You need readers. The best way to get found by readers is search engines.
You can certainly advertise on search engines, as discussed in our PPC post, but to do it effectively, you’ll want to choose your keywords carefully. Whether or not you’re using Pay-Per-Click advertising, you need to use words in your post strategically in a way that allows the search engines to understand what your topic is.
What are Keywords?
“Keywords” are the words and phrases that Internet users type into search engines, like Google, to find online content that matches what they’re looking for or answers the question they’re asking. Some keywords get hundreds of thousands of individual searches a day while others get a couple of hundred. At any time there are a multitude of people searching for a keyword and also a multitude of websites trying to be the top search result for that keyword.
So Keywords are BOTH something that internet users are looking for, and something that website owners are hoping to help them find.
How Do You Help Searchers Become Finders on Your Site?
Step one:
Keyword Research
Find out what keywords
- are relevant to the readers you want to have
- are obtainable- You won’t’ probably be able to successfully compete for the keyword “sale”. But you might get “Oakland April Fools’ Day Shoe Sale” pretty easily.
- describe what is special about you, what niche do you occupy in your market?
For a more detailed description of how to identify the keywords you should be using, read this darn-near book from Backlinko: Backlinko Keyword Research Info
Knowing what keywords you want to rank high for in search results, what do you do?
Step 2:
Build an Attractive Page or Post
Now that your goal is to rank high for “Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers”, you’ll take action to earn your search results spot.
Placing your Keyword where the search engines will find it clear and the readers will find it natural:
- Use the Keyword (which might actually be a phrase) in your title
- Make sure it’s in your URL
- Have the keyword in an H2 heading. You can use it in more if your page has *lots* of words on it.
- Put it in image descriptions and alt tags
- Aim to have your keyword density between 0.5% and 2.5%, as recommended by Yoast SEO.
You also need to provide value in other ways:
- Have your page or post contain a minimum of 300 words
- Don’t go over 2,500 words unless your quality really benefits from being that long
- Have an image or images that add to or complement the content
- Write for your reader. What did they search for? What do they need from you? Deliver it.
A great detailed description of how to make your page rank higher is this great post form Moz: 2018 SEO Checklist
If you need help making your website meet your goals, or you need help setting and tracking website goals, contact D-Kode Tech. Together, we’ll start connecting with future customers today.
