I created this post about tips for using keywords in your blog because the name of the game on the Internet is getting found, and YOU can help yourself get found every time you write in your blog. Here’s how.
Assumptions
- You’ve created your list of keywords. Each “keyword” is really a keyword phrase not a single word. For example, if you are a blog developer located in Marlborough Massachusetts, your primary keyword phrase might be “blog developer in Marlborough Massachusetts” or “blog developer in Central Mass” or “blog developer in MetroWest Massachusetts” depending on the geographic area you are targeting. You do not have “blog”, “blogs”, nor “blog developer” on your keyword list. Those terms are too broad.
- Your list of keywords is visible. Maybe you have the keywords written in a composition notebook and you open the notebook to that page every time you write in your blog. Maybe the list of keywords is posted on your cubby wall, on your desktop in a file, or maybe it’s written on a sticky that is stuck on your monitor. Why do you need to see your keywords everytime you write in your blog? They keep you on course.
Your keywords are to your blog as your mission statement is to your business
Tips:
1. Look for opportunities to use your keywords in your post.
First write your post. Then review the post looking for opportunities to replace words with your keywords or to add keywords. For example, the phrase,
With 6 years of experience we understand…
is very generic and would be more powerful from a “getting found” perspective if the type of experience were mentioned. The following phrases give the search engines more information about you (using the blog developer in Marlborough Massachusetts example from above).
With 6 years of experience developing blogs we understand…
Having developed blogs for 6 years, we understand…
As blog developers with 6 years experience, we understand…
and even better – to really focus in on your target audience, each one of these phrases is more powerful when the type of blog is added.
With 6 years of experience developing WordPress blogs we understand…
Having developed WordPress blogs for 6 years, we understand…
As WordPress blog developers with 6 years experience, we understand…
2. Use your keywords in the post’s Title.
After writing the post and reviewing it for opportunities to use your keywords, add your title. Include one of your keywords in the Title.
3. Use your keywords in defining the Categories, Sub-Categories and Tags.
Keep them short and meaningful. Maybe when you chain them together, they ‘complete’ a keyword term. For example, in this blog, I have a category named ‘Blogs’. I could create Sub-Categories like ‘Design’, ‘Development’ and ‘Maintenance’, and then the Category + Sub-Category combinations would make the keyword terms ‘Blogs Design’, ‘ Blogs Development’ and ‘Blogs Maintenance’, respectively.
4. Use your keyword terms in your All in One SEO Pack fields for each post.
Here you repeat the keywords you used in the Post and Post’s Title. Choose the ONE most important keyword to use for the All in One SEO Pack Title. You can use more than one keyword in the description and keywords.
Ideally, a post is focused on ONE keyword (like “blog developers”), so, your task is to find different ways to express the same idea in the different sections available to you on the Post Data Entry screen. When you focus on one concept, you are clearly “branding” your business with the keyword concept. When you use too many keywords in one post, you end up diluting the strength of all of the keywords because there are too many associations.
How about you? What tips can you share about using keywords with your blogs? (Click the title of this post to bring up to the page that displays the post with a Comments area below. Let us know!)