Keyword Research

Keyword Research

What is a keyword?

A keyword is essentially any word or phrase you use when searching with a search engine. The search engine does its best to match your words with the words on websites. The mathematics involved are complicated (and way over my head), but the first link you see in the search results should be the best match for your keyword, followed by the second best, and so on and so forth.

Keyword research and website copywriting

As previously mentioned, search engine optimization means using specific keywords in specific places on your website. Your web developer might populate some of these for you (e.g. URLs, title tags, page descriptions, and image alt tags). But one facet of SEO that confounds many webmasters is the proper usage of keywords in website content (i.e in the text that your customers actually read).

Some writers make the mistake of overusing keywords to the point of incoherency. Others completely ignore keywords, missing an opportunity to improve their website’s search result rankings. But the Goldilocks of SEO copywriting is to use keywords as often as they make sense, and no more.

A few tips for writing with keywords:

1. Use keywords in headlines and subheadings.
2. Use keywords in bullet lists.
3. It’s okay to use variations of and synonyms for your keywords.

A basic keyword strategy should contain the following:

• Keyword Research
• Keywords within the content
• Keywords within the website code (metadata)