When someone tells me to "just act naturally", it makes me feel self-conscious and awkward. Suddenly, I'm aware of all the things I might be doing wrong, and I'm more apt to make mistakes simply because I'm trying too hard not to. Telling someone to use natural keywords in their blog can have the same effect because suddenly you become overly aware of just how stilted your writing is. Have you ever stared at a familiar word that doesn't look right, even though it is spelled correctly? The human brain is a funny thing.
Talk to the People in Your Tribe
I love how Seth Godin uses the tribe analogy to describe the groups of people that naturally form through having the same interests. Marketing is all about tribes when you think about it because we are seeking to connect with people who share the same interests. Your customers, the market demographic who uses your business products or services, are the people in your tribe. They may be grouped into smaller sub-tribes, but they share at least one thing in common: your business.
Writing, particularly blog writing, is talking to your people. If you are writing the way your people speak and think, there will be words used that they use. If you are in a niche market, there's vocabulary that they will use despite the fact those outside the tribe wouldn't think of them. So when you write the way you talk to your customers, using the vocabulary they use, you will be using natural keywords and phrases.
Understand What Keywords Really Are
For all practical purposes, keywords are the words a user types into the search box for the search engine to find. Today's search engines have the capacity look for those words and similar words then compare them to the content for relevancy. If the words don't fit the content, the algorithm sees it as low-quality spammy stuff worthy of penalizing.
If you are using the words your audience uses to expound on things they are interested in, those words become natural keywords. They are natural, because they are part of your niche vocabulary. They are keywords, because they show up in the search box when your tribe types them in for the search engine to find.
Your business blog is one of the best ways to connect with your tribe because it is an ongoing process. Using the natural keywords of your tribe's vocabulary helps them find you.
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