Ready to launch some new content? Here’s where the rubber meets the road. This SEO tutorial step is LOADED with free tools and advice for how to optimize your website content according to what is natural among competitors. You’ll find our Single Page Analyzer and other free SEO tools below that are invaluable for measuring both your competitors’ and your own on-page content.
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How do search engines know what your keywords are, anyway? The search engines crawl around a website looking for naturally repeated words, phrases and related words. These “key words” clue the search engines in to what topics the site is about, and the search engines’ advanced topic-modeling algorithms confirm it. If you don’t establish clear subject relevance through keywords, your site can’t be indexed properly and won’t rank in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Where you use keywords in your content matters. Too few mentions of your keywords can leave the search engines wondering what you’re about; too many repetitions tell the search engines you’re a spammer. To be safe, remember the key considerations for writing content discussed in the previous step of the SEO tutorial. Primarily aim to create something uniquely valuable for users, and then apply these SEO copywriting guidelines for how to use keywords in content.
SEO Copywriting Guidelines: Where to Use Keywords in Content
Use keywords in both the Head and Body sections of a page.
Once you decide what the primary keyword(s) should be on a page, you’ll want to create content that includes the phrase naturally and evenly throughout the page. (You’ll get to test your keyword distribution using our Single Page Analyzer in the next tutorial step.) Your main keyword should appear in both parts of a web page, the Head section and the Body section.
SEO Copywriting Tips for the Head Section.
The Head section, hidden in a web page’s HTML code, is read by search engines and critical for SEO. What you write in the Head section not only tells search engines what your page is about, it’s also the text they usually display in your SERP listings. Also, keywords the user searched for appear in bold in the title and description of search results. People click through to your site more often if they see what they’re looking for, bolded within your listing. So use your best marketing know-how and write these tags to attract clicks.
The searched-for keywords and synonyms appear bolded in results.
On the SEO side, follow our best-practice guidelines below. (Note: These copywriting guidelines are not “rules”; you should mimic what the top-ranked websites do and make your page the “least imperfect” for each item.)
• Title Tag: The Title is the most important tag and almost always shows up as the big blue link in SERPs. As a guideline, the length should be 6 to 12 words, not including stop words such as “a,” “of,” “and,” “for,” etc. Google cuts off titles at the column edge (512 pixels wide), so place your primary keyword near the beginning so that searchers can see it.
• Meta Description: Search engines usually display the page’s Meta Description as the black description text, if it’s applicable to the search query. Write sentences that accurately describe the page content AND motivate searchers to click. To be safely before Google’s cutoff, place keywords within the first 160 characters including spaces. Don’t use any keyword more than twice.
• Meta Keywords: Though Google has said it does not use the Keywords tag for Web search ranking, we recommend including it as a best practice. The search engines do cache it with the page, and our research shows that they will refer to it in some cases. List keyword phrases in order from longest to shortest separated by commas, and capitalize the first letter of each word. Length can be 24 to 48 words, with no single word used more than 4 times.
SEO Copywriting Guidelines for the Body Section.
What the Head section promises, the Body section must deliver. The Body section is what users see when they visit your web page, and it must give them what they expected to find. Interspersed through your high-quality content you’ll need your keywords and natural language about those keywords. These SEO tips tell you where to put the keywords:
• Headings: Write a headline for your page in an H1 heading tag, an important signal as to what the page is about. It should include your main keyword and correspond to your page Title tag. Optionally, you can create H2 and H3 headings sequentially if you want to break up a lot of text content on the page.
• First words: The first 200 words of body copy count most heavily for search engines and for users, since most users never scroll down to see what’s “below the fold.” Be sure to use keywords there. Consider putting your main keyword in bold once in the first 200 words, to make it stand out to users who may have searched for that very phrase.
• Body text: Include keywords occasionally and evenly throughout your body copy. If you stay on topic when you’re writing, this should happen naturally. Don’t force keywords where they won’t sound natural.
• Clarifying words: Be sure to place clarifying words near the keywords in the first 200 words and throughout your content. Clarifying words include word-stemming variations (e.g., write, writing, writes, writer), synonyms, and closely associated words that help clarify the keyword’s context and meaning (e.g., web, content, copy, etc. rather than fiction with the keyword “writing”).
• Images: Images and other types of rich media raise user engagement and the “stickiness” of your web page, in addition to giving search engines another reason to offer users your page. An image’s file name, surrounding text and ALT attribute contribute to relevance for ranking; if the image is linked, search engines treat the ALT attribute as anchor text. Always write an ALT attribute (brief and containing a keyword) that identifies what the image shows.
• Links: Link to relevant pages in your own site using keyword-rich anchor text when appropriate for users. However, don’t overuse keywords in your site’s internal linking. You can also link out to high-quality external sites if they’re relevant to your page’s subject, but place these links after the first 200 words.
With these SEO copywriting guidelines, you now know how to use keywords in content. Next in the SEO tutorial you’ll move beyond copywriting guidelines and learn how to optimize your new content pages.
