Incorporating keywords into your blogging strategy: a few simple steps

In order for blogs to attract consistent, targeted audiences, they need solid keyword strategies.

Whether you’re new to blogging or want to increase the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts, this is a simple guide to incorporating keywords into your posts.

Keywords: what are they?

A keyword is a phrase someone types or speaks into a search engine like Google.

It might be a request for advice on how to bleed a radiator, what the weather will be like tomorrow or recommendations for a Chinese takeaway.

Google uses keywords to match searches with what it believes are the most appropriate web pages, in order of relevance. 

If you want your blogs to rank highly within those results, they’ll need to use keywords strategically and consistently.

Why keywords should come first

Unless you’re blogging about a personal experience or commenting on a hot industry topic, keywords should fuel your blog strategy.

By researching common keywords in your industry, you’ll discover the questions your audience is asking, enabling you to produce content that provides an answer.

If you’re looking for long-term, consistent traffic, the best way to attract the right traffic is to make keyword research the cornerstone of your blogging strategy.

Where can I find keywords?

There are plenty of keyword research tools available, but here are two of our favourites:

• Google’s Keyword Planner.
  Found within the Google Ads platform, the keyword planner provides access to keyword trends, ideas by theme and the ability to automatically assign keywords to Ad campaigns.
  
  
• Moz Keyword Explorer.
  If you’re a fan of Moz, this will do the trick. You can simply type a word or phrase and the tool will offer related keywords. You can provide a website address to find out which keywords it’s ranking for.

How to pick the right keywords

Here’s a three-step process for selecting the right keywords for your blog:

1. Think about your audience. The better you know your audience, the easier keyword research becomes. Creating an audience persona (their interests, age and demographics) will help you identify their common pain points and burning questions. Use these words and phrases to form your keyword research.
2. Look at the difficulty score. The tools we mentioned above will provide a difficulty score for each keyword. Those with low scores are the ones to go for, because the others will have far too much competition. A keyword with a low difficulty score should have a far tighter, more relevant audience for your blog.
3. Look at the search volume. In addition to the difficulty score, keyword research tools should also provide an estimated search volume. Quantity rarely equals quality in SEO, so look for keywords that have a modest or low search volume.
   
   

Using keywords in your blogs

So, you’ve got a bunch of keywords for your next blog. Now what?

There was a time when you could simply stuff as many keywords into a blog as possible and watch as your rankings grew, but not any more.

Google is far more interested in unique, relevant and well-written content. 

The most important keyword should certainly feature in your blog’s title, URL, image alt tags and meta description, but beyond that, just ensure it’s used occasionally in the main body copy of the blog. Just avoid shoehorning it in.

To do this, remind yourself that you’re providing the answers to a keyword search. Think about how you can answer that question, and, if there are multiple questions and keywords to cover, there’s nothing wrong with doing so in the same blog.

Don’t forget your analytics

Once your blogging strategy is fuelled by keyword research, it’s important to keep an eye on how they perform.

Ensure you check your website analytics regularly to assess whether or not the strategy is working. Which pages are ranking highest? Which keywords are drawing the most traffic?

You may have got it spot on, but you may also identify opportunities to capitalise on growing traffic for a keyword you’d previously considered less important.

Just remember the golden rule: your blogs should tell your audience what it wants to know. Think like that, and keyword research will become second nature.