Everything You Need To Know About Keywords

Do you take advantage of your keys to success?
Type ‘keywords’ into Google, and over 700 million search results will be returned. That gives an indication of the importance of this industry buzzword, and it’s quite appropriate bearing in mind that keywords are crucial in deciding which search results are displayed – and in what order.
You can think of keywords as shorthand on a webpage. The use of a particular word or phrase alerts search engines to the content of that page, and allows the engines to begin ordering results by relevance. For instance, this blog has already used the singular or plural of keyword four times. It’s quite clear to those huge algorithms endlessly trawling cyberspace that this page is highly relevant to a search term that appears sixteen times in total. If you type ‘keywords’ into a search engine, this page should therefore appear reasonably early in the results.
It’s worth noting from the outset that cramming in keywords isn’t the solution to search engine optimization. Indeed, the opposite is true. For a time in the early 2000s, disreputable individuals created pages full of unreadable content that simply repeated keywords over and over again to artificially boost ranking positions. This was quickly identified as cheating, and the use of such ‘black hat’ marketing tricks can now get a website blocked from appearing in future results listings.
There are other factors that also influence a website’s ranking: its history and frequency of updates, traffic levels, links from third-party sites, and so forth. Nonetheless, effective and organic use of keywords can be crucial in attracting visitors and achieving a higher ranking position than might otherwise be the case. It’s important to use keywords frequently but not excessively, ensuring that the finished content remains readable and coherent. Using a particular word or phrase two or three times per page won’t dominate the content too much, as this paragraph demonstrates. Longer phrases are known as long tail keywords, covering specific search strings such as ‘optician in South Lanarkshire’ or ‘Opel Manta replacement bumper’.
Choosing which keywords to use depends on what your website is aiming to  achieve. If you provide a customer-facing service, emphasise your locality by mentioning your location and surrounding towns or counties. If you sell products online, try to identify relevant categories or key product lines a few times. Bear in mind that product databases will also register in search results; if you’re the only person brave enough to sell Stinking Bishop cheese online, searches will be directed straight to your Products or Buy Online page.
Another useful tip for identifying keywords involves researching the terms most commonly used, and pricing up the cost of advertising beside search engine results. General words like ‘vintage’ or ‘Bristol’ are widely used and very expensive to advertise next to, whereas ‘vintage cushion sales Bristol’ will be far more specific and a fraction of the cost per click-through by potential customers. Creating an account with Google Analytics, Yoast SEO or Kissmetrics will unlock a wealth of information about the popularity of keywords and long tails, helping you to tailor web content to specific audiences.
Finally, don’t assume that adding a few keywords into your new website and hitting ‘upload’ concludes the matter. Keyword revision should be an ongoing process, incorporating new products and services or refining content to target specific audiences. This is also true of advertising platforms like Google AdWords, where unsuccessful search strings are flagged up and costs for the more popular keywords and long tails fluctuate in response to demand. Regularly checking this can provide vital clues about how people are finding you – and how you can help more people to do so in future.

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