Search engine optimization, or SEO, is essentially tailoring your website to be search engine-friendly so that you can gain more organic, quality website traffic. The more traffic your website receives, the more potential business you get. SEO best practices are complex and ever-evolving, but there are a few things that, if you master, you’re well on your way to optimization. Keywords are one of the most essential parts of SEO practices.
So, What Are Keywords and Why Are They Important?
Keywords are the words or phrases that people type in a search bar, otherwise known as search queries. A user types a keyword or phrase into Google, for example, and hits enter. Your goal with SEO is to have your site rank on the search engine results page (SERP) that loads after hitting enter. If your content lacks the keywords, your site doesn’t rank.
You can see why keywords are important in SEO, but they’re not as cut and dry as you might think. There are two factors to consider when choosing the keywords you’d like to highlight:
- Your content, and
- Your audience
You might search for something in a different way than your audience. So it’s important to consider what you have to offer, along with how your potential customers will search for it. This is why keyword research is important. If the keywords you choose to include in your content aren’t relevant, your website doesn’t end up on the SERP.
Your Partner in SEO and Digital Marketing
To a layperson, SEO, SERP, keywords, and other common phrases and acronyms can sound like a foreign language. At Moose May, we dedicate ourselves to helping business owners optimize their websites so that when customers search, you appear.