How important are keywords? Many people who decide to give blogging a shot never understand this vital SEO tactic, they tend to believe they’ll make amazing progress just by uploading interesting posts.

Of course, that’s not the case. Essentially, blogging is a business, and your site requires the same level of marketing as a normal company would. Yes, the methods used to promote blogs can involve finances, but one of the best is free.

We’re referring to search engine optimization; more commonly known as SEO. Now, if you’re not already familiar with the ins and outs of blogging, then you’re probably not aware of the Google algorithm.

This is what you’ll need to master if you want to increase visibility, boost traffic and grow your blog.

You do have Bing, Yahoo and other search engines as well, but Google is by far the largest, hence why people prioritize ranking highly on that platform.

So, in a nutshell, Google will rank sites on different pages, and it’s your job to reach page 1 as that’s where you’ll receive the most exposure. In order to do that, you’ll need to consistently offer value to their users through quality blog posts.

Google don’t just scan your site on a whole, though; they’ll crawl through your site and assess each individual post and will rank your posts rather than your site.

That means they’ll look for keywords. Keywords are terms that people are frequently searching for. For instance, if people are constantly typing “how to clean a dog,” then you’d want to write a post which includes those keywords.

But, there are some things to take into consideration. The first is that you’ll need to do your research. It’s no good trying to rank for keywords that no-one is searching for.

On the contrary, you don’t want to target keywords where there’s far too much competition, as bigger sites will just drown you out.

The second is that you’ll want to be careful with how you compose your post. At the end of the day, Google – as well as the others – will rank your site based on quality and value.

If you write badly, offer poor information and just bombard your text with keywords, you won’t get very far.

Whereas, if you write naturally, focus on the information you’re providing and implement keywords seamlessly and sparsely throughout, you’ll be rewarded.

Ultimately, your site will grow exponentially if you repeatedly rank well for brilliant keywords, but you do need to research, write expertly and learn some other SEO tricks. If you want to find out more, then check out this excellent article that we found…

What Are Keywords?

Keywords are single words, or more commonly strings of words, that represent the content of a web page and how people ask for web content.

Keywords are strategically selected by optimizers and are intended to help your web content communicate in a way that resonates with humans and Google search spiders.

Because they represent what a page is about, keywords should be incorporated into body text and Meta information in a way that is natural and subtle.

If you’re doing a good job, the reader should consume your keyword phrases with ease like any other words in your content.

If they are stumbling over your keyword phrases or your keywords are assaulting your reader like tiny, misplaced sales pitches, then you’re not doing it right.

What Keywords Are Not

Keywords should never be used to try to trick or mislead human beings or Google spiders..

This means using keywords that do not exactly describe the contents of your page, repeating a keyword over and over in a way that in not natural (known as “keyword stuffing”) or using any other black hat SEO tactics (like keywords in a white font on a white background) are all off limits.

Google is very serious about indexing and returning white hat web pages that contain high-quality content and does not respond well to keyword abuse (learn more about the Google over-optimization penalty).

Why Do SEOs Use Keyword Phrases?

Keyword research helps marketers understand how their target markets describe their products and ask for more information.

Then, armed with this information, marketers are able to use words straight from the horse’s mouth (minimize the number of times you call your target demographic horses please) to describe their page content to humans and Google alike.

This does two things.

First, keyword research improves your SERP rank. By using the exact words that your target market is typing into the search query in your Meta information and body copy you communicate to Google that you are an exact match for this query — not a “kind of close” or “sort of related” match, but an exact match.

Since Google likes to return results that most accurately fulfill the searchers' needs, your web page — as an exact match — ends up at the top of the SERPs and people end up clicking to visit your page rather than your competitors’.

Second, taking time to research the language your target demographic is using to search the Web tells you more about your target’s personality, interests and needs. This information can then be used to shape inventory and create content that better serves your consumer.

For instance, in researching the keyword phrase “organic bread” you may find that there are very few searches being performed for the term “organic bread,” but there are many searches being performed for the phrases “gluten-free bread,” “healthy bread,” “how to eat healthy” and “what is processed food.”

With 14,800 people searching for “gluten-free bread” per month — and accordingly an expressed demand for the product — your company might consider adding a gluten-free product to your line.

Or, if you already have gluten-free bread, consider increasing the number of people who stumble upon your product as a solution by describing your product in a more specific way that reflects consumer demand (i.e. “gluten-free bread”).

On the content marketing side, a query like “how to eat healthy” tells you, in their exact words, the needs of your target market and what they want to know more about.

This puts you in an excellent position to create spiderable HTML content that helps your community, establishes your brand as an industry authority, strengthens your brand-consumer relationship, and (preferably subtly) suggests your product as a solution to their problem.

I think this topic really should be mastered by any blogger who wants to rank articles and posts in the search engines.

Take the time to read as much on this subject as possible and understand “how important are keywords” because it will pay off in the long run. Start here at bruceclay.com a really good article to get started.