How to Use Keyword Phrases for Your Business

Keywords are essentially “buzz words” that are relevant to certain people searching for something online. Businesses use keyword phrases to distribute and create engaging content that likely attracts the attention of searchers interested in whatever products and services are being offered. As long as you keep the focus on producing relevant content build around topics likely to be of interest to your audience, keywords can be a great way to achieve a desirable placement on search engine results pages (SERPs) and boost your ROI for paid advertising campaigns.

Why Your Business Needs Keyword Phrases

Keywords are the heart of SEO (search engine optimization) and, more importantly, they are the foundation of the content you present online for your business. Keywords are essentially clues to the topics covered in your content. Keywords have meaning to both people searching for what you have to offer online and the automated features of search engines (“crawlers”) looking to understand the purposes of your pages. These relevant descriptive words can be used in many different forms of online engagement related to your business, including:

• Your website content
• Content writing for your blog and social media posts
• Meta descriptions and title tags that tell search engine crawlers and online searchers what your content is about
• Subject lines for your email campaigns
• Your headlines, subheads, and captions for your images, photos, and videos posted online

Different Types of Keywords

Short-tail keywords are broad keywords that consist of either single words or short phrases. Words like “landscaping,” “clothing,” and “games” would fit into this category. Results produced from such keywords will be just as broad. Long-tail keywords are longer, descriptive keywords, such as “residential landscaping in Miami,” “women’s jackets for spring and summer,” and “video games for teens,” that are more specific to your business.

Short-tail keywords are less desirable these days because there’s a lot of competition online and you’re more likely to attract the attention of searchers who actually have an interest in what you have to offer if you get more specific with your keywords. Long-tail keywords are also appealing because of the increased use of voice search features that produce results based on the longer phrases rather than short, generic terms.

Your choice of keywords can also determine what you will pay if you are running paid campaigns. Broad keywords are likely to have a higher search volume, a lot of competition (meaning expensive) and they aren’t all that effective for ranking purposes and traffic generation. Specific keywords are more relevant to your business, so you will likely see more traffic from long-tail words and phrases. Longer keywords/phrases also have a lower search volume and not as much competition.

Creating Content First, Keywords Second

While important, keywords shouldn’t be what determines the content you create. Of course, you never want to use keywords that have nothing to do with your content simply for the purpose of ranking. Referred to as “keyword stuffing,” this is a technique that can quickly get your punished by Google. Instead, produce relevant content first and then naturally work keywords that make sense into your content to create engaging content.

Finding the Right Keyword Research Tool

Find out what keywords people are already using to find similar products and services by researching your keywords to see what’s trending within your specific geographic area. This is important because Google automatically assumes local intent when producing results for searches. It’s equally important to see what keywords your competitors are using to target the same audience. Top keyword research tools you can use to gather your info include:

• Google Keyword Planner
• Moz
• KWFinder
• SEMRush

Using the right keyword phrases is just one of the many important aspects of creating content that will likely attract the attention of your intended audience. It’s just as essential to create engaging content likely to generate interest, inspire sharing, attract external links back to your website, and encourage conversions. Fortunately, the team at Lucid Advertising in Pensacola, FL, has the experience with content writing and online engagement you need to see meaningful results. Contact us today to learn more about how we may be able to help you succeed online.