The Right Keywords are Essential for a Successful Blog
A business blog has the power to drive more traffic to your website and generate more sales leads, but a blog that doesn’t utilize keywords is like an airplane that doesn’t utilize wings: it just won’t do its job properly.
You can write blog posts for your business until your fingers are numb, but if they don’t have the right keywords, they won’t bring in as much traffic as they should.
What is a Keyword?
Keywords and keyword phrases are the words that we type into Google and other search engines when we’re looking for information. The search engine then returns results relevant to that keyword or keyword phrase. A keyword is “dogs.” A keyword phrase is “crate training for dogs.” Most of the time, when we say “keyword,” we mean “keyword phrase.”
How Do Keywords Help Attract Website Traffic?
Say you have an HVAC company, and you’re writing a blog post about air filters and the importance of regular replacement. You’ll want to use keywords in your blog post that people are actually using to find out information about air filters. The right keywords will increase the chances that your post will show up in the results when people search for that keyword. So your choices for keywords may include “air filters,” “furnace filters,” or “HVAC air filters.”
Choosing the Right Keywords
How do you know which keyword is best? You do your research using a keyword planning tool, such as Google Adwords Keyword Planner, and you learn that “air filters” is typed into Google 20 times a month in your area. “HVAC air filters” gets 10 searches a month, and “furnace filters” gets 40 searches a month. Which is the right keyword? That’s right! “Furnace filters.”
Keyword Density and Keyword Frequency
If you research the rather complicated world of keywords, you'll come across information about keyword frequency and keyword density. Frequency is how many times the keyword is used in your post. Density is how often the keyword appears in relation to the rest of the words in the post. Using your keyword four times in a post that's 100 words long will result in a higher density than using it four times in a post that contains 500 words.
So what's the ideal frequency and density? Ah, that’s the rub. No one really knows for sure. Search engines are complicated machines, and keywords are only a small (but critical) part of the equation for getting more organic search traffic. There are a few guidelines to follow, though.
Don’t stuff the piece full of the keyword, or you will annoy the search engine, which will think you’re trying to spam it.
Use the keyword once in the title, once in the first couple of sentences, and a couple of times in the body. If you can sneak it into a heading, that’s always a bonus.
Don’t limit yourself to the keyword to get your points across. Think about other terms related to furnace filters that customers might type into the search engine, and incorporate those into sentences along with the keyword, such as “Clean furnace filters are essential for extending the life of a furnace” or “dirty furnace filters are major culprits when it comes to common furnace problems.”
Use the keyword naturally in the context of the article. First and foremost, above all, your content must always sound natural, make sense, be grammatically correct, and contain useful information for the reader.
Substitute the keyword with interchangeable terms that might be used by customers searching for information about furnace filters, such as “air filter,” “furnace filter,” and “HVAC air filter.” This will help ensure that you don’t overuse the keyword, and it will also help you incorporate other search phrases into the post. For example, you might say, “Furnace filters are rated on the MERV scale, which indicates the quality of an HVAC air filter.”
Let the Keywords Guide the Content
Choosing the right keywords for your blog posts is important, but even more important is making sure that the content is absolutely relevant to your keywords. Don’t use the keyword “furnace filters” to write an article that’s really about the importance of adequate airflow. You can (and should) include that information in the article, but the article needs to be about furnace filters: What their purpose is, the different types available, the various ratings, how to choose the right one, and how to install it.
Keywords Help You Narrow Down the Topic
Every post in your blog should have a very specific topic. General posts may have a place on your blog every now and then, but generally, each post should address just one issue about which a customer might be looking for information. For example, “Furnace repair” is a pretty general topic. There are a whole bunch of articles you could write about furnace repair. What are some specific topics related to furnace repair that customers might be searching for? “Common furnace problems,” “furnace noises,” and “troubleshoot a gas furnace” are just a few that come to mind.
The more specific your posts, the more likely they will succinctly and thoroughly answer the question being asked by your customers.
Don’t Forget the Number One Rule of Business Blogging!
You must never, ever forget that while the right keywords are important, the number one purpose of your business blog is to provide your customers with truly helpful information, and the number one rule for search engine optimization is to create relevant, well-written content that engages readers and serves to improve their lives.
Atomic Content loves to create engaging content that your customers can sink their teeth into. Provide us with keywords, and we'll use them in all the right places to help improve search engine optimization. Contact us today, and have your blog up and running by next week!
