What are Keywords?

Keywords are terms or phrases that, when implemented into your website, can help connect you with people who are looking for what you do. In other words, when the keywords you use on your site are in alignment with the search terms people use to find the specific products or services you offer, there’s a better chance Google will present your website higher in the search results.

For example, if you were a dentist in Los Angeles, CA, phrases like “Dentist,” and “Dentist Los Angeles” would be good keywords because they’re actually terms people use to find a dentist in Los Angeles, CA.

Picking the Best Keywords

The quality of your keywords makes a big difference in how effective they are. Many factors go into determining which keywords are best for your website and blog, including:

• The size of your site
• How long it’s been around
• How many people are searching for a specific keyword phrase within the region(s) where you do business
• How much competition you’ll be facing for that particular keyword or keyword phrase
• How relevant a keyword phrase is for your business or organization

Making Your List

When optimizing content, you don’t want to have just one keyword phrase that you hammer on ad nauseam. Instead, you’ll want to create a well-rounded list of keyword phrases for every web page and blog post. Depending on the topic and the content length, this list could include 3–5 keyword phrases or more than a dozen. 

No matter the length of the list, make sure every single phrase is relevant to the topic, service or product you “discuss” in your content. Some call this “topic-based SEO,” among other things, but we just call it good writing.

For instance, if you have a pet food store that caters to dogs, well-written copy won’t be limited to dog food. You’ll want to talk about food for puppies as well as for older dogs … about different breeds of dogs and what foods might be best for them … and don’t forget dog treats! You might even want to cover how the foods you sell affect not only canine general health, but also canine dental health. You get the idea. Well-rounded keyword usage helps produce well-rounded content that’s good for the human eye — and for SEO.

Want to learn more about keywords and optimizing your website? Check out A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing by Joey Donovan Guido (our fearless leader over here at Cuppa SEO). Or, contact us anytime to schedule a complimentary consultation — we’re happy to take care of optimizing your website for you!

More SEO Tips …
– Optimizing Your Website: SEO By The Numbers
– Does Every Website Need SEO?
– 5 Simple Ways to Optimize Your Blog for Better SEO
– Soup Up Your Sub Headlines with SEO

The post Selecting the Best Keywords for Your Website appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

There’s No Relevant Search Volume

If you’re in an industry that is based solely on referrals — like higher end financial management firms, SEO may not be the best use of your marketing dollars. Why? Because if none of your customers are searching online for what you do, but rather ASKING trusted friends and colleagues, it could be more fruitful to invest in improving the user experience and conversion methodology on your website, as opposed to investing in SEO. Sure, you might receive inquiries from potential clients, but if your business model is based on clients that invest over $100k per year, and everyone who’s contacting you is looking to invest $100 bucks a month, it’s not a good fit.

Of course, when we create a keyword report for our clients we can tell if there are relevant queries that pertain EXACTLY to what each client does.

Difficulty Keeping Up

Search engine optimization used to be fairly straightforward, back in the day. By using certain keywords on your website, you could end up in the search results for those keywords, on whatever search engine your target audience was using. The problem with this was that unscrupulous marketers would employ practices like keyword stuffing: putting the same keywords over and over on a webpage, without context, to trick search engines into ranking the page first in the results for those keywords.

To prevent that, Google now uses complex algorithms to analyze the content of a webpage and determine where to rank it in search results. Keyword stuffing and similar nefarious SEO practices will now get your page penalized, and displayed to fewer people, rather than more.

Furthermore, those algorithms are constantly evolving and being refined. SEO practices that are rewarded now may be penalized (or at least become less important) the next time the algorithm changes. Keeping up with those changes and trying to optimize your content under ever-shifting guidelines is no easy task. So, if you can’t currently afford a specialized SEO/web design firm, you may wind up spinning your wheels trying to keep up with a confusing methodology like SEO. In other words, if you can’t do it right, it might not be worth your time — or it can even do your website harm.

Short-term Needs

There are a number of reasons why SEO might not be right for you. While it’s very effective as a long-term strategy, it’s not as useful for promoting things that are more immediate. This is because, SEO often takes around 90 days to kick in, which of course is way too long a time span if you’re looking to promote something that’s happening next week.

If you needed results that quickly, Facebook boosted posts, or LinkedIn sponsored updates may be a better avenue to pursue.

You Already Have More Business than You Can Handle

Yes, it happens. Established companies can often find themselves in a place where there’s so much business they can’t handle it. If this is the case, and you’re not planning on hiring more people anytime soon, the first thing to do is probably to have a process improvement expert help you improve workflow and efficiencies. And if you already have more business than you can handle, SEO isn’t necessary.

Still wondering if SEO is the right next step for your brand?
Feel free to contact Cuppa SEO anytime for a complimentary consultation, where we’ll look at your goals, your website — and your brand — as a whole.

The post Does Every Website Need SEO? appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

If you’re a business owner, you’ve probably heard the term, “keywords” referred to more than once in relation to your website. And although you may know they’re a critical element in search engine optimization (SEO), you may be wondering what keywords are exactly — and how the heck do you use them?

Keywords are Like a Phone Number

Keywords are words or phrases that help define what your website, and each of your web pages, is about. When researched and implemented correctly, they help Google and other search engines find you when someone is searching for what you do, sell or talk about.

Like the digits in your phone number, the sum of all of your keywords — coupled with the content on each of your web pages — tells Google exactly where to find you. In other words, keywords are identifiers that help search engines pair a person’s query, like “ice cream Madison WI,” with relevant results — in this case ice cream parlors in Madison.

