If you’re interested in improving your website’s search rankings, you’ve probably heard a bit about the importance of keywords. When determining what websites to display in search engine results pages, Google looks for keywords based on the user’s search inquiry, which is why including words and phrases that are commonly searched for by consumers in your target market is so important. However, using keywords means more than just listing these terms on your page—how you use them and how often they appear can have a major impact on your website’s search rankings. Here’s a look at a few common keyword pitfalls that can hinder—rather than help—your site’s search engine optimization.
Stuffing Keywords into Content
In the past, simply adding keywords into content as much as possible was enough to boost search engine rankings. Today, however, that strategy may actually end up causing your website to be punished by search engines. Keywords should be included naturally in your web content. This can be achieved by keeping your content relevant to potential customers, and then including keywords that relate to the topic of each page and blog post on your website. In other words, a page about roof repair should not include keywords about window installation, even if both services are offered by the same company. In general, if you keep your content relevant, you’ll find that including keywords comes naturally, which will result in website content that is readable and search engine optimized.
Not Doing Keyword Research
Selecting the right keywords for your business website can be a complex process. You need to make sure your keywords are relevant to your business and your customer base, but if a keyword is commonly used on other sites, your website will face steep competition when it comes to search engine rankings. The good news is that there are useful tools available to help you identify the best keywords for your website, such as the Google Adwords Keyword Planner. Once you have determined what words and phrases people are searching for and how popular each keyword is across the web, you can formulate an effective keyword strategy for your site.
Failing to Optimize Keyword Placement
While you should certainly include keywords in the body text of your web pages, it can also be beneficial to include them in other strategic areas of your website. There are different tags that are displayed in search engine results, and these can benefit from the inclusion of keywords. The most obvious tags are title tags—these are the titles of individual pages of your site. It is essential to make sure that each page of your website has a unique title that accurately describes the content of the page. In addition, since title tags appear in search engine results, including a relevant keyword can help get your page noticed. Including keywords in header text and anchor text can also be helpful to your SEO strategy.
Using white hat approaches to achieve organic SEO is a complex process—but Pennington Creative is here to help. We can help you select keywords, incorporate them naturally into your web content, and provide additional services to get your business website noticed, such as custom graphics and social media management. Contact us today to find out more about our services.
