If you're writing content today in order to solely please the search engines then you're out of touch with what people really want. Keyword stuffing content is a thing of the past and won't get you anywhere, in fact it may actually end up penalizing your website. The search engines are increasingly oriented towards what people want, instead of what the search engines robots are looking for.
That's why it's more crucial than ever that you construct the perfect balance between including certain keywords and writing blog posts that please your readers. This all stems from effective keyword research.
Keyword research should be at the backbone of your content strategy. Effective keyword research will help you to uncover topics for you to write about, as well as what keywords and groups of keywords you'll want to include for the most powerful content.
In this post we're going to look at the varying levels of keywords and how you can bundle certain keywords to create content that is more topical and has the ability of ranking for more than a single content, thus producing more valuable content.
Different Levels Of Keywords
Before we get into how you're going to be grouping and utilizing certain keywords it's important that you understand the different types of keywords and how they effect the content you'll be writing.
1. Brand name keywords
Brand name keywords are people who will be typing your exact brand name or business name into the search engines. These are much easier to convert, as people searching for your business are already familiar with what you offer.
2. Product name keywords
Product keywords are rated to the product or service you're offering. Usually these will be related to the problem you solve. These people searching from this level of keyword won't be as familiar with your brand or service. These aren't as easy to convert as brand name keywords, but if you can provide valuable content chances are they will down the road.
3. Complimentary and substitute product keywords
Complimentary product keywords are keywords that a person might be interested in if they are interested in your product or service. These are items that go with your service. Just like toothpaste and toothbrush go together. While substitute keywords are competitor keywords, or things that could be used instead of what you're offering.
4. Readership keywords
These keywords are what people in your audience will be searching for, even if they aren't directly related to your business. Instead, they will be from hobbies and passions that your ideal audience has.
Discovering The Right Keywords
Uncovering the right keywords begins with your own creativity. Start by thinking of what your customers would search for in all of the above categories. Make an initial keyword list, and then start to employ any other keyword research methods.
This includes using any analytics tools to see what keywords your audience has already been using to get to your site. If you're looking to beef up your keyword list you could use Google's autocomplete feature to see what people are actually searching for.
Now that you have a basic list to work with it's time to expand it even further by taking that base set of keywords to your favorite keyword tool.
Putting The Pieces Together
Once you've run your keywords though your favorite tool, and have expanded your list even further. It's time to parse your keyword list down even further to a list of quality keywords that you'll be able to optimize your content for.
First, narrow your keywords down based on the categories mentioned in the top section. Keywords in the number one category might be better to focus on than keywords in the number four category.
If you used Google to expand your keyword list then your keywords will be ranked on the level of competitiveness. This will help you decide if keywords are too difficult to rank for, and not worth your time.
Once you have your list ready to go, now comes the important part for your content.
Bundle Keywords For The Most Effective Content
Grouping your keywords is a very crucial step of the process. Keyword groups are groups of keywords that you'll be using as the focus of each article. Instead of basing an entire blog post around one keyword with slight variations; you'll be basing an article off an entire grouping of keywords.
This will help you to provide more value for each of your blog posts, as you'll have a larger topic to span. Your blog post will also seem less spammy, as you won't be inserting the same keyword time and time again. This will help your articles to seem less SEO based, and more geared towards the reader.
When grouping your keywords try to group them via the intent of the reader and what they would be looking for in each post.
I hope this article has proved valuable and you have a deeper understanding of how you can find the right keywords, group them, and put them to work in blog posts that work for your readers and the search engines.