The best places to include SEO keywords on your website

SEO is an effective marketing strategy and it is important for any online business or Shopify store that wants to get a higher rating on Google. By optimizing your site for search engines, you can direct potential customers to your website and drive more traffic to it and as a content creator, you should know about keyword placement. Keywords were and still are the bread and butter of your SEO strategy. Without the proper keyword placement, content creators are walking in pitch-black darkness. The use of keywords is essential for your site’s search engine visibility, and that is enough reason to add your keywords to the right places. It helps your soon-to-be customers find the products they are looking for related to your business. 

If you want to increase traffic and attract customers to your website then you need to know what keywords are and where to include them on your website for SEO. 

Understanding Keywords and Search Engine Optimization

Let’s get started with an explanation of SEO

SEO stands for "search engine optimization". Simply put, it is the process of optimizing your site in such a way that it becomes visible to search engines like Google or Bing. Keywords are a part of that process. According to Forbes, 75% of people only look at the first page of search results, which is why you’ll need to get your E-commerce business on the first page of Google. To do so, you need to know how to use your keywords. 

A couple of definitions that you should know:

SERP: SERP stands for "Search Engine Results Page". SERP is a list of webpages given to the user after he types words and phrases into the search bar.

On-Page SEO: On-Page SEO (also known as on-site SEO) is the process of optimizing your website’s content to get more organic traffic and improve rankings in SERPs which includes creating content, optimizing title tags, internal links, and URLs.  

Off-Page SEO: Off-Page SEO also known as off-site SEO refers to activities outside of your website that help you improve your SERP position: link building, forums, influencer marketing, guest blogging, social media engagement, backlinks and etc.

What are keywords? 

When most of us have questions, what is the first thing we usually do? We look to the Internet for answers. We would usually click on the Chrome icon and head for the search box. The words and phrases we type into the search box are called "keywords". They are also the words that you are going to put on your website to ensure your E-commerce business is visible to your potential customers when they search for products and services online. Keywords tell search engines what your site’s content is all about and makes it easier to link your E-commerce business to a specific search results page. If you choose the right types of SEO keywords, you can rank higher in SERPs and ensure the targeted audience is viewing the page. A keyword can be a single word, but it can also be a combination of several words or even a phrase.

The major types of keywords include:

• Short-Tail Keywords
• Long-Tail Keywords

Short-Tail keywords

Short-tail keywords also called broad keywords, focus keywords, seed keywords, or head terms – are keywords that consist of one or two words.

Here are examples of short-tail keywords:

• Sports shoes
• Apartments
• Coffee shops
• Movies
• Computers         

Long-Tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are keywords that consist of 3-5 words.

Here are examples of long-tail keywords:

• Sports shoes for women
• Apartments for rent in Los Angeles
• Coffee shops open near me
• Movies to watch in 2022
• Computers for sales near me

The main difference between short-tail keywords and long-tail keywords – is that short-tail keywords refer to very broad topics and long-tail keywords refer to very specific topics.

Where can you find the best keywords for your business website?

Short-tail keywords are super competitive because of their high search volume and for that reason, you need to find long-tail keywords for search engine optimization. They will help you to grow your business, generate more traffic to your website and increase sales leads. Where can you find them? You can use keyword research tools. Tools like Keywordtool.io, keyword.io, Wordtracker.com and etc.

‍What are the best places to include SEO keywords on your website?

Keyword placement is an extremely important part of your SEO strategy. When you create content, you need to know where to use your keywords. Here are the best places, where you can add keywords to your website:

 Include Keywords in your Page title

The page title, also known as the "title tag", "meta title" or "SEO title" is a short description of your webpage, and is the best place to use your keyword. Google uses page titles to index web pages, so it’s important that your webpage title has the main keyword. Page titles tell searchers what the page is about and they influence their decision to click on your page. If you don’t know how to use keywords in your page title, then they are more likely to skip your website. Page titles are essential for SEO and keyword placement is also important. To put your page title to good work, it’s crucial to insert your key phrase at the beginning of this field and not at the end because the position does matter. But, keep in mind, that keyword stuffing in page titles is detrimental to your search rankings.