As you’ve been researching keywords, analyzing competitors and so on, you’ve probably discovered your website’s real issue — you have insufficient or weak content. It takes a lot of words to convince potential customers and the search engines that you are a subject matter expert. You need content that’s original and provides some unique, compelling benefit to users, whether that’s insight, research, tools, reviews, advice or a tutorial like this one.
How can you create web pages that work for users and search engine spiders alike? This SEO tutorial lesson gets you ready with the key considerations for writing content that hits the mark. We’ll start with some crucial questions to consider before picking up the proverbial pen. (SEO Tip: Give this page to your content writers to help them write better quality content.)
Job No. 1 when writing content is to attract and serve customers — the people who would want what your website offers. Your content must meet their expectations, grab their interest and lead them to whatever conversion goal the site has. So primarily write for people, not search engines.
You’d write differently for teenagers than you would for graduate students, family-focused homeowners, or retirees. Keeping your target audience in mind will help you know how to write SEO content that addresses their needs in their words and reaches them effectively.
So before you write, identify who’s your customer:
• What kinds of people are interested in my product/service/information?
• What are they looking for?
• What needs/questions would they have on my site?
• What communication style would feel natural to them?
• How can my site make them feel welcome?
• What would appeal to them and make them respond?
Before writing any web page, blog post or article, have a clear goal in mind. Otherwise, you’re likely to write rambling text that isn’t relevant for anything. The goal shouldn’t be “to rank high for keyword XYZ.” Instead, always set a user-focused goal. For example, this page’s goal is to prepare website optimizers to write content that works for users and search engines.
Interestingly, search engine optimization often inspires content writing. For instance, your research may uncover a relevant keyword that your website doesn’t talk about yet. Or looking at competitors may spark an idea for a great infographic that’ll attract new visitors. When you sit down to create those new pages, though, focus on the customer and make something useful. You can tweak and optimize your content for SEO later (as you’ll learn later in this SEO tutorial).
For search relevance, keep your copywriting focused on the goal and the page’s keyword subject. If you write a page about water skiing but half the text describes picnicking on the shore, your page’s relevance to water skiing gets diluted. The search engines (and possibly users) won’t know what your page is really about.
Quality is the name of the game in web marketing today. Search engines can detect what’s original and compelling versus spammy or duplicated content. In fact, Google even gives penalty warnings to sites that have “thin content with little or no added value.” Users have advanced, too. People search with longer queries (4 to 5 words is the average) and higher expectations of finding useful content. especially as search engine algorithms get better at determining users’ intent. Websites must deliver quality if they want to compete for customers and search engine rankings.
To create quality content for your website, here’s a short checklist of dos and don’ts to keep in mind.
Do:
• Write original, unique text.
• Use keywords in a way that reads naturally. (Remember, write for users!)
• Write for the way people read online, with shorter sentences and paragraphs.
• Use bulleted and numbered lists, which are easy for readers to scan.
• Include images, embedded videos and other engagement objects.
• Follow our guidelines for how to add keywords to your content (covered in the next step of this SEO tutorial).
Don’t:
• Overuse keywords (also known as “keyword stuffing”).
• Try to optimize for keywords that are unrelated to the website’s contents.
• Duplicate content pages.
• Hide text from users that shows to search engines (such as putting text on a same-color background).
• Try to deceive search engines in any way (known as “spam”).
Summary of Key Considerations When Writing Content
1. Write for your customers, not spiders.
2. Have a goal for each page.
3. Focus on your keyword subject.
4. Make it interesting; make it useful.
5. Go for quality.
OK! Now you’re ready to learn how to include keywords naturally for users — and effectively for SEO — when you’re writing content.
At this point in the SEO tutorial, you’ve discovered which sites are your main keyword competition. Next you’ll play detective and take a closer look at these top-ranked websites. Here’s what to look for when you do SEO competitive analysis:
• Keywords: What other keywords is the competing web page optimized for?
• Content: How much content is there for the keyword you’re targeting (words on the page and pages on the site)?
• SEO: How is the web page ranking for this keyword? Does it seem intentional and according to SEO best practices?
• Authority: How much authority do the page and website have (based on links, social media shares, etc.)?
• Weaknesses: What weak areas do you see that could be opportunities for you to compete?
Here we’ll cover the SEO tips (and a free tool) you need to put on your detective hat and start doing SEO competitive analysis. It’s critical that you identify the best search terms and keywords used on your competitors’ sites so that you can evaluate how your pages can better compete.
Spy on Your Competitors’ Keywords
It’s actually not difficult to get a closer look at your top competitors’ web pages and see what keywords they are focusing on. The free SEO tool below makes it easy.
The goal is to find out which keywords the competing site is optimized for. You want to see not just the one keyword that led you to discover that page, but the set of keywords that, together, signal relevance. Search engines examine over 200 factors that indicate a page’s relevance to a search query. Having content focused on the right keywords is an essential ingredient. For that reason, as you look at the top-ranking websites’ keywords, you may find clues to additional supportive words and phrases you need on your site.
