9 of 30 Days SEO: How to Work Keywords and Key Phrases Into Content

Welcome to Day 9 of the 30 Day On-Site SEO Challenge. Today we’re going to be looking at how to work keywords and key phrases into content.

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Using keywords and keyword phrases inside your content is a science and an art. For search purposes, you want the content to contain the right keywords, but you also want your content to be very easy to digest by your readers. You don’t want your audience to struggle through words that are in the wrong location, misused or misspelt – just because you want them to be there for your search engines.

Research keywords.

Before you decide on any keywords, the first task is to research them. Start with your seed words, then grow and develop a list of keywords that you know will get results based on the information that you’ve uncovered.

Write like you talk.

Many people struggle to write content and even get anxious because they believe they have to write in a certain way. The best way to write is in the same way that you talk. If you’ve already gone through the process of identifying your target market and you have a persona, write to them. It makes it far easier, as though you’re talking to a friend.

Revise and add keywords.

My usual process is to start writing in a draft, to get it done. Then before I post it, I’ll revisit and ensure it reads well, it has the right keywords and the right structure. Remember that you need to add your keyword to your title, headings, subheading and ensure that it’s there after any heading, (or within the first 100 characters) and again in the last paragraph.

Reread again and edit.

Reading your content out loud is particularly helpful. It will give you a chance to pick up on any issues and ensure that the flow works, and the words are in the right context.

Write about content that’s useful.

All content that you publish should be useful, valuable and important to your audience. If it’s not relevant to them, then they won’t click through to read it and neither will you be able to encourage them to take any action on it.

Mix up the length of your content.

Some of the content should be cornerstone content, otherwise known as long-form or epic content. This is very important for SEO purposes. The more words the content contains – the more opportunity for you to work the content in and to add extra H1 tags and subheadings.

Monitor Analytics.

Google Analytics provides you with the information you need to understand and check whether the information that you’re adding is being read. It will also tell you about how many people are reading it and information about search terms, sources etc.

Promote all your content.

It’s important to self-promote your material. Use social media to get it onto people’s radar. Search engines can take a while to crawl websites and start feeding new content to search users. By promoting your material, you will help the process to work faster.

Practice makes perfect.

It takes practice and measurement to get it right.

The more you do it, the better you’ll get. One time-saving approach is to create a swipe file of titles that you have noticed are optimised and effective. Don’t copy but swap out their words for yours and include your own keywords.

Creating clickable search engine friendly titles that include your keywords and key phrases takes practice. The goal is to create a headline that contains them and not only communicates what the topic of the post is about but does not mislead the reader.

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