One of the main reasons to have a website is to get found online when someone is looking for information regarding your type of products or service offerings. These days, your website is your company – it replaces a physical space with a virtual space.
Like roads lead customers to a physical place of business, keywords lead online users to your virtual place of business. Without doing foundational SEO work, your website will not have the opportunity to get found by the right people. And even worse, your competitors will have a wide opening to rank for your keywords, meaning they will get the first crack at potential customers.
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Selecting the right business keywords is the first step to mapping out how potential customers will be able to find and access your virtual space. (Check out this blog, How to Select the Right Business Keyword for SEO, for details on how to do that.) Once your list of target keywords is defined, the next step is to enable search engines to connect them to your website. Here is how to add keywords to your business website using the SEO basics required to increase online visibility.
Example of Implementing 6 Basics of On-Page SEO
To help explain the six basics of on-page SEO, I’m will use the blog article, Real-Life Digital Content Strategy Example, as an example.
1. Choose the Best Business Keyword: The keyword or key phrase that this article is targeting is “digital content strategy.” So, let's jump over here to Semrush to show you why I chose that keyword. When I put it in the SEO software tool, it brings back a bunch of different variations of that phrase. Then, I want to pick the term that has the highest volume (the number of people searching for this phrase) and the keyword difficulty (how hard it would be to rank for this word).
Based on the data, it looks like I just need to have some well-structured and unique content, and the chances of me ranking for this are pretty high. That's why I chose “digital content strategy” - it has a decent volume and a lower keyword difficulty. Once I decide that's the word I’m going after, I need to make sure that the page is completely optimized for that phrase.
2. URL: I make sure that this phrase is in my URL
3. Page Title: It should also be in the page title. My website platform automatically pulls the title from the blog title, but if you're creating web pages in any form or fashion, there should be an area where you can modify the title with the keyword in it.
4. Page Copy: And then you also want to have it in the copy. But you don't want to have the keyword in there too much. That's keyword spamming, and Google doesn't like that. You don't want to write content for keywords only - you want to write content that is for your audience but includes keywords. Hopefully, that makes sense!
5. Metadescription: We need the keyword to be in the metadescription and the alt-0text too. These are a couple of areas that happen behind the scenes. We use HubSpot for our website platform, and I can just click on this little guy over here when I’m logged in (just like you can with WordPress or any other platform).
Then I’m on in the internal workings of the page, and this is where I can build up my content but for SEO purposes. This is the title area I was talking about; this is the URL, and then this is the metadescription, which is behind the scenes. But Google does read it to help understand what's on the page. It’s best practice to put the word in there, or at least relevant terms and concepts.
6. Alt-Text: Lastly, I have an image, and the image should have alt text, which is what this area is here. Most websites should have a similar area for putting content for SEO purposes.
Adding keywords to your URL, page title, copy, and metadescription, and image alt text is the foundation for your online presence. Without doing on-page SEO, there are no roads that lead to your website. The good news is that it's a straightforward process. And even better - it's a great start for any company that wants to increase its online visibility.
SEO is a Practice, Not a Project
But you can't just stop at on-page SEO! SEO is a practice, not a project. The algorithms for getting found online are constantly changing. The key to success is to keep working on it and focus on continuous improvement.
If you have any questions about adding keywords to your website or increasing your online visibility, we're here to help. Good luck!
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