Use Keywords in your Page description

Page description also referred to as meta description is another place for your keyword phrase. Google will show your meta description beneath the title and URL of your page. Meta description provides a short summary of your webpage, and is often overlooked. Even though it doesn’t affect your position in the search results, it is the first thing people will read before clicking on your website. In each SERP, the meta description has limited space so you don’t want to repeat what’s in the title. Since page descriptions influence people’s decisions to click on your website, they are a vital part of attracting organic traffic through SEO.  

Add Keywords to your Headings and Subheadings

Headings and subheadings help to organize content, and guide readers, and they also contain keywords.  Using keywords in headings and subheadings is extremely important for search engine optimization. Using them makes it easier for people to understand your webpage's content. Then the search engine will decide how your webpage ranks. Use long-tail and short-tail keywords naturally, but don’t overuse them and you’ll climb your way to the top of the mountain of SERPs.

Put Keywords in your Content

Content is another place to optimize the use of keywords. Content is the most important SEO ranking factor and high-quality content gives you better visibility. With content, you can make your website stand out from your competitors. One of the instruments that can help you out with this is plugins, ready solutions that you can make yourself or buy. It's important to know how to promote WordPress plugins and themes in the right way so that you can reach your prospects.

What you shouldn’t do with keywords while creating content for the web.

Don’t mislead your potential buyer with the wrong keywords. You don’t want to use keywords that are off-topic for your site, page and not related to your E-commerce business. It’s also important to avoid keyword stuffing otherwise search engines like Google will mark you as spam. Your site’s SEO needs to stay within Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. If you want to increase your ranking in Google search results, you need to follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.

Insert Keywords in your URLs

You shouldn’t neglect optimizing URLs with keywords because URL is not just small info about the location of your webpage. By using the right keywords in your URL, you can improve your URL ranking a bit, it gives visitors a clue about what to expect on the page. You need to keep your URLs short, clear, and relevant. Putting keywords in URLs is atactic worth implementing. As we’ve said before, using too many keywords isn't the best idea for search engine optimization. Add one long-tail keyword or a couple of short-tail keywords and you’ll be just fine.

Tag your Images with the Right Keywords

Images are essential to your website performance, and adding specific keywords to the images on your website can improve your search engine ranking. You can monitor ranking with the help of rank tracker tool. Search engines index images, too. If you want to add value to your content you need to choose images carefully and they must be relevant to your content. If it is a picture of a white Ferrari, just make the alt tag "white Ferrari". You can insert your keywords into the image filename. Make sure you use dashes between the words. For example white-ferrari.jpg. Use SEO keywords in your titles, and use them in alt text (alternative text). The alt text appears in a place of an image on a webpage if the image fails to load, so optimizing your website’s image alt text will improve the user experience for your "soon-to-be" customers. Keep it simple and image keywording should be a painless part of your SEO strategy.

Link Anchor Text Should Contain Keywords

An anchor link is a piece of text on a website page that’s clickable and allows you to navigate from one page to another. Whenever you navigate from one page on your website to another, you can add keywords that you want the targeted page to rank for. This clickable text is blue in color so when you click on it you’ll be directed to the targeted webpage. By optimizing your anchor text you will improve your SEO ranking. In the example below, the link points to another website.

Keywords Are a Must for your Social Media

Social Media doesn’t directly affect your search engine ranking factor but it definitely improves your website’s visibility. Increase your social media presence as it is crucial for promoting your E-commerce business. When you put relevant keywords in your social media posts, you improve customer engagement. Use insightful keywords in your blog post titles, Twitter posts, YouTube video titles, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn profiles and from there you will drive people and traffic to your website.

Hashtags and keywords are almost the same things and they are both important tools to consider when executing your marketing plan. Hashtags can be used on several social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The number of hashtags you use on Instagram can differ from the number of hashtags you use on Facebook. For example, some say you can use 3-5 hashtags in your Instagram posts, others say you can use 30 and again you don’t want to overuse them. Use 1-2 hashtags on Facebook and that would be more than enough. Make sure your accounts are public. Moreover, you can use hashtags in your social media profiles and pages.

Conclusion

Effective use of keywords helps you rank higher in SERPs and as a result, you would get more targeted traffic to your website. Even though there are so many factors that can affect your webpage rank, keywords remain crucial for SEO. If you are using them correctly and in the right places, you tell search engines that your website is worth visiting and it provides more value to the searchers than your competitors.