Search engine optimization (SEO) used to focus on computer codes with names like "meta tags," "meta keywords," and "meta descriptions" that lived behind the scenes on your website. It was considered best practice to repeat about 20 of the same keywords over and over to "convince" the search engines that your website should be on the first page of search results for those keywords.
In the new search landscape, however, the old "meta" strategy can actually penalize your website. So what do you need to know to make sure your site is ready for the new rules?
Choosing the right keywords
Today, SEO is all about subject matter expertise. Your first step should be to audit the keywords you have competed on in the past; if you have a long list, you need to pare it down to no more than three or four subject terms.
For example, your list might look like this (if you own a remodeling company in Columbus, Ohio):
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bathroom remodeling
remodeling a bathroom
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remodeling bathroom
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Fortunately, the Google AdWords Keyword Planner provides tools to help you sift through your list and choose the best four terms. Go to the Keyword Planner home screen, choose Tools and Analysis, select "Get search volume for a list of keywords …" and, under "Option 1: Enter Keywords," paste in the list.
(You will need to be signed in to access Keyword Planner, and if you don't already have a Google AdWords account, you will need to create one before you can use the tool. The account is free unless you are running an AdWords campaign, so just skip the section of account set-up that asks you to enter financial or billing information. If you already have an AdWords account, you won't be charged for any of the research unless you choose to buy a keyword.)
When you click the blue Get Search Volume button at the bottom of the screen, you'll get a list of results. By default, Google puts these into "Ad group ideas"; instead, click on the tab labeled "Keyword ideas" to get the full list. The trick is to figure out which keywords are high in search volume and low in competition. Keep in mind: There is no "right" answer, and it may take some trial and error. The important thing is to choose three or four terms that focus on your main product, optimize for your local audience by focusing on your location, and get more traffic for your website.
Finding the Right Keywords
If you don't have a list of keywords, or if you do but aren't sure which ones best describe your business, you can use this same tool to find relevant keywords. Open Tools and Analysis again from the main menu, but this time select "Search for new keyword and ad group ideas." Instead of cutting and pasting a list of terms, put your website address into the box labeled "Your landing page".
When you click the blue Get Ideas button at the bottom of the screen, Google will display a list of relevant keywords it has detected on your website. Use this list to repeat the process of analyzing search volume and competition to identify the three or four terms that best describe the main focus of your business.
Using Keywords on Your Website
Once you have your short list of key terms, take a critical look at the text on your website. Look for redundancy on each page. For any term used more than twice, delete all additional instances. Make sure every page of your website mentions at least one of the three or four keywords you have chosen.
You want your writing to sound natural—you don't want to sound like a robot or machine by repeating the same terms over and over. If it doesn't make sense to you when you read it out loud, you shouldn't have it in your website copy.
Once you've found the right keywords and have eliminated any text currently on your website that doesn't focus on those subjects, the next step is to restructure the content in your navigation to reflect these changes. Having valuable content is a critical component of Google's next update, called Hummingbird. We will cover that in the next article.
