A few days ago I received a comment on one of Blogsessive’s older posts on SEO & keywords. That comment got me a little worried about the fact that due to people spreading incomplete information, or just putting out statements like “Google doesn’t care about keywords”, some of you might think that having a keyword strategy is pointless. This is what reader David Housman asked:

I thought that search engines had stopped factoring keywords into relevancy?

The source of this belief is probably a post published on the Google Webmaster Central Blog back in September 2009 in which Matt Cutts refers strictly to Google not making use of the keywords META tag in order to calculate a search result’s relevancy to the search query.

In other words, you could type 300 keywords of your liking there. Google will just skip them entirely and rather decide if the result is relevant only based on the content itself. This doesn’t mean that the Google bot will ignore your keywords. It means that it will consider only those keywords present on page, in the content. That’s why it is extremely important to write your blog post from both the perspective of a human reader and a search engine bot.

I’m not going to get any deeper into the topic of writing SEO friendly content. Just remember that it’s a must if you want to rank high for certain keywords and phrases. For more information please read some of the articles I have published here in the past:

• Using Keywords for Blog Optimization
• Advantages of Long Tail Keywords Optimization
• Top SEO Mistakes to Avoid
• SEO-Friendly Content is the Key
• How to check and improve your WordPress SEO

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A while ago I wrote about a cool project that allows users to check how their blogs and websites stack against their competitors, Review My Web. Today, I’d like to present you with another free (and so useful) tool, from the same developer: RockinSEO.com.

Free Keyword Tracker

Yes, that’s what you get with RockinSEO. You get to track your website’s results in Google, Yahoo and the recently released Bing for up to 20 keywords, for free. More than that, for the same keywords you can compare your results with those of up to 3 competitor websites or blogs.
The results are easy to read and interpret as you can see in the following screenshots:

Track search engine keyword position

Check keywords against your competition

As you can see, the tool is really useful and simple to use, and any blogger interested in his blog’s position in the most relevant search engines should give it a try. And if you decide to do so…

Get Blogsessive’s Coupon and track up to 50 keywords!

Yes, that’s right. Even if the tool comes with a limit of 20 trackable keywords, the author, @Terry Novak has been kind enough to offer a special coupon to all the readers of Blogsessive who sign up for FREE until the end of this Friday. Use it and increase your account’s limit to 50 keywords.

Coupon code: blogsessive50

Now, go sign up and start optimizing your blog to number one!

Free PDF eBook: Corporate Blogging Guide by Blogsessive

If you’re a blogger, by now you have already found out that the majority of your blog’s traffic comes from search engines and social media & bookmarking sites. There is a lot of information available on any of these two traffic sources to help you get started in either optimization you choose to make, although I would suggest you do both, to diversify your incoming traffic.

I know that for many start-up bloggers, the blogs they manage are probably the first contact they had with a website from the role of an administrator, and surely the first contact they had with the concept of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). In terms of blog optimization, I have shared with you a few articles in the past that offer a good range of blog SEO tips, so, in case you need to refresh your memory, feel free to go through them again.

The problem is that even with the available information, those new to the concept of SEO tend to try anything and everything, without taking the time to decide what’s best and what could actually damage their rankings. In what follows I’m going to present a list of the top SEO mistakes you must avoid.

SEO Mistake #1 – Ignoring Basic Search Engine Guidelines

From my point of view, this is the biggest mistake a SEO beginner could make. SEO is a set of actions meant to improve search engine rankings, so the most important thing would obviously be to first check out the targeted search engines’ quality and submission guidelines. Here are the links to the guides of two of the most important search engines, Google and Yahoo:

• Google SEO & Quality Guidelines
• Yahoo SEO Guidelines

Any further SEO actions you take should abide by the above guidelines. After all, is their “approval” you’re seeking.

SEO Mistake #2 – Not Having a Keywords Strategy

There is one common mistake that people do and it’s about the way they understand the concept of using keywords. Keywords are not what you would want you’re website to be found for, but what your website could show up for in relation to its content.

I’ve seen hundreds of websites with that keywords META filled with the most incredible and unrelated words and phrases, most times on the homepage. It’s a mistake to target numerous keywords and actually diminishing that chances to succeed with either one of them.

The development of a keyword strategy is done in strong relationship with your blog’s structure. Just like your blog’s homepage is a gateway to more detailed content topics, so should be its keywords and the keywords of its subpages, categories and posts. Focus on choosing keywords that go hand in hand with the actual content and topics you approach rather than keywords that you’d think might be representative.

Work from your homepage downward in your blog structure, going from more general keywords, to very specific keywords as you get to the posts, like in the diagram below:

Here are 3 past articles you might find useful when it comes to developing and maintaining a keyword strategy:

• How to check and improve your WordPress SEO
• Using Keywords for Blog Optimization
• Advantages of Long Tail Keywords Optimization

SEO Mistake #3 – Ignoring the title tags (H1, H2, H3, H4…)

When writing and publishing blog posts, many ignore these HTML heading tags. You’ve probably seen that I use them in most of my posts, and not only for optimization reasons. They also help your readers better follow the post’s structure and ideas.

