yourself, it has to be strong. You need to think of the main keyword that will entirely sum up your main core in which you will be offering, however you should make sure you use it everywhere, whether it’s online or offline.

This will aid you in being able to show what your business is all about without having to answer any questions. When you have found your keyword, you will 100% need to use it, want to know what for? Keep reading.

Social media

Do you want your social networking profile to be easier to find? The answer is keywords.

People may be searching for you through social media, and you may not even know this. You MUST include your keywords or phrases in your profile. You may be unable to edit the “SEO Title” on your profile, but you are able to optimize many other elements of your page with your keywords.

• Putting keywords in your twitter Bio is essential.
• LinkedIn is an easy social site to optimise, use this to the best of your ability by putting your keywords in your current job title, the summary, your skills and your professional headline. Keywords for company pages should be placed in the description and specialties tabs.
• Facebook however is a little different, you should focus on putting your phrases and keywords in the pages “short description”, “long description” or in the “category”. You can gain access to these through the “about” tab.
• Instagram, like twitter, keywords are most effective in the bio.
• Pinterest – insert your keywords into the “about you” box.

One vital point. Don’t overdo it.

It is absolutely essential, that you make sure you use your keywords in the correct way, over using them can cause you to push visitors away, they may be lead to believe you are a spammer, and as you know it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Adding your keywords in a natural fashion gives a more professional look and will bring more visitors to your site.

If you are still unsure, why not take a look at the competition, there’s no harm in learning from the people who are leading the way, take a leaf out of their book and understand how and why their approach is working.

Guest posting

The sole purpose for guest posting in SEO is to use high quality content to gain more attention from your main target audience. Keeping that in mind, its best you don’t use keywords for an anchor text link in your bio. A better approach would be to use keywords to figure out the most promising opportunities for posting.

A good way of finding this out is to use a piece of software which will search for the keywords you use and will show which sites will have the highest volume of social posts shared with the same keyword as yours. A good example of a tool that will aid you in doing to is ‘BuzzSumo’.

The discovery of directory listing

When SEO first came about, the main goal was to gain as many hits for your site as possible, preferably through using your keywords in your optimized anchor text. You still need to use keywords linked through a directory building strategy, you should however take a different approach to this.

An example of how to do this?

Try searching your target phrases on Google and see what type of results you get on the first page. Based on your location and your target keyword, you are bound to find many results that will bring you different types of directories.

All of the sites that rank above you on Google are the sites in which you want to consider listing for your website.

Email subject optimization

Sending emails to your customers is the perfect time to experiment with the keyword optimization you use in the subject line. This is because emails are also searched. This is a perfect opportunity to get your emails to the top of the list when the user is searching. Utilize your keywords in your emails.

If somebody asks two different companies for a design project to be completed and leaves it for some time, then later decide to carry this on the first thing they will do is search their emails for the word ‘design project’. So using these words in your emails will bring you up the list when the user searches.

UTM Tracking

Knowledge is power. So knowing exactly what is bringing people to your website and HOW they are getting there is vital. You can use UTM tracking to follow your links, and track the usage for your keywords.

Offline marketing

Using keywords should not be limited to just online marketing, you need to think about ways to adapt this to your offline marketing too. You should be looking at the way you are marketing currently, and ask yourself the following:

• Do you have any flyers or handouts that link keywords and phrases which will allow a possible client to understand your product and service?
• Do you have a vehicle? If so is it wrapped? Does it show which services you offer, is there a number on show. This type of advertisement is vital as many people will see this information on a daily basis.
• Do you have a business card? If so are your key words or phrases on this business card? Would a potential client know exactly what you offer when they have a first glance at this? Or will questions be raised?

To conclude, these may not be the main uses for keywords or phrases, but they should definitely help you start to utilize what you have past the standard SEO site.