In today’s internet-focused world, having a site with a strong internet presence is vital to your business. Studies show that there are several billion Google searches per day. That says nothing about other search engines like Yahoo and Bing.
If you’ve been working to direct traffic to your site, you might find it an uphill battle. We’re here to help you with improving website traffic and search engine rankings. Read on for some vital information on keyword optimization.
Why Does Search Engine Optimization Matter
Almost everything you’ve ever seen on the internet is hosted on a page. It can be difficult to show exactly how many pages the internet has accrued. In estimate, there are about 1,000,000,000,000 – one trillion – pages on the internet.
Search Engine Optimization – or SEO – is one of the most integral strategies to get yourself to be the one in one trillion that people visit. Getting yourself to stand out in such a massive sea is unspeakably difficult, so any edge you can find is vital.
SEO affects your relevance to a keyword and how often you’ll appear in a search engine when someone searches that keyword. Proper search engine optimization will have your site ranking much higher than others, making it more visible. This is key to appearing in searches and remaining visible on the internet.
What is Keyword Optimization
Keyword optimization is one of the core features of search engine optimization. If SEO is an umbrella, keyword optimization is sitting comfortably beneath it.
Keywords are one of the main points of SEO, along with proper formatting and frequent posting, as well as several other points. You quite literally cannot practice good SEO techniques without also practicing strong keyword optimization.
A keyword appearing in your content will help with its ranking, but there’s a limit. You won’t want to overstuff your content, nor will you want to only use it once or twice. Proper optimization is one of the driving forces behind any popular website.
Keywords also may not be a single word but a phrase instead. It’s common for a keyword to be a multi-word term, a topic, or even a whole sentence. While shorter keywords are more effective and you should avoid large sentences, anything goes for search engine optimization.
Six Easy Methods to Improve Keyword Optimization
With an understanding of basic SEO and keyword optimization, how can you integrate the techniques? Here are six of the easiest methods to improve your keyword optimization. Practicing these techniques will increase your website traffic and search engine rankings quickly and effectively.
1. Organize Your Keywords
One of the first steps is to organize your keywords in a sensible, meaningful way. Consider searching what the most relevant keywords for your topic are. Rank them accordingly and begin placing them in your content.
The more relevant a keyword, the more frequently you’ll want to place them in your content. While some will be less relevant, maybe even bottom of the list, they’re still good terms to include. Still, you’ll want to include the more relevant terms as a priority.
With proper organization, your keywords will be significantly more effective. Throwing in keywords at random can still be beneficial in an organic search, but much less so. Prioritize and organize your keywords for the maximum benefit.
2. Avoid Keyword Oversaturation
Some believe that because keywords can help their website be better optimized for SEO, that means they should throw them in constantly. You’ve likely experienced this without even knowing while reading through a page that seemed to use the same phrase over and over. This is what many refer to as keyword oversaturation.
This isn’t an effective way to improve your search engine rankings in any form. All this will do is make your content feel as if it was made specifically to rank. This can be a massive blotch in your content for readers who now feel as if they’re reading spam and marketed towards, rather than reading a blog they have an interest in.
Keyword oversaturation won’t just affect the way your content reads, though. This can actually make it so that search engines reject prioritizing your piece as it recognizes it as spam. Overstuffing your content with keywords then harms your search engine optimization, making you less likely to appear and therefore harming your website traffic.
Another practice that some have used in the past is “invisible keywords.” This is done by putting the words on the page as text, but changing them to be the same color as the background of the page. The thought was that this can stuff in keywords without harming the content’s integrity.
However, this still oversaturates your page and will harm your SEO keyword optimization. This practice has fallen out of trend, but some still recommend it. That said, make sure that you avoid using invisible keywords.
3. Format Website Properly
One way to optimize your keywords has nothing to do with actual organization, prioritizing, or proper saturation of them. Instead, it has all to do with your content itself and how the formatting affects your search engine rankings.
By formatting your website, we mean proper sections for everything, different pages for different subjects, and the general appeal of your website. For example, you wouldn’t want to throw everything from your blog into one single category. Instead, you would want to separate it by category into different pages, allowing readers to click on a page and explore that subject.
This formatting helps for your keyword optimization to register better in a search engine. Having a subheading, heading, or category with a title similar or identical to a high-ranking keyword will help your rankings substantially. This is because such uses are prioritized by a search engine, helping your website stand out.
