Keyword-rich articles help propel your blog into the virtual hands of your audience, letting more people find you. By having specific keywords placed in your post and title, you target your reader, calling out to them. The goal is to be found. While formatting and content are important, they are useless if you’re never found. There are several things to keep in mind for productive, profitable keywords.
“Remember to write in the inverted pyramid style.”
This article includes the following keyword advice:
- Choose the right keywords for targeted readers
- Put keywords in your headlines/title
- Analyze competitors
- Write in the inverted pyramid style
- Stay specific
- Remember good content is key
Keywords Filter Down the Blogoverse
Like a sifter filters out the clumps of flour, keywords filter down the search results. Whether you’re blogging for pleasure or profit, you want your audience to find you; without them, you’re just shouting into space with little chance to be heard. And, especially for bloggers blogging for profit:
Whether you have a specific topic in mind, or just a general concept, choosing the right keywords is just as important as filling your blog with interesting content. You spend a lot of time writing, you want your readers to spend a lot of time on your site, not just glance at it for a few seconds because they went to the wrong place.
By targeting your keywords effectively, you’ll attract interested readers instead of those who chanced upon your site by mistake. While a “happy accident” may get you some readers, good keywords get you targeted readers.
“Keywords filter down the search results like flour through a sifter.”
Key Titles
Search engines value keywords in titles highly. The more specific your keyword title, the greater the chance that your site falls into the lap of your audience. Whatever you’re writing about, say it!
Don’t put a cutesy name on it, because cutesy names generally don’t get searched for. Searchers generally have something specific in mind when they pull up Google. Whether it is a generic or very specific topic, having a matching keyword in your title lets the reader find you.
While it might be tempting to name your article on dog obedience “Teaching Bennie His Manners,” chances are your targeted audience won’t find your article – they don’t know who Bennie is, and what manners you’re trying to teach him!
Instead, perhaps call your article “Training Your Puppy: Sit! Stay! Shake!” – much more specific, and it lets the reader in on what your article is about before they click. Keep your title specific, yet simple. Don’t create new words. Use the boring old ones.
Competitive Analysis
It’s also a good idea to find out what you’re competition is like for your keywords. If everyone is using the same keywords, chances are your audience will have a hard time finding you! Tools like Google Adwords let you see how many people you’re up against for your keywords, and let you see what other words or phrases people may be using.
Choosing a keyword or phrase that has a low competition rate helps ensure your audience finds you. By mixing snazzy words with your keywords, you diversify your article from all the other similar articles and entice the searcher to click on your link.
“Put your most important keywords in the beginning of your article.”
Put Your Best Word Forward
Research has proven that people don’t read the web, they scan it. If the reader doesn’t see something within the first few lines that holds their attention, they’re not sticking around. By putting your most important keywords in the beginning of your article, readers can decide quickly whether the information you’re presenting is worth their time.
The first few lines are most likely to be scanned for content, so having a catching, informative conclusion-style intro lets the reader know what the rest of the article is about before they get too far into it. If the reader has to dig to find out what you’re talking about, chances are they’ll get bored and move on.
Similarly, if you format with subheadings with important keywords at the beginning, your scanning readers can pick out which subparagraphs fit their needs and can skip over the ones that don’t. By sectioning off your blog into sub-headings, with keywords placed first, it’s more likely that the scanning reader will find what they are looking for faster.
Since we scan in an F-shaped pattern, the first word on the left-hand side of the page is more likely to be read than words on the right side of the page.
Targeted vs. Generic
Web searchers are either looking for something specific or something generic. They can start with a generic topic, and then focus on their intended topic. Or, they can have a specific topic in mind the entire time, and fine-tune that search as needed.
Having a generic keyword may get you the results you want, or it might get you lost with everyone else that uses that keyword. By having a longer keyword, or several targeted keywords, the chances of your audience finding you are much higher.
For example, if you want to know the basics of what Yoga is, you’d search for “Yoga.” If you wanted to know about trainers in your area, you’re more likely to search for “Yoga in Pittsburgh.” So, if you’re writing a blog on Yoga instructors in your area, include the location in the keyword to target your readers.
While generic keywords work well for generic articles, the more specific your keyword, the more specific your audience, the higher percentage of people that want to be on your site actually find it – and keep browsing.
“Content = links. Keywords = links. Content + Keywords = link-happy!”
Content Comes First
However! If your article has too many keywords, it becomes about the keywords and not about the content.
Write for content first, searches second! It’s a fine tightrope to walk between getting to the top and maintaining content. Keywords without content will quickly lose the readers interest, but content with select effective keywords will hold on to interested readers. Content = links. Keywords = links. Content + Keywords = link-happy!