Using SEO Keywords in Your Content

Long gone are the days of keyword stuffing.

Google is way beyond that now.

Today’s paradigm is quality over quantity for content.

There is a right and wrong way to use SEO keywords in web content.

It Starts With the Domain & URLs

Google relies on its E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthy) standards to determine how well a website engages with its target audience.

An instant way to do this is by having a domain and URLs that speak to what a small business does.

Yes, many small businesses have a brand name in a domain, particularly if there is a lot of recognition there.

But what if a company chooses to have the right SEO keywords in a domain instead?

A small business could do that while having its brand name all over the website in the logos, header, footer, contact page, and about page.

Plus, there is always the Google My Business listing for local SEO.

For example, Smith Co. is a well-known stone supplier in Syracuse, serving the area and about a 60-mile radius around the city.

Smith Co. originally wanted to have its domain or website be “smithco.com” to honor its 100-year-old company.

But the marketing team came up with a better idea: syracusestone.com.

The domain has instant authority for the keywords “Syracuse stone” because that domain contains those keywords.

Further, the URLs within the domain can help with keywording, too.

Smith Co. works with bricks and masonry, too. One landing page can be for Bricks and the other for Masonry. Those URLs would be “syracusestone.com/bricks” and “syracusestone.com/masonry.”

Those particularly landing pages would automatically send clues to Google about the keywords “Syracuse bricks” and “Syracuse masonry.”

Headings & Subheadings

Page headings and subheadings can also hold valuable SEO keywords because Google sees these headings as the main topics and subtopics of a page.

For example, the Masonry page of Smith Co, for syracusestone.com, would capture that keyword in the main heading (or H1) of the page (Masonry).

Further down the page, are subheadings that talk about the types of masonry, such as chimney stone, veneers, and cement blocks. These subheadings also contain valuable keywords.

The body text talks about these topics in further detail, and it should have similar keywording to send a signal to Google that these sections offer expert guidance for these topics.

Body Text

The body text for each section should also contain one or two mentions of an SEO keyword, typically following the same keyword from the heading.

Sentences underneath the subheading of “cement blocks” should talk (briefly) about the benefits of cement blocks, the costs of cement blocks, and how blocks help a building’s structure.

The same holds true for the section on veneers.

It’s not a good idea to mention veneers in the section with the subheading for cement blocks because that’s not the topic of the section. The sudden topic change would confuse a human, and therefore it would confuse the GoogleBot Overlords.

Internal Linking

Proper internal linking utilizes keywords and URLs in conjunction with each other.

For example, Smith Co’s website has the keyword “mortar” in it. Someone might place the URL to the Mortar page (syracusestone.com/mortar) on that particular keyword.

A customer reading that page might click on the word to go to the Mortar page of the website. This is called anchor text.

Having a link like this can also send a signal to Google that the word and the page for “mortar” are important. Google will recognize it and rank the page accordingly, especially if many other pages link to the mortar page.

Blogs

Small businesses use blogs to educate their target audience.

Blogs also offer great ways to get some good SEO keywords on a website.

Let’s say Smith Co. wants to write a blog about the benefits of cement blocks in a home. It would use the keyword “cement block” throughout the text, but it would also link to the Cement Block product landing page on the website.

The reverse is also true.

The Cement Block landing page can mention the benefits of cement blocks and link back to that blog using the keyword “benefits of cement blocks” as the anchor text for the link.

In this way, Google sees that Smith Co. is building authority for certain topics based on the keywords for “cement blocks”.

Help With SEO Keywords

Vervology helps small businesses in building a content strategy that gets effective results.

Did you know there are short and long-tail keywords? We can help you navigate best SEO practices in your web design, written content, and blogs.

Contact the dedicated team at Vervology today. We’ll talk to you about improving your web presence to stand out from the crowd.