How to use keywords in your blog content

 

If you’re writing long-form content, such as blog posts or articles, or even copy for your website, you’ll likely have come across the advice that you should be using keywords. There’s often confusion around what keywords are, how they relate to SEO, and how you should go about including them in your writing.

The process is, in my opinion, made to sound much more complicated than it is. But that’s not to say it’s not important to learn, at least on a basic level, if you’re regularly producing content for your business.

In a nutshell, keywords act like little road signs and help search engines to list your content, and therefore make sure that people can find it. If you fail to use any clear keywords in your content, or have too many, it will affect your Google ranking, and it becomes very difficult for anyone to find it.

Where to start? Well, you don’t need a degree in this stuff, so here are a few things to think about.

Keyword research basics

It’s easy to get tangled up in starting your keyword research – there are several websites where you can find out the best keywords and phrases, how they rank overall, how many times they’ve been searched for etc. And that information is very useful. But let’s begin with something a little less stressful.

Ask yourself this very simple question: if you were looking for your article online, what words would you put into Google? Are there specific words that come to mind? Full questions or sentences that you think are pretty darn obvious? Write those down first. If they’ve naturally come to you, then it’s likely that they’ll occur to other people, too.

From there, go to a couple of keyword websites and see if those come up, and note any others that are relevant. Oh, and don’t forget to have a quick search on Google, too! It’s very good at giving you suggested words and questions that are popular right now.

Where to use keywords in your content

It’s worth noting that the recommended percentage by Google for keywords is no more than 2%, and that they should be spread out naturally throughout the article.

As for where to put them, here’s a handy list to get you started:

·        Blog post title

·        Page URL (slug)

·        First paragraph

·        One subheading (H2 or H3)

·        At least one image ALT text

·        In the content itself

Dos and don'ts

Do use words that relate to your post.

Don’t get stressed over it – it’s not the be-all and end-all!

Do write as naturally as possible.

Don’t be tempted to force as many keywords as you can.

Use these tips, and weave keywords naturally into your writing to give your content the best chance of being found. And if you’re looking for more guidance on content strategy or SEO basics, don’t hesitate to get in touch if you'd like some advice or support!