Use appropriate keywords inside these tags. The search engine bots give special attention to these headings and continue to “read” your content based on the information found inside them. It builds up relevancy.

Also, a look at how your theme uses heading tags, SEO wise, would do good too.

SEO Mistake #4 – Too much focus on one of the optimization elements

Due to not filtering the incoming information on SEO, some people make the mistake on focusing too much on optimizing the meta tags, or the titles, or the body text of posts. Optimization is a process that should cover all aspects in a very close relationship.

Once you’ve decided which keywords to use, make sure you optimize your page title, META’s, subheading, body text, links, alternate (ALT) text on images and so on. The more consistent the whole page looks in terms of optimization, the better the chances of a higher ranking.

SEO Mistake #5 – SEO is Not a One Time Process

No Sir, it’s not! It’s a matter of trial and error, of research and observation of evolution. Don’t make the mistake of resting at peace once you’ve finished optimizing a page or website. Check the results from time to time, adjust your keyword strategy if necessary. You don’t have to do this only because search engines change algorithms. You have to do it also because you’re definitely not the only one targeting those keywords, assuming you’re targeting competitive ones – otherwise, what’s the point?

Research -> Analize -> Experiment. It’s the only path to success, in any field.

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When you want to attract more virtual footfalls and internet traffic volume that would translate into sales, you have to learn how to use relevant keywords to optimize for. The right keyword selection is the first and foremost criterion of search engine optimization – SEO.

Approaching the Long Tail Keyword Optimization Process

In order to succeed in search engine optimization you need to use informative, unique and keyword targeted content for optimum conversion.

Of relevant keywords, 60% to 70% of the net organic internet traffic experienced by a website is taken up by long tail keywords. And if you are an optimizer you must capitalize on long tail keywords because they bring in genuine customers and insure conversion.

The traffic brought in by long tail keywords is usually targeted for a niche clientele, and that results in high conversions rates.

Because it is difficult to predict the types of long tail keywords that people may search for, you have to create relevant content and aim at the most appropriate keyword theme to enable long tail keyword SEO.

It makes good sense to think of yourself as a tutor, or an instructor whose job is to educate his target audience about the service or product he is selling or offering through informative articles.

If your articles are well written, keyword rich, informative and well researched, there are high chances that mere searchers may convert into potential buyers, which is what you were looking for in the first place.

What are long tail keywords? Why are they so effective?

Long tail keyword search can stretch from 2 words to 5 phrases (only in rare cases), but comes as a 3 to 6 words search phrase. Comparatively fewer websites compete for long tail keywords. Therefore it is relatively easy to attain or qualify for a high rank in a search engine through long tail keywords because they are less popular in the keyword market, less frequently used by sites and also every month they get fewer search hits.

The bottom-line is that long tail keywords happen to be that missing magic link between a trickling or zero traffic and voluminous traffic with a high rate of conversion that will boost your sales and profit.

When you look at each keyword as a gateway to your site, then obviously using a series of relevant keywords or long tail keywords for optimizing your web pages will bring in more traffic, because there are multiple bridges to your site in those phrases.

However don’t try to optimize each and every web page because although it will ensure that your site is undergoing heavy optimization, qualifying for a top 10 ranking in the search engines will remain a distant dream.

So, the best approach is to aim at the most popular keywords for a long term goal and for a short term purpose, that is, for the immediate future, go for 3 or 4 of the less popular, less competitive long tailed keywords that will not only drive in traffic, but also result in conversions.

For more information on this topic, you could also read my previous article on “Using Keywords for Blog Optimization“.

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What is SEO-friendly content and why is it important? Where is the limit between helpful and spam? The answers to these questions are essential to producing high quality, high ranking web content.

What is SEO-friendly content?

Basically, SEO-friendly content is the type of content that is both interesting and helpful for your blog readers as well as attractive for search engine spiders, which leads to better rankings.

Think of this kind of content as the intersection of publishing high quality posts with the search user’s need to find that relevant, quality content. It’s the most basic search engine promotion you could do.

Creating SEO friendly content is by no means an easy task, nor a short term one. The “maintenance” is very important and insures that your search engine rankings are at least kept, if not improved.

Since optimized content can be of great help when it comes to blog and community growth, relevant organic traffic, bounce rate improvement, awareness and much more, you can imagine that these kinds of services don’t come cheap. But, don’t worry, with practice, you’ll find out that it’s not that hard to transform your articles in pretty decent SEO-friendly web content.

Effective optimization techniques

The first and most important thing you need to consider is your readers / future readers. Try approaching from your readers’ perspective. Is your content something of interest? If so, is it presented in an easily readable form?

Targeting simple keywords

The next step is to select the appropriate keywords to target in the optimization process. When it comes to keywords, the best thing to do is think natural. The more natural and simplistic way to express a “need”, the more chances that keyword will be one with a high level of searches.

Look at the little comic strip above and consider this. A publisher writes a review of the “Dark Knight Movie”. Users that want to see that movie will most likely do a search for a review. Which of the following keyword phrases do you think will perform best in searches?