Where you wind up in search results is contingent on many factors, including how well your site is optimized with keywords, how relevant your content is, how large your site is, how long it has been around, as well as other factors.

Based on these criteria, when someone searches for a particular phrase Google looks for matches and provides a list of results in the order of relevance Google’s algorithm, which is called Google Panda, believes is best.

What are the different types of keywords?

Main Keywords
Exactly what they sound like, these are the main keywords you’ll use on a web page. For instance, for this blog post, my main keywords phrases are, “what are keywords” and “keywords.” Through a bit of research, I’ve gleaned that these are good keywords to use for this particular topic. They have a good amount of searches each month, and they have very little competition from other marketing & SEO agencies.

Semantic & Secondary Keywords
Semantic and secondary keywords play a supporting role in the optimization of a web page. They’re good to use, but don’t have the oomph that a main keyword has, typically for a couple of reasons: (1) they have low search numbers, and/or (2) they have high competition. Someone who’s novice at SEO may use these as main keywords, or may overlook them completely. Two secondary keyword phrases in this article are “SEO keywords” and “long-tail keywords,” while “marketing and “Google Panda” are semantic keywords.

The truth is that using semantic keywords can sometimes unite a web page in a way that Google really likes — helping improve its authority and ranking in search results. Think about it, would you rather read an article that repeated the same keyword phrases over and over? Or one that offered some amount of variety and nuance?

Long-tail Keywords
This is a fancy term for using keyword phrases that are on the longer side. Typically, they fall into the semantic or secondary keyword category, but sometimes these longer phrases actually pack a lot of punch. Long-tail keywords are usually specific, like “wooden MacBook Pro laptop stand.” This exact phrase, researched in a linear fashion, actually gets ZERO searches per month. But its specificity helps produce excellent results, as each word is a defining element — especially “wooden.” Broken down into smaller elements like “laptop stand” and “MacBook laptop stand,” this phrase yields higher monthly search results.

Sometimes long-tail keywords start off with only a small amount of hits, only to gain popularity over time as a service or product gains traction in your industry — making the phrase a more important component of a website.

How to Gain an SEO Advantage

At best, individuals who don’t fully understand SEO people typically choose keywords they believe people are searching for. At worst, they don’t purposefully choose any keywords at all. This puts them at a disadvantage vs. a business that has taken the time, or hired a professional, to create a keyword report and implement optimal keywords into their website.

To gain an advantage over your competitors, you’ll need to make sure you’re using the very best keywords on each of your web pages in key areas including title tags, page copy and headlines. These aren’t always the keywords that get the most hits per month. Instead, they’re the ones that are going to have the most impact on getting you found. If you’re not sure how to do this, Cuppa SEO can help with a customized keyword report and SEO implementation that optimizes every nook and cranny of your website.

Ready to learn more?
Whether you have questions about keywords and SEO, or are ready to move forward with optimizing your website, feel free to contact Cuppa SEO to set up a complimentary meeting to discuss things further. We’re happy to learn more about your business, your goals and your immediate needs.

The post What are Keywords, and How Can They Help Your Website? appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

Have you heard of Google Panda?

He’s very smart. And although he’s cute, you don’t want to get on his bad side. Simply put, Google Panda is an algorithm that that filters websites into two main groups — sites it likes and sites it doesn’t like. The sites that Panda “likes” are upgraded in Google’s search results, while the ones it doesn’t like get downgraded.

Why You Should Care

If your website is breaking some of Panda’s rules your ranking could plummet, making it harder for you to connect with customers. If you adhere to Panda’s rules, and implement an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy that Panda likes, you’ll be in much better shape.

Here’s a top 10 list Panda dos and don’ts:

DO

• Make sure you have original content on all your pages. Original and boring won’t cut it with human eyes or the eyes of Google Panda. Your content has to be engaging and interesting — offering value and relevance to the reader. This is often referred to as “rich” content. If you don’t have someone on staff who can accomplish this, hire a copywriter who can.
• Use keywords correctly in each web page as part of your SEO strategy. Keyword phrase choice, placement and density all play a part in where you’ll rank. 
• Use Market Samurai, a free SEO strategy tool, to help you choose good keywords and keyword phrases. Make sure you understand how to use this tool by reviewing the videos in their DOJO. If you don’t use a tool like Market Samurai, you’re essentially  throwing darts at a dartboard in the dark, while you’re blindfolded.
• Write for the reader, not the search engine. If you have nothing relevant to say on a web page or in a blog post, just delete it! Panda hates pages that have been created for the sole purpose of increasing traffic. Google Panda fancy’s pages that are full of relevant content, written with “passion.” Yes, algorithms are now smart enough to know (for the most part) if you’re posting with sincerity or if you’re just greedy for more traffic.
• Learn about your customers. What are they looking for? What problems do they need solved? What solutions can you offer them through your website or blog?

DON’T

• Lift content from other websites. This is called duplicate content, and it’s a rule breaker. Instead, write your own.
• Cut corners on keywords or quality content. A successful SEO strategy entails taking the time you need to create pages that are optimized well.
• Be boring. If a web page is boring to you, it’s probably boring to everyone else (including Panda).
• Create web pages with the mindset of getting more traffic. Instead, create web pages that people will get excited about. This will get you more traffic AND more business. Plus, Google Panda will like you.
• Use too many keywords. This is called “stuffing” and it’s another big rule breaker.

I hope you enjoyed this top 10 list of Google Panda Do’s and Don’ts.

Thanks for visiting!

The post Top 10 Google Panda Do’s and Don’ts appeared first on Cuppa SEO.