Implementing Keyword Research: Getting Users to Your Site

What’s the next step after doing keyword research?

We use it to make the users you want to find your website. (Curious about CS Designworks’ research process or keywords in general? Read this.)

This article is going to demonstrate where and why we place keywords by delving deep into the way Google thinks, analyzes, and presents content to users. Optimizing content to Google’s standards will make content rank higher, raise conversion rates, and, ideally, increase sales.

How Does Google Think?

Google is smart. For Google, searches aren’t just about finding the article that’s perfectly optimized it’s about finding content that users will want. This means that they use a couple different metrics in order to choose what will rank the highest.

The first is keywords. Optimizing your website and content with keywords is a great way to increase your search engine ranking. Although if something doesn’t seem natural, it’s not going to rank high even if it is “perfectly” optimized. Google has algorithms designed specifically to detect and deter over-optimization.  It is important to avoid over-using keywords.

Another related factor that impacts ranking is content length. Longer content has two benefits. Longer content is usually more in depth, and Google values more in-depth content because it is less likely to be superficial.1 Additionally longer content can include more keywords without keyword density increasing to the point that it becomes alerting to Google.

The Five Most Important Places to Put Keywords

All locations are not created equal, some are more important than others. All the below possible locations have either a direct or indirect effect on search engine ranking. 

Page Title

The title of a page is one of the most important factors of search engine optimization (SEO), second only to quality content.2 This is what appears most often to users as they browse the internet. Think about it, you see the title of a webpage on the browser tab, in search results, and on other external websites when content shared.

Google likes things short and sweet. Page titles should be no more than fifty or sixty characters; otherwise Google will cut off the title with ellipses.

When including keywords in your titles we follow three important rules:

Only one primary keyword (or long tail keyword) is used in the title. This should be the main topic of your article. This assures that your title will be relevant, readable, and will keep it from looking like spam.

Keywords should be placed toward the beginning of the title. This is for user experience purposes: the quicker they see what they are searching for the quicker, the more likely they are to click.2

Avoid repeating a keyword more than once in title, after all at most it should sixty characters. Repeating a keyword more than once in a title can cause Google’s algorithm to flag your page.

Headlines

While page titles and headlines may seem very similar, a lot of the time they are identical, they have different purposes. A page title is what appears on the browser tab and in search results, while a headline is what actually appears on the webpage.

Due to their similarities the rules for including keywords in page titles and headlines are the same.  It is actually best that they mirror each other for user experience, which has an effect on ranking.

Body Text

Content is king, and most content exists in the body text.  It’s important to never forget about the algorithm, especially when creating content. It’s okay to include keywords multiple times in the body, but only if it flows naturally.

CS Designworks also believes in including multiple different (but relevant) keywords throughout. It is easier to rank for multiple keywords than focusing in on just one.

Body text is more important than you realize, sure Google scans it for keywords but it also takes intent into consideration. What is intent? Intent is the type of result someone is looking for, and Google has become very good at matching searches to intent. This means that you could have the strongest domain with the best keyword optimization, but if you’re not catering to the right intent then you wont rank.3

Let’s say you search vintage watches. Chances are that you are looking to purchase a vintage watch right? Google takes this into account, so ecommerce sites with vintage watches will rank higher than a website about how vintage watches were made. Choosing the right keywords and phrasing is crucial.

Content doesn’t just have to be text, and it shouldn’t be. Rich content that includes graphics, pictures, and video will help increase your ranking. It also makes users more likely to stay on the page than just seeing a wall of text. What’s the use of increasing your search engine ranking if users just click the back button right away?

Meta Description

A meta description is the short blurb (less than 160 character) of text that appears below a page title on a search result page.  An interesting fact about meta descriptions is that keywords used within them do not effect ranking results directly.4

CS Designworks still includes a primary keyword in the meta description and here’s why:

The goal of a meta description is to earn a searcher’s click. Even though keywords in the meta description don’t effect ranking, they will still appear bolded on the search result page. Pages with good meta descriptions will make the users want to click, which will increase engagement rate. Increased engagement rate will indirectly effect ranking.

Meta descriptions are not the same as meta tags (sometimes referred to as meta keywords tag or keywords meta tag) which CS Designworks, Moz, and SeachEngineLand recommend against using. While these were once used for keywords and SEO they were overly misused and now are signs of spam in the eyes of search engines.

URL

Like titles and meta descriptions, URL’s appear directly on search result pages. Unlike meta descriptions, URL’s have a direct influence on search engine rankings. URL’s should be short, include keywords, and be readable. Including keywords in URL’s is beneficial for three prominent reasons.

Increased search engine ranking, this is the obvious one.

When shared on external websites, they summarize the article and increase click-through-rates. Think about it are you more likely to click on “csdeisgnworks.com/3243IKR” or “csdesignworks.com/implementing-keyword-research”?

 Well-designed URL’s have the ability to serve as their own anchor text.

Other Factors that Effect Search Engine Ranking

Keywords are not the only factors that effect ranking; they are one in a myriad of factors that work in conjunction with each other to determine where you will rank. Here’s a couple more:

  • User Engagement

  • Bounce Rate

  • Social Metrics and Page Shares

  • Intent

  • Load Speed

  • Etc.

Increasing your ranking on a search engine can be a stressful and arduous task, but it doesn’t have to be. Hiring a professional to help design an effective SEO plan is highly recommended, contact CS Designworks for a quote.

 

 

Sources

1.http://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors

2.https://moz.com/learn/seo/title-tag

3.https://moz.com/blog/headline-writing-title-tag-seo-clickbait-world-whiteboard-friday

4.https://moz.com/blog/visual-guide-to-keyword-targeting-onpage-optimization

5.http://searchengineland.com/the-meta-keywords-tag-lives-at-bing-why-only-spammers-should-use-it-96874

 

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