• Review of the Dark Knight movie;
• Dark Knight movie review;
• Dark Knight review.

If we take a look at the results suggested by Google’s Keyword Tool, we’ll find the following statistics based on approximate average search volume:

1. Dark Knight review – 14.800 searches;
2. The Dark Knight review (variation) – 8100 searches;
3. Dark Knight movie review – 880 searches;
4. Review of the Dark Knight movie – irrelevant or very few searches.

So, you see how simplifying the targeted search query is more likely to put you in the spotlight for a higher amount of organic traffic. Repeat the process until you come up with a list of related keywords, to help support the main keyword throughout the post and to avoid unnecessary repetitions and stuffing.

Using the selected keywords

Now that you have a primary phrase to optimize for and a few support phrases, make sure to spread them seamlessly throughout the article. When it feels natural to do so, use bold text or italic (emphasis), but don’t simply bold out entire blocks. That will only hurt your optimization level.

Start from the beginning by using your main phrase in the first sentence or paragraph. Depending on the length of your post, you can try repeating a few times, as long as it does not sound bad for a reader. Repetitions can drive away your visitors and search engines both, as their spiders are “trained” to think and read based on a human model.

Use your main phrase in subtitles and, obviously, in the post title too. Add it to the post’s Meta tags, along with the support keywords. I’ve explained before how you can fine tune your blog to turn your post’s title into a SEO title.

If possible, try adding pictures (relevant for your readers) and use your keywords as ALT text for those images. Sure a search engine spider will not see the actual image, but image oriented spiders like Google’s Image Search will definitely be on the lookout for that alternate text.

You can read one of my previous articles for more tips on keyword optimization.

Conclusions

SEO friendly content is the best investment you can when it comes to your blog’s search engine promotion. It generates natural results with real people reading your posts, based on their needs. And when that happens, the path to conversion is at least half way taken.

Regardless to what some people think, there’s nothing wrong with helping out good content find its way to interested search engine users, as long as you don’t go overboard and turn into search engine spam. The line is thin.

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One of the most basic, yet highly effective things you need to consider when doing blog optimization is using keywords to indicate search engine spiders what your posts are about. The more relevant to the page’s content, the better the search engine ranking.
Keyword optimization is part of on-page SEO, which means that it is a part of the optimization you’ll make on your blog’s code.

What you should know right from the start is that keywords can give your blog posts a boost in rankings or get your blog out of the first and most important search results. It all comes down to how well you’re using them and how relevant they are to your content.

Rules of keyword optimization

Since you’re reading this, I have no doubt that you understand how important well-researched keywords are and that you’re willing to make better use of them. These are some of the most important things you need to consider:

Things to do

• Consider using keywords relevant to your article;
• If the keywords are somehow related to each other, that’s a plus (for example: internet marketing, online marketing, search engine marketing);
• Use different keywords for different blog posts. In most cases, search engines will return two results from you blog at most, so having five or six posts optimized for the same set of keywords would be a waste of content;
• Write your article first, but with the right keywords in mind, not the other way around;
• Use your most important keyword(s) in the title tag. If you’re using a SEO plugin, you can set a different page title than that of your blog post;
• Use those keywords in the META description too;
• Use the keywords in the title of your blog post and preferably in the first phrase or paragraph of your article;
• Edit the post slug (permalink) so that it contains the most important keyword and also try to keep it as short as possible;
• Place the keyword(s) a few more times (don’t overdo it) throughout the article in a humanly natural order and context;
• If there are other older relevant posts on your blog, try to create backlinks from them using the selected keywords as anchor text (same goes for external incoming links).

Things to avoid

• Don’t target too many keywords. Use as many keywords as you feel that are relevant to your content which means they are present on the page and have value to a visitor. A list of 50 keywords means that most probably at least 40 of them are almost totally irrelevant;
• Don’t use irrelevant keywords. If your post is about NASA’s recent trip to Mars, I don’t know how Demi Moore or Vi*gra would fit in the picture;
• Using text formatting on some keywords in your content is OK. Bolding everything out is not;
• Avoid duplicating keywords in your META tags;
• Placing a list of comma separated keywords in your title tag and META description is a big NO. Write something natural and appealing to humans;
• Avoid keyword stuffing. Don’t fill your blog post with keywords only to increase the keyword density. It is unnatural, provides a negative user experience and will probably get you penalized by search engines.

Conclusions

Some say that keywords don’t really matter when it comes to search engine rankings, and since everyone is entitled to an opinion, I will disagree with that. Same people say that their blogs or websites rank high even if they neglected keyword optimization. That is true, but I’d like to see how well they perform when they’ll be competing with a well optimized blog or website when similar factors are on the table, like: almost same age (possibly younger), number of indexed pages, number of backlinks etc.

Keyword optimization is part of a much bigger and complex process. Acting blind in front of it is like sticking your head in the sand, hoping that if you don’t see anyone, nobody will see you.

Next week, we’ll talk about choosing relevant keywords and discuss a few keyword suggestion tools.

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