It’s no secret that most business blogs are created with SEO and discoverability as their top priorities. While the content is important, it is typically ancillary to the main goals of the endeavor. When creating a business blog for the purpose of search engine optimization, selecting and distributing your keywords is critical for efficiency. Additionally, clever integration of these words into your posts will help your ability to rank in most search engines.

So, what is a keyword?
In the realm of SEO, keywords are what allow your content to be categorized and linked to. When users look for a service or product using a search engine, there are a variety of terms which they use, and understanding the most commonly searched words and phrases is the best way look for your keywords. Any word or phrase which is commonly searched for in connection with your services ought to be a keyword of interest, and you should look to create pages which hold these words.

Choosing Keywords
Deciding which keywords should take priority is important as well. There are two common mistake that SEO rookies make. The first is to pick keywords which are too broad. Keywords which are broad are often widely searched for. This means that there will be intense competition for any search using those words. An easy example is a restaurant. If you decide to focus on “food” as a key word, you are going to be in trouble. There are huge numbers of searches for food every day, and countless of other pages which talk about, sell, or are otherwise involved with food. So, while you should include this keyword, also include other more specific keywords and phrases. For example, adding in the type of food (oriental, mexican, etc) or adding additional qualifiers can help in your ability to rank. Another hugely important feature that many people forget is to add in geographical keywords. People often search for certain services while specifying location. Tagging your posts with location and integrating geographical features into your posts is a great way to deal with the issue of keyword specificity. You are much more likely to connect with customers in your area and interested in your product if you add this type of keyword.

Secondly, think about not only adding qualifiers to your keywords, but using full phrases. There are two different types of phrases you should be using. The first are phrases you expect potential customers to be using. This is about anticipating their needs, their state of mind, and understanding what brings most customers to you. This is helped if you can understand what their problems are, and how they attempt to troubleshoot this problem. If you can help them figure out that they need your services faster than a competitor, you are in a good place. The other phrases you should look at are phrases related to a very specific need. Whether it be time sensitive, ingredient specific, or otherwise very specific, use keywords that outline exactly what services you can provide. While a very detailed keyword phrase (ethically sourced small modern woven decor) will have fewer searches than a more broad one (any of the above individually), you are also more likely to find someone who is interested specifically in your products. Anyone who makes a search for a very specific product or service you offer knows what they are looking for, and therefore is much more likely to become a customer.

Review
Keyword selection and utilization is not something that you accomplish in an afternoon. The second major mistakes made by inexperienced technicians is failing to return to their keywords and analyzing their effectiveness. Not only ought there to be an element of revision, where you analyze what has worked, what hasn’t worked, and tweak accordingly, but you also should be looking at trends. It is possible that your keywords were great when you first began using them, but perhaps culture and browsing habits have changed such that your keywords are no longer popular. Looking at new trends in search engines and understanding the ways in which browsing habits evolve can help you not only to get to the top, but to stay there. Additionally, there is the possibility that your competitors have learned from you. Adopting successful keywords is unfortunately an invitation to be copied, and therefore you must expect that your SEO strategies will be mirrored by your competition. If one keyword becomes overused, it loses its ability to pull people to your site. Finding and integrating new keywords which are not being used heavily by competitors will be a critical part in ensuring that your SEO lasts.

For these reasons, anyone who wishes to optimize their rankings has to be committed to a lot of research and effort. This will need to be done over time, and will require periodic review.