If you format poorly, you’re abandoning this perk as well as making your content considerably harder for your viewers. Keeping things organized makes your page easier to search, both by search engines and visitors. This increased relevancy can be all it takes for your website traffic to increase considerably.
4. Diversify Your Keywords
Keyword optimization might feel as if it implies a single keyword. However, utilizing only a single keyword can be extremely detrimental to your SEO keyword optimization. In fact, unless your content is very short, a single keyword may prove useless.
Instead, you’ll want to diversify your keywords and add in many of the same categories. Consider phrases that utilize the same keyword or common terms in the same subject as your keyword.
For example, assume you have chosen to make a website focused on camping. You would want to use several variations of the term, such as camp, campground, camps, camping season, and camping tent. You may also want to use some loosely related terms like RV, glamping, or outdoor living.
It’s also a good idea to use some low-priority keywords that could be used in your subject. If your website is based on outdoorsmanship, adding in keywords like hunting, camping, fishing, woodcutting, or various tools and supplies can be extremely helpful. Every little bit helps to keep your website relevant and optimized for SEO.
That said, if you diversify too much, you might end up with some diminishing returns. Make sure that your keywords are as closely related to your topic as possible, or variations of your primary keyword. That way, your niche and those closely related to it are grouped together by search engines when these keywords are searched.
Do some keyword research to see what sort of terms are common in your niche. Many of these can be utilized, but be careful not to use terms that may already be saturated, as this will sometimes be a more difficult term to rank with. Balance out and prioritize your keywords and your search engine rankings will increase exponentially.
5. Build Small, Then Grow
In the internet age, it’s tempting to have everything be as big as possible. When you’re first starting out, you might feel overwhelmed looking at well-established sites with millions of visitors a month.
When that happens, it’s tempting to try to go for broke and build your site as big as you can. Some invest in purchasing subscribers and visitors to get their site as much traffic as possible. While this isn’t necessarily awful, it can be bad for keyword optimization.
While it can feel disheartening not to have a great amount of traffic, existing for a decent amount of time can help with search engine optimization. All other factors remaining the same, a search engine is more likely to return a website with five years of activity over one that was founded last month. This can help with an organic search where some are just searching a keyword with no clear information, letting them find your site.
There’s nothing wrong with starting small to make your website successful. The building phase will help to cement your keyword optimization, assuming you continue to practice proper SEO techniques during this time. By the time you’re ready to start getting heavy traffic to your site, search engines will recognize you as an active and reputable site.
6. Careful With Links
Linking has been one of the best ways to enhance search engine rankings since search engines existed. Put simply, the internet is built on links, both internal and external. Without these links, your site will be a series of floating pages, making them much less likely to appear in a search engine.
While linking is vital, you’ll want to be careful that you don’t accidentally mess up your keyword optimization doing it. For example, it might be tempting to put a hyperlink through one of your keywords. While this sounds helpful, it’s actually a bad practice for your keywords.
This is because a search engine will often cease to see that keyword as a keyword, instead recognizing it as a link. Recognizing the link is good for your search engine optimization, but not recognizing the keyword is poor for your keyword optimization.
You can have the best of both worlds by putting the same link somewhere just as relevant but not over a keyword. That way, you’re able to keep your keyword saturation without sacrificing the enhanced SEO that your link was bringing you.
However, this can be different for external links. For these, you’ll want to use a low-priority keyword rather than using one of your top priorities, such as your primary keyword. Consider using one in a part of a sentence near your primary keyword to help leave them both focused.
There are some links that are extremely detrimental to your page’s search engine rankings, however. Artificial links are uncommon but still see some use, especially among lower-quality websites. When an artificial link is discovered, a search engine will actively avoid putting a site up as a result.
That means all your hard work with your keyword optimization just went out the window. While some tolerate them, artificial links are generally considered a no-go in much of the SEO community. Focus on organic search and linking techniques rather than risking your site’s reputation on an artificial link.
Keep Your Momentum
Keyword optimization can be tricky, but once you get moving, you’ll have some momentum to keep yourself moving forward. Make sure that you’re keeping your momentum going with regular posts and activity.
If you have any more questions or concerns about SEO keyword optimization, feel free to contact us. Browse our informative blog for more tips and tricks on improving your website traffic.
