Blog

Why keywords are still important for SEO and what do you need to do about it. If you understand one thing about SEO it is this

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

What really are Keywords and why go on about them?

There was a guy that thought he knew all about keywords.
He spent his life writing posts however no one ever read his stuff.

The more time he spent on content, getting everything just right was all wasted.
Content is king everyone told him so the effort was going to ensure that the readers would line up
and devour his articles because he was doing everything right.

He followed all the rules and had great inbound and outbound links using all the tools of good SEO.
What's more, he picked Keywords that had a bundle of traffic so everything was in place except a following. Hardly anyone read his posts that were full of great information and should rank the wheels off.
So he went back to school to try and find the missing link, the things that would make a difference.

You can't rank for good keywords you need to find a way around the mire

He soon found out that all the good keywords were taken and that the experts occupied all the page one positions. These were people that had been doing SEO for years and had a team of people working on their products.
It is unfair he yelled, at no one in particular, mostly out of frustration and anger that page one was for the rich and famous. Why is this so hard, it is all wrong, what chance has the little guy got?

What he was missing is that whilst Google is in charge of the ranking you really need to work
with what is on offer.
Along came the Keyword tools, which shouted out loud and said It is the long tail that gets its own place on page one.

Dog food is a keyword, a good one as well, Neil Patel at Uber suggests showing 135,000 monthly clicks with an SEO difficulty at 100 out of 100. An impossible task to get on page one. Every pet company in the world wants to be on page one so how can you rank along with them?

It is interesting that a term like “Dog Food | Premium Dry & Wet Dog Food – My Pet Warehouse” does not rank at all however it is on page one. It has only been visited about 15 times.

“The Best Dry Dog Foods for 2021 | Dog Food Advisor” number of visits is 1.5 million.

These are two top-line companies and one has nailed it the other a failure, but why?

Readers love a promise

How, where, or why start to answer a question, Best makes a promise like fast, cheap even yummy if you are so inclined.

Again “Dry Dog Food | PETstock AU – PETstock”, A recognized company that had a miserly 55 hits yet
“DIY Homemade Dog Food – Damn Delicious” had over 550,000 hits.
The difference is in the promise.

By the way, all of these are on page one so if you were writing about dog food an opportunity exists to make page one with the right use of words.

Why keywords are still important for SEO

Make a promise, offer a solution, or simply answer a question

It may sound too simple it is because it is true for every keyword.
You simply need to add an incentive and a long tail to get good volume sites.
If you had fifty posts and they got fifty followers that's 2500 visitors a month and you are cooking with gas.

Why keywords are still important for SEO when even the big companies get it wrong

Even the big companies get it wrong

I picked the word Dog Food at random without any research because I thought it may provide a good example.
First of all, it is a popular term because there are a maximum number of paid ads on the first page. When people pay for the position it is because they want a return. Every time someone clicks on their advertisement it will cost them $4.85. So if they got 50 clicks their cost is $242 regardless of whether they sell anything or not.

Next, all the big companies are there however some do it so very wrong. I showed how the term “Dog Food | Premium Dry & Wet Dog Food – My Pet Warehouse' had just 15 clicks. I would want to ask the question of my agency for such a terrible result.
In fact, the one close to me recently closed its doors and I now know why. Bad use of keyword selection that was not getting results.
Do Keywords matter, they sure do, and getting it wrong can send you broke.

Where to get all the information you need for great keyword selection

One source is not enough. I find that research is important because a simple change can make a world of difference.
I searched dog food ( 50 clicks a month) using the Jaaxy keyword tool and there was little traffic. This surprised me until I changed to dog food with a space ( 57,000 clicks) and got a very different result. Patel took it even further with 135,000 clicks so a lot of traffic for a simple keyword.

Remember if the traffic is too high you have little chance of ranking on page one, it is fact so get over it and look for a back door.

I also use Google search terms to help my research and make them all line up to find a potential golden term.

One last tool that works for me

Your headline containing your Keyword is important, it is the wording to draw them in and make them read. MonsterInsights a WordPress plugin is my go-to tool every time.

Headings and Meta's are important so you really need to have a way of obtaining readers' interest in a very small amount of time. Why will they pick your headline to read your article when there are 10 others on the page?

A promise. It is simple really just answer their question in the best way possible.

The Skyscraper technique in blog writing

My conclusion on Keywords

Using longtail keywords that will answer a specific question is a simple rule for getting a good readership.

Using Keyword Tools like Jaaxy, Uber Suggest and Monster Insights will put your articles ahead of the pack every time.

Why keywords are still important for SEO by Peter Hanley

• Email marketing for small businesses
• Choose the right keyword with simple research
• How to start a blog by WordPress?