Optimising Your Website Content with Keyword Research

Publishing a fresh blog post without optimising it first is like sitting down to a lovely homecooked meal without salt and pepper. While you could rely on the quality of your blog to get your site to the top of search engine results, you risk burying your post under mountains of other content – and yes, we do mean mountains. Every day millions of bloggers from all over the world publish their content in the hope of driving the right kind of traffic to their site and improving their rank. Of course, it’s not just bloggers who face this conundrum – these days the online world is all about content, content, and more content. The reality is without SEO you may as well be shouting into the void.

If you’re looking at increasing the visibility of your website, then SEO should be a crucial part of your digital strategy. Optimising your content translates to better rankings in search engines and more website traffic which, depending on your product or service, can translate to high-quality leads and a higher conversion rate. But where should you start?

There are many steps you can take to improve the search engine optimisation of your site – and keywords are a great place to begin. Keywords not only fuel your SEO but also have a place in PPC and content strategies. You can’t have a website without keywords.

What is keyword research?

When you’re researching topics for your blog posts, make sure you factor in keyword research. Keyword research is vital when planning your content strategy. Often used by professional digital marketing experts, keyword research is based on the data from search engines. Finding and pinpointing keywords and phrases specific to your website will allow you to better optimise your content, with data-based specifically on what your target audience is searching for.

After finding your keywords, narrow your findings down to long-tail keywords that have relatively high traffic with low competition – or you could choose long-tail keywords with high competition and let the battle royale begin.

Long-tail keywords are usually more specific phrases with commonly used keywords. Although you may find your long-tail keywords garner less traffic, you’ll also find little competition for the top spot of search engines.

Semantic keywords and latent semantic indexing

So, you’ve decided on your keywords? Now it’s time to search for our latest semantic indexing (LSI). LSI are searches related to your focus keywords. Semantic keywords put your content in context and are more easily read by search engine algorithms. To find your LSI, simply type your keyword or phrase into Google and scroll to the bottom of your search results. Your LSI will be listed as ‘related searches’.

Assess your own ranking and evaluate

Research your website’s current ranking. If there are relevant terms, phrases, or specific keywords that already have your website ranking then make sure you factor them into your content strategy. If your website is already ranking, then it will be much easier to optimise your existing content as well as publish new content. It’s also important to evaluate your competitors. Are they ranking higher than you? What words and phrases are they using? Compile a list of your competitors and sift through their websites to see who they are targeting. If they are writing content that is ranking well, you can write and publish your own posts which directly compete with them for that coveted top spot.

Readability

When creating fresh content for websites and blogs, many people overlook readability as a crucial part of their SEO strategy. Digital screens such as smartphone screens and laptops remain unoptimized for reading. Articles that search engine algorithms perceive as being more difficult to read will not rank highly. If a visitor happens upon your site and comes across thousands of dense, complicated text then they are more likely to leave which can impact the bounce rate of your site. Having a high bounce rate can also impact your SEO rankings. Remember, you want visitors to stick around.

Readability also applies to your blog titles, and how many keywords you’ve packed into your content. Search engine algorithms are pretty good at picking up on keyword stuffing, so make sure your writing flows and sounds natural when using your keywords and LSI.

You should also use your keywords and LSI in your blog titles. Your blog title should be short, snappy and to the point, which in turn will keep your URL nice, and short – long URLs are a red flag for search engines. Appease the algorithm overlord and keep your URL brief.

Linking

Linking your keywords both internally and externally also helps to improve your SEO ranking. Internal linking allows new visitors to your site to click through and view other relevant content that may be interested in. Relevant external links drive traffic as well as make it easier for search engines to categorize and rank your site.

Make sure you’re linking the relevant keywords you want to rank for. For example, you may run an international recipe blog, and want to rank for the phrase ‘international cuisine’. If you were linking a news article, then the article should be linked to that key phrase in your content. Highlight your phrase, copy-paste your link, and hit enter. Just like that, you’re in business.

Linking also improves your SEO when other sites direct visitors back to your content. For this reason, it is absolutely crucial to post links to your website across social media. If your website is new, consider establishing a presence across relevant social platforms such as Facebook or Instagram. If your business is looking to start creating content but doesn’t know where to start, you could also consider outsourcing the management of your blog and social platforms to a professional social media agency.

Optimising Your Website Content

You could always trust in the quality of your content to get to the top of search engines – but why take the risk when you could guarantee visibility and improve traffic to your website?

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is absolutely crucial in improving the digital visibility of your site. While finding keywords and phrases relevant to your content may seem daunting, the benefits far outweigh the hassle. If you’re looking to get to the top of search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo then keyword research should be an absolutely crucial part of your digital strategy. From that research, you’ll be able to build a functioning, practical online campaign that actually works.

Having that foundational research will allow you to create bespoke content strategies, build an online community with your target audience and drive the right type of traffic to your site.

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