Keywords (or phrases) are the words that users enter into search engines in order to find relevant content. To rank well in search results, it's important to use keywords in your content correctly.
Tips for Good Keywords
- Use keywords that the visitors would use or you want search engines to relate to your site.
- Do not use irrelevant keywords or keyword stuffing. They won't help your site's ranking and might actually hurt you.
- Try to use descriptive, specific, and unique phrases. Make sure the content is also useful and easy to navigate for visitors.
- Try to add keywords in these places to improve the search engine optimization (SEO) for your web site:
- Site domain (if you don't have a domain yet, you can purchase from us)
- URL page slugs
- Site/page title
- Headings
- Meta descriptions (Meta tags)
- Image ALT tags
- Page‘s body content
FAQ
Can I add meta keywords tag?
No, because site meta keywords tag is an outdated option that’s actually useless for SEO, and in some cases can even hurt your search engine ranking.
Search engines, including Google, award higher rankings to websites that have:
- relevant, reputable, and high-quality content;
- high user satisfaction;
- popular pages.
In this scenario, meta keywords do not noticeably influence SEO rankings anymore.
In fact, if meta tags are abused (keyword stuffing), your websites can suffer from search engines’ punitive quality algorithm. Keyword stuffing is an old SEO practice where a webmaster adds a lot of irrelevant keywords on websites in order to jack up their site rank in the search results. This makes the site all spammy and does not give relevant results to searchers.
All search engines now ignore keywords in their ranking algorithm and some search engines even punish this by decreasing your ranking.
How long does it take for keywords to work?
Adding keywords does not guarantee automatically update or add the keywords in search results or have an effect on your search engine ranking. It is determined by search engines and many factors, like quality, authority, etc. To speed up this process you can:
1. Verifying Google Search Console and Submitting Sitemap or request a re-index using Google Search Console.
2. Focus on the quality content. Adding useful and relevant content is the best way to get those “organic” visits. The search engines will not rank your content unless it helps somebody.
3. Do keyword research and create content. You can use tools like Semrush, Keywords Everywhere to create content or better, blog posts.
For more tips about improving your site’s search engine ranking, visit Improve Search Engine Ranking (SEO).
In case you need assistance, shoot us a line at support@strikingly.com or chat with us.