The basis of ALL search engine rankings is keywords.
Keywords are words and phrases you place in your website’s page titles, headings, meta data, body content, and URLs of your pages so when users enter them in the Search Engines, they find the information they need, from you. It is EXTREMELY important that you optimize your site for such target keywords as they will be what potential customers search for to subsequently find your site.
Here’s how to choose and implement the right target keywords:
- You’ll want to consider your target audience, and what the primary focus of your website will be.
- Jot down a list of words and phrases that you think people might type into search engines when looking for your site. Don’t worry about being perfect: just be creative. For example, if you sell books, use specific keyword combinations like “educational children’s books, adult romance novels, celebrity auto-biographies”, etc. If you’re having a hard time coming up with different keyword iterations, try using Google Adwords Keyword Tool.
- Each page on your site should have one to three related keyword phrases that are site-specific. For example, say you have a page all about tea kettles. Good phrases to target on this page would be tea kettles, stainless steel tea kettles, or unique tea kettles. See what I mean? They’re all related, and they’re all pointing at the same general content on the page.
- Your keywords should be used throughout your site copy – where they make sense – as well as in your title tags and various meta tags. Don’t go nuts and start inserting keywords every other word, because this is considered bad form aka “black hat SEO”.
- It takes a while to get the hang of finding the right keywords that work, but that’s what BoostSuite will help you with!
Do you have any other good tips for choosing keywords? Drop us a comment below!
