Keywords are the words and phrases that people enter into search engines to get results. They might be short and simple or they are long and complicated. Either way, the searchers want answers. Your site has those answers but how do searchers know that your site has those answers? By writing content centered around words or phrases the search engine then knows what your content is about. That way when searchers enter those words or phrases into the search engine, your page will pop up. Now, it’s a little more complicated than that but at its basic level that is what keywords are. Knowing that search engines display results that reflect the user’s query, that is what they enter into the search engine, you can begin to write content that matches their queries. So instead of just writing about whatever you want and hoping users find the content you wrote, you can look at what users are searching for and then write content to answer those questions. This is where the power of keywords truly come into play. By writing content that answers users queries, you provide them with an answer and a place to return when they have other related questions. That only happens though if you answered their exact question and did a good job doing so. With that in mind, there is another level added to this idea of keywords. So now not only should you answer the users’ question perfectly, but you should do so in a way that retains them as a “customer”. So, instead of just writing whatever you want, take some time and figure out what users are asking and where there is a gap in answers that your content and expertise can fill.
One Response
Hi Alex!
I like your point about putting yourself into consumers’ minds and asking what they would be searching rather than what you would be searching. This is important because obviously we want consumers to find us and the only way to do that is to optimize ourselves based on what they are and will most likely be searching. I think there’s actually some psychology behind putting ourselves into consumers’ shoes (consumer behavior) so it’s super cool that it applies to business fields.