The Importance of SEO Keyword Strategy

Your online success is dependent on keywords. If you want to rank high in Google and other search engines organically (naturally), you'll need to implement certain SEO (search engine optimization) strategies, and keywords will play a big part in that.

When you conduct keyword research, you're learning how your prospective customers use search engines to find the information or products they're looking for. The words (and phrases) are then used on your site to ensure that they are relevant to your target audience.

Keywords could be stuffed and hidden all over a website in the past to trick search engines into assisting a site's ranking. Now that they've caught on, you must use them in a more whitehat manner or risk having your site de-indexed by Google and other search engines.

In general, where should your keywords appear? In your HTML code, don't overlook Meta tags. These are still important, but they may no longer be the most important tactic to employ.

The placement of keywords is determined by the type of page being created. If it's a web 2.0 property like a Squidoo lens, Hub Page, or Google Knol, you'll want a keyword in the URL you register, the titles, subtitles, and content you write, and any tagging space they give you.

If you're writing a blog post, the keyword should also appear in the URL. However, you should double-check that your blog template is employing this strategy. You can configure your preferences by going to settings and then permalinks.

Many blogs, for example, assign a number to your post that looks something like this: http://www.yourblogname.com/?p=123. Choose custom structure and enter the following code: / percent postname percent.html – this will make your blog post URL appear with the title of the post, where your keywords will be, as shown below: http://www.yourblogname.com/title-of-blog-post

Use keywords throughout your content, particularly in the first paragraph and, preferably, in the first sentence, so that your keyword appears in the first snippet displayed by Google (it will appear bold if the person searching uses this exact keyword in their search).

Keyword density is a point of contention among experts. Some estimate it at 2%, while others estimate it at 10%. You must write for both human visitors and search engine spiders. That is, include enough keywords so that search engines recognize the relevance of your content, but not so many that it turns off your reader by reading awkwardly.