Let me guess. You spent hours doing your keyword research and now you wonder what on earth to do with all those keyword phrases you came up with. Am I right? No worries! This tutorial will walk you through some of the ways you can use your keyword phrases on your website. By the way, this is called “on-site” optimization. Your website is under your full control (hopefully) so you have more control of what is added to it and it’s important that you use your keywords in all the appropriate places.
Before we get started, I need to give you a word of warning. Please don’t just stuff your keyword phrases all over your website. It’s important that you do not overuse your phrases. When you do this, it turns off your readers (which I’m guessing is not your goal) and it could bring penalties from search engines. Your goal is to incorporate the phrases into the appropriate places on your website in such a way that they blend in seamlessly.
Also, PLEASE keep in mind is that it’s very hard to optimize a page for multiple keyword phrases. Someone with enough experience can handle more than one phrase but I recommend that you focus on ONE keyword phrase per page in the beginning.
OK now let’s get to work!
Supplies Needed:
- Website/Blog
- Computer with Internet Connection
- Keyword Phrases obtained through keyword research
Step 1: Title Tag
The first place and the most important one to include your keyword phrases is the Title tag. This is what you see at the top left of the browser window when you visit a website. For example, if you visit DIYPLR.com, you will see “PLR Content – Step-by-Step How-To Private Label Rights Content”.
To add the Title Tag to your page, you simply add it in the html code like this:
If Local Search is something that matters for your site, you should also include your location. The example above should work for you. Whatever you put between the opening and closing title tags will be your Title for that page.
Tips: Length should not exceed 72 characters to ensure that the entire title appears in the SERP (search engine results page). Your title should include at least 4 words and your keyword phrase should be at the beginning. If you can’t fit it all, try to include as much as you can without causing it to not make sense.
Step 2: Description
Whatever you place in the Description is what will usually be shown in the search engine results. The important thing is to write a compelling description that will make the potential visitor click on your link. If you do not include a description, ensure that you have good content in the body of the page as some search engines will pull from there if needed.
To add the Description, you simply add it in the html code like this:
<meta name=”description” content=”Description goes here” />
Example:
Step 3: Headings/Subheadings
Another extremely important place to put your keyword phrase is the headings and subheadings for your page. Search engines know that the text you place in these tags is important to the structure of your page.
Here’s how your code might look using H1, H2 and H3 tags:
Step 4: Body
It really should go without saying but you should include your keyword phrases in the body of your page. This shows the reader who searched on that phrase that the page truly is about what they were looking for. It makes logical sense to give them what they asked for. Notice I did not say you must put the keywords in the body of the page. There are so many other factors that it’s possible for you to rank without the keywords phrases being in the body. There is no requirement that I’ve seen that requires it. It does of course typically make perfect sense and one would think it would help with the conversion rate.
NOTE: Don’t forget to use your keyword phrases in bulleted lists, testimonials, resource box, etc. when appropriate.
Step 5: Alt text for images
One technique that not everyone is aware of is to include your keywords in the Alt text for your images. If applicable, sprinkle (notice I didn’t say “stuff”) them throughout your site’s alt text.
Example:
Step 6: Page name and path
When you save your page, think about your keyword phrases. Rather than page1.html or products.html, use your keywords.
Example:
If you sell widgets, name your page widgets.html. If it’s feasible to have a page for each widget color, create them and save them as redwidgets.html, bluewidgets, greenwidgets.html, etc.
By “path”, I mean the path to get to the page. If you save your pages in a subfolder, name it widgets rather than folder1. If you use categories, name your categories appropriately.
Step 7: Elsewhere on your website
Internal Links from other pages/posts – When you have numerous pages, link them all together as much as possible. If you have a page about credit card debt and you create another page detailing a financial plan (which includes eliminating credit card debt), link to the page in your new page.
Navigation – This could possibly go without saying but I don’t want to assume anything. It’s very important to use your keyword phrases in your navigation menu as well as in your links that are in the body of your website.
Sidebar – If your site uses WordPress, include your keywords in the items you place in the sidebar.
Wrap-up
The bottom line is there are many and varying ways to maximize your on-site optimization. Utilize the keyword phrases that you carefully researched in several places on your website and see what happens to your rankings.
Be careful not to go overboard though. A term we haven’t talked about is keyword density. This is the percentage of times a keyword (or keyword phrase) is used on a webpage in comparison to the total # of words on the page. If the keyword density is too low, you aren’t getting the maximum effect. If it’s too high (meaning you’ve used the keyword or phrase too much for that # of words) search engines will not like it. The trick is to find the appropriate amount. My recommendation is to do what makes sense for the site and see how it goes. You can always add or take away but the important thing is to take action and get those keyword phrases into your copy.
If you need any help with on-site optimization, please contact me and I will give you a quote. If you just have a basic question, feel free to paste it in the comments section below.
Glennette Goodbread, Owner
Premium Web Design and Hosting
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