SEO Keywords: Using Them to Optimize Your Content

In my last post, we talked about how to choose your list of keywords. Now it’s time to learn what to do with that list.

When you write an article, choose which category your article falls under. Consult your keyword list and chose the keyword phrase that matches the category and the article you are writing. That is the keyword phrase you will optimize that article for.  Your keyword phrase should go in the meta keywords tag for the article and should also be used in the article content itself.

Use the following guidelines:

• Try to use the keyword phrase in your title if it can be done in a logical and appealing way.
• Whenever possible, use the keyword phrase as part of your article’s URL
• Use the keyword phrase in subtitles and headers wherever possible
• Sprinkle your keyword phrase throughout the article, especially in the first paragraph. If you can work it into the first sentence without being awkward, do so.

The goal is to use enough keywords to get the search bots to recognize your keywords and rank your page as relevant to those words, without making the article awkward and/or useless to the reader. Never choose optimization over your reader. It doesn’t do any good to get readers to your blog if they can’t make sense of what you’ve written when they get there.

Write first for your reader and then, when you have a well-written article that provides valuable information, you can go back and optimize for your keywords by inserting them in places that make sense without altering the original value and readability of the article. Do this well, post after post, and, before you know it, you’ll be an expert at SEO and you’ll begin to see your traffic rise right along with your search engine ranking.