Google Search Algorithms have undergone changes over the years .So the website keyword strategy is not just about having your focus keywords in your content ,title tags descriptions and the headers tags .It is beyond that.
Keyword strategy in recent years
In recent times having keywords on your website have a different meaning for the search engines.They no longer just look for keywords in the content to throw it back in the results.To understand better lets read further
User search intent and keywords
Every search done by a user has an intent or intention. He/she expects a certain list of links or search results from which only one of them should satisfy his/her need of information. He/She does not want to spend too much time in searching. Catering to this in recent times with the algorithm updates, ranking for a search keyword on google is about ranking of pages on your website that will satisfy the user intent that is most popular. For example if a single keyword has 3 intents , then out of the three the web pages that ‘answer’ the most popular user intent will be ranked .The ranking will not be based on the most links or the most complete content on a page
Thus the top ranking sites are ranking their web pages cater to the most popular user intent on the search engines and never because they have all the keywords or most backlinks
Synonyms
Synonyms were recommended to make your website more and more relevant in and around the main keyword as they could ‘match’ with the search term. However this strategy does not satisfy the approach to delivering your brand as an expert so that trust can be built. By merely adding synonyms on your website you cannot win that trustworthiness !
Keywords and User Needs
A web page containing the right user intent keywords will fully satisfy the ‘user needs’ if
Both the keywords and the user needs are totally frozen and clearly chalked out
The content on the web page is also useful for mobile users and the user should be able to get what they want
They should not require additional information or results to satisfy them
Takeaways –
- It is imperative that you create a perfect keyword strategy based on your business and the user intentions to come out as an expert authority website
- A website and its web pages is a product of the right keywords defining pointed user intent mapped to whole some and satisfying ‘one stop ‘ content .It is no longer about inserting the right ratio of keywords within the content to be ranked
- Build your keyword list based on your end users intent and then create a content strategy to satisfy those keywords so as to give deliver the best user experience !
How do you do a keyword strategy for your website ?
So you want your audience to come to your website when they search for keywords related to your business ? To establish a correct keyword strategy ,here are some quick steps
Finalise your most relevant keyword list which is aligned to specific goal you would like to achieve with of them .For eg your goal could be building awareness about your new business in your location
Add all keywords targeting a goal in one keyword bucket for eg : printing services in BKC or Printing services near you
Build your content targeting the keywords satisfying the user intent to ‘answer’ all their questions
If you have an existing website , your might have not targeted certain keywords that satisfy user intent through what you can offer .Find their search volumes .Create content and target them.
You might also want to improvise on your current keyword performance of the existing pages .Identify page speed,ranking , backlinks ,engagement issues to work on them.
Thus keyword strategy becomes a critical game for your website ranking. As you dive deeper into the subject of SEO, your will realize that it is vast,deep and specialized .Lot of tutorials are available online to address this subject for your website or there are specialists who can handle it for you. Whatever option you choose be prepared for aggressive keyword research and content strategy as these are the primary aspects that will take your website a long way in search ranks!
(Source: SEJ,MOZ)