Blog posts serve a multitude of purposes including teaching valuable principles to potential clients, sharing a moving piece of your personal story, or inspiring someone to take that next step in growing their business. They also help search engines drive web traffic to your website, which inevitably brings more and more potential business directly to you.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is very helpful for increasing traffic to your website but it’s not the only factor. In order to retain and increase that traffic, you also need high-quality content. Adding keywords in a natural way to your blog post will increase your SEO as well as help you create quality content your customers and clients are searching for.
Implement Keyword Research
Google Keyword Planner is a free tool that allows you to search for high-quality keywords that you can use naturally within the body of your post. Using the tips below when searching for keyword(s) will help your blog rank higher in search engine listings.
- Enter words or phrases related to your blog post.
- Look for words with low competition, yet a high number of monthly searches, at least 10K searches a month.
- Use only one or two keyword phrases with 2 – 3 keywords in each phrase.
- Implement the keyword(s) in the post naturally.
- No keyword stuffing. Do not add keywords in a way that sacrifices the quality of the blog article. This is considered spam by search engines and your blog post will not rank.
Add Keywords to Specific Locations
Use keywords in these 5 key locations to boost the chances of creating a high-ranking blog post.
- Blog Post Title – Use keywords towards the beginning of the title if possible.
- Subheadings – These are like bullet points that readers like to scan first before reading the article.
- Body of the Post – Add these keywords in the first few sentences, throughout the body of the content, and towards the end of the post. Be sure these are included naturally throughout the paragraphs.
- Permalink or URL – Before posting a blog article, check the permalink or URL of the post. Be sure the keyword is included in the link.
- Alt-Text in Images – Any images included in your post need to have the keyword(s) included.
Now that you have a basic guide for adding keywords to your blog post, you can go back and optimize old blog articles. You may be pleasantly surprised when you begin to see a significant increase in your web traffic.