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Importance of keywords in content writing

You should be content with the writing! And so should the search engine. Otherwise, your site shall not be ranked and your stuff is ranked as spam!

To anyone who has ever fed a cat, the concept of SEO would be as clear as the sun in a clear sky because it is the smell of fish that the cat latches on to and nothing else. Search engines are it google, bing, yahoo, AOL or Baidu use words the same way as the cat uses its nose to sniff out the right matter and present it to the browser (in this case, the chap who has made the request).

Like a cat that has fine-tuned its senses to a limited range of fish for its consumption, so too have search engines fine-tuned the idea of latching on to words or phrases to bring before the browser all those sites which are closest to the purported search. And unlike a cat which does not seem to change its preferences every now and then, most search engines have time and again changed their idea of rating of sites which have particular phrases, words, and letters.

Ranking being central to searches on the net, website operators and those posting things be it on social media sites, blogs or websites, need to create phrases, words, and letters such that the search engine immediately latches on these words and brings up particular websites which prominently show such words. This practice of selective culling and sorting to arrive particular websites and content is in the domain of digital communication called “Search Engine Optimization”!

And leading the cat by its nose are key phrases which the trade calls “Keywords”!

In the initial days of net searches and with the single-point aim of getting eye-balls, most content written for the internet had loads upon loads of only keywords with very little in terms of ideas and good content. This thankfully was rectified when algorithms were changed to the only use of keywords sparingly and more emphasis on originality of ideas, graphics, and pictures, something that promoted originality instead of just mechanizing a useful feature.

How does one ideally optimize keyword usage in SEO?

First, list out the following details in all its length, width and height:

Your activity/ business. Take down every detail so that SEO can be effective
Among all your products and/ or services, which are the ones you want to highlight/ promote
What is/ are your products’ and/ or services’ USP or

What likely are the problems your perspective/ present customers face

Who are your likely clients and what are they likely to address the product/ service/ problem while searching
Questions and language the customer/ clients both present and future are likely to put forth with the most used of words in such questions/ queries.
Location of your business, your most likely clients, their language and words most used to describe your products/ services/ issues with either of them.

On completion of this search, it would be obvious that the entire SEO activity basically revolves around getting the right words or a combination of words, ideas, and phrases such that you use the same in whatever you post online.

Second, with a list of keywords in place, try and use online expertise like “Google Adwords Keyword Planner” which shall tell you the intensity of usage and outcome of all the words & phrases you have culled. Once the adword search planner has given you an option, try using words which find extensive use and have low competition. Yes, they may seem contradictory but if you persist with the search, you shall get your SEO keywords for sure! Do not bother with a size of the words. What is primary is it is being used by the masses!

Third, use the picked out keywords in the following places unerringly as search engines invariably go through these like a fine-toothed comb:

Website naming, its URL

Website’s meta tags

Page titles

Links to other sites or

Names of images shown on the URL

Fourth, judicious use of long-tail keywords

Sometimes website makers use long keywords i.e, more than 3-4 words which while being quite descriptive, also identify the exact area/ reason/ product-service being dealt with. Hence, their use is justified and in some cases required to increase traffic.

Fifth, the website owner should try and write authoritative articles in their blog section (or even social-media sites) with an aim to increase traffic. These should ideally be in the range of 350-500 words, with a clear focus of subject, clear titles and of course, the keywords.

In doing these activities, website owner shall get a good, high and steady ranking and footfall at their site.

The importance of keywords in content writing can thus be understood to be aiding in search engine optimization which itself is needed to increase ranking and visits!