Keywords are extremely important, whether you are writing articles to drive traffic to your company’s website or creating content for your blog.

You not only have to know exactly how and where to place your keywords but also how to structure them into appealing sentences so that it doesn’t look like you are stuffing keywords into the content. Over use of keywords, which is often referred to as keyword stuffing, can often make your content look like spam and loose its appeal for readers.

Identifying the Right Keywords

When identifying keywords for an article, it is important to consider possible search terms from the perspective of your readers. Think of  phrases potential readers are likely to type in Google when searching for your article.

Identifying the right keywords from the start will ensure you are targeting the right audience and focusing your attention in the right direction. Wrong choice of keyword on the other hand can result in loss of valuable and time and resources and is unlikely to produce the expected benefits.

Once you have identified the right keywords to target, you have the opportunity to write valuable content to attract the targeted audience.

Why is it Important to Optimise Your Content

When creating content for the web, it is important to ensure potential readers are able to find it easily on the internet. Unless your website or blog is already popular, you will have to rely heavily on search engines to attract readers.

Articles optimised correctly for keywords stand a much better chance of being found and attracting a high readership. Quality articles that are optimised appropriately for keywords can continue to attract readers for years to come with minimal promotion.

Overall it is most important to focus on creating quality content and make your content  informational and valuable to readers.

Use of Keywords in your Article/Content

Keyword use and placement is one of the most important aspects of content optimisation. However, be careful not to overuse the keywords or phrases. Keyword stuffing or other keyword malpractices used to exert undue influence on search engines can get you penalized by search engines by reducing your rank on search results.

There are several aspects to consider for best ways to uses keywords in your content. The best approach is to take one step at a time.

Here are 10 useful tips on how to use keywords effectively in your articles:

• Use search engines and Google Keyword tool to find popular keywords that are relevant to your website or business.

• Try to focus on only on one or two keywords per article or web page. Targeting too many keywords in a single article will dilute the keywords and reduce its relevance.

• Use these keywords in the page title as well as in headings within the article.

• Try to use keywords in bold or as anchor text of links.

• NEVER overstuff your articles or web pages; 5-10 mentions are usually all you need.

• Trial and error, along with research of similar sites is going to be your best tool.

• Analyse other high ranked content related to your topic on search results to see how they have used keywords effectively. Learn from them, improvise and feel free to change your article as deemed necessary.

• Use Keywords in ALT tags of images. ALT Tags are image descriptions that are displayed instead of an image in text-only browsers.

• Your goal should be to be listed in the first page of results; you can edit and revise your article as much as you’d like to get there

• Its not only the number of occurrences of your keyword that is important, but also where they are placed. Try to place your keyword or phrase at least once towards the opening as well as end of the article.

The goal of effective keyword use is to get your website(s) listed on the first page of the search result. The higher you rank the more exposure you’ll receive thereby making your promotional efforts all the more effective. By using keywords appropriately and in their most basic form, you can help increase your search engine rankings and increase traffic to your website.