We’ve been doing quite a few web site analyses over the past couple of weeks and it’s been fascinating to see that not one of the sites we’ve analysed so far, has what I would call good SEO in place. Keywords or Key Search Terms, are often ignored.
Most of the sites have no meta tags, but I won’t go on about that here as I’ve covered it in previous articles. But surprisingly, not many sites actually include their key search terms in their on-page copy.
Key search terms – why are they important?
Analysing the most frequently used key search terms on a web site home page often picks up generic terms like “leader”, “we” or “business”, which aren’t specific enough to explain to a search engine what your website is about.
While I don’t want to encourage you to repetitively stuff your page full of keywords, you have to make sure that the search terms you want people to find you for, actually do exist on your page, maybe 2 or 3 times, otherwise Google is not going to find your site when people type those search terms into the search box.
Key search terms must be on your website if you want to rank for them!
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve asked a client what key search term they want to rank for – they tell me but then I discover that this search term isn’t used anywhere on their website!
You should also make sure that the other copy on the page supports your main theme. So if you’re a social media consultant, talk about social media channels, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and whatever other words relate to social media. This sort of occurrence of relevant and associated words makes Google realise what your site is all about and will increase the chances of your page being returned higher up in the search results.
Key search terms – where to get more help
If you’d like help working out what your key search terms are, how easy it will be to rank for them and how to incorporate them into your website, give us a call. Keyword and key search term research, updating website copy and adding new content to strengthen your pages for your key search terms is all part of our SEO service. Read more about that here.
