[SEO tips] KEYWORDS. Keywords. KeYwOrDs.
Keywords are the cornerstone and quite possibly the foundation stone of any online strategy.
I'm going to stake my claim on that. Feel free to @ me!
Knowing what keywords to focus on guides everything you do.
It tells you how to optimise your page titles and meta descriptions.
It tells you what words to use in internal links.
And it tells you what to write about.
I mean, that's pretty much everything. It's kind of a big deal.
Now I want to cover 2 things when talking about keywords.
Why just 2? because talking about keywords would take forever and a day. And I don't have forever.
FIRST.
Every other day someone has to remind us that the meta keywords tag isn't used by Google anymore and hasn't been in use for a very long time.
Thank you Captain Obvious!
But Jaaved, why do I still see space for it in my CMS?
Many reasons: lazy devs AND/OR your CMS uses it for internal search (weird flex but ok).
Now if it's the latter, feel free to use it but don't get caught up on using every word in the book. You need ACCURACY here. So avoid the fluff and get as specific as you can.
And if it's the former, then you need to crack that whip because everyone needs to get with the times. It's not 1999.
Side note: some people think that meta keywords are a great way to spy on competitors keywords.
That's just silly. Are you telling me that you have no idea what your competitors would be going after??
We have tools that can tell us pretty much every single link pointing to any website, and we need to rely on meta keywords to give us insights?
GET. OUTA. HERE.
SECOND
When looking at keywords, you should be categorising them based on intent.
When you look at them this way, you better understand the way people search and the purpose behind their search.
Now depending on your niche, these categories will vary but you're essentially looking for:
- navigational (nike)
- informational (how to clean nike air max 90)
- commercial intent (nike air max reviews)
- transactional (buy nike air max 90)
Now I've seen some sites talk about transactional keywords as commercial keywords and vice versa.
They're similar though they refer to people at a different point in the purchase journey. Some are ready to buy now, some are looking to buy soon.
Either way you label it, you need to know where people are on their journey so you can have content that covers the entire journey..
Importantly, having content that addresses informational queries is a big stepping stone to pushing them towards the commercial intent/transactional stage.
This applies to every site, whether you're an online store selling sneakers or a tree removalist offering a service.
There's so many ways to find out keywords, it deserves its own article.
But look at Search Console to see what's triggering your existing content, then go from there.
In summary:
Know the words.
Use the words.
Print the money.
Thank me later.
Peace, Jaaved
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