Don’t miss out on these keywords that could help bring converting traffic to your site. Spy them out and add them to your keyword list.
1. Enter the URL of a competitor’s web page that is ranking for your desired keyword.
2. Scan the reports to identify the keywords that appear frequently or prominently on the page.
3. Keep track of the top keyword phrases the competitor uses if they are new to your keyword research list and applicable to your site.
Next, the SEO tutorial will show you how to combine keywords and sort your keyword list in order to match targeted, high-conversion types of searches.
Now that you’ve spent some time choosing the best keywords, combining them and organizing your keyword categories, you probably have a better idea of where your website content may be lacking. The next few steps in our SEO tutorial lead you through creating new content that uses your keywords appropriately. Read on for what to consider before writing content.
The first and most important search engine optimization step is keyword research. What is keyword research? Simply put, it’s figuring out what people might search for in order to find what your website offers — what keyword topics best identify your website content. In this step of our SEO tutorial, you learn the basics of how to do keyword research, try out some free keyword research tools, and start your SEO plan of attack!
Getting Started with SEO Keyword Research
The first task is simply brainstorming. Ask yourself some basic questions to select keywords that might make good targets for search engine optimization, like:
• What is your website content about?
• What would you ask a search engine to find what your website offers?
• What do you think other searchers would ask for?
• What are your most popular pages/items about?
Most people can make a short (or long) list of keywords that might be used to find their own site. But ask other people these questions and write down their keyword suggestions, too. Doing so will help you go beyond the jargon words that only you and insiders know. When doing keyword research for SEO, you want to discover what real people in your target audience would call what your site offers.
Don’t limit your ideas; brainstorm whatever subjects and phrases could lead the kinds of visitors you want to your site. Type them into a spreadsheet. Your brainstorming will “prime the keyword pump.” This initial list will be expanded upon and refined in the next few steps, but start with the logical keywords.
If your site is already live, you may have hidden keyword gold just waiting to be dug up.
• A good place to look for keywords is your internal site search. Offering visitors a search box within your site is good for users but also good for you, because it collects search query data. Looking at these queries primarily helps you improve usability (since it reveals what people want to see, what website content may be missing, and where your site navigation is weak). But you may also find nuggets of keyword gold, useful phrases that people search for. Add those to your list.
• You can find valuable data using Google Webmaster Tools. Though the exact keywords searchers used to find your site are “not provided,” this free service from Google gives website owners a wealth of information about their own sites (especially with Google Analytics set up too), and it’s where Google may notify you of errors or penalties. You will need the diagnostic SEO tools offered there to keep your site in good health, SEO-wise, so don’t miss out. (Here’s how to set up Google Webmaster Tools, if you haven’t yet.)
• Dig through your customer communications to find additional, actively used keywords. Talk to your customer service people to find out what customers are asking about (in their words). Also check social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to read what your community has said, and search for your primary keywords to discover how people are currently talking about your products, services or subjects.
Get Keyword Suggestions
Take advantage of free keyword research tools to find additional keywords. Our Keyword Suggestion Tool below shows you keyword ideas that are related to any seed word you enter. Type in one word or phrase at a time. The resulting suggestions come from actual search query data, so select the keywords that match your website content and add them to your growing keyword research list.
Enter Search Word What the Keyword Data Tells You
With our tool you can see keyword suggestions with data on the average click-through rate (CTR) and cost per click (CPC) for advertisers bidding on that keyword. It also reveals how many web pages contain those words in their Title tag (not necessarily as an exact phrase) under All In Title. These metrics indicate how competitive a keyword phrase may be.
You can also see an Activity column, which shows the approximate number of monthly searches for that keyword (also known as “search volume”).
CAUTION: Don’t get greedy looking at keyword activity counts. Record this statistic with the keyword in your spreadsheet. But keep in mind that a keyword’s search volume should not overly influence your choices, especially at this point. You want to select keywords only if they reflect what your website is truly about. Going after high-volume keywords that don’t relate to the rest of your content would be deceptive and even punishable as spam.
What should you call this?
Keyword research can tell you.
How Should You Use Search Activity Data?
Search volumes do cast light on your keyword research. They reveal what people actually call things, and they help you prioritize similar keyword phrases.
For instance, a retail site might choose to use “rolling backpacks for kids” (1,600 monthly searches) rather than “wheeled backpacks for kids” (320 monthly searches) because the first keyword phrase gets searched 5 times more often. However, that retailer should not pin its hopes on ranking for the broad term “backpacks,” no matter how attractive that word’s sky-high search volume looks.
The moral: Don’t be tempted by the huge numbers for broad keywords. With enough time and effort you might be able to rank for them, but you’d be battling large, established brands for unfocused visitors that might not even be ready to buy. (We’ll talk more about broad keywords later in the tutorial.)
Save that keyword spreadsheet! You’ll find out more about how to select your best SEO keywords in the coming steps. Next you learn how to identify your real SEO competition.
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