SEO keywords and traffic are like bolts and nuts in the blogging industry. It is a fact that we are obsessed with methods to increase blog traffic and use the right keywords. I don’t think there is a serious blogger who doesn’t give a damn about the almighty blog traffic and keywords.
People say and talk about using the right keywords, keyword density and all those words with keywords in it. Does it make any sense to you? Sometime, I felt that keywords usage are overkill in most situations.
Before scrolling down, ask yourself what do you know about keywords?
Not so sure? Don’t worry! Maybe this slide can show you a thing or two …
What is SEO keyword all about?
This would probably go back to centuries back, you know … during the Romans … okay, kidding! Keyword is one or more words that have value to (not humans) search engine bots (more on that in a minute). Keywords are not chosen words and they are obviously, just like any other words.
Referring to the above, what makes keywords (or SEO keywords) so important that you can see nearly all blogging tips are emphasizing heavily on it? Here’s what I think in my own terms.
Keywords are words ranged between one to five words which are seen important by search engine bots (some call it spiders, crawlers, you got the drill).
Don’t get me wrong on this. SEO keywords is selected words which are seen highly valuable to these search engine crawlers and in terms of SEO. However, for most of us, these are just another bunch of words.
In blogging, keywords can be considered words which can describe what the whole sentence is all about in just a few words. Let’s take a quick example below:
Search for: Ways to increase blog traffic
The keyword for this could possibly be blog traffic 0r even increase traffic. These are what called as SEO keywords.
Okay, I know it sounds complicated. So, take a step back. Breath in and head below. Let’s go with another approach for those who want to understand more.
If you are searching for blogging tips (for example) on Google, you will probably see these:
Do you notice the words which are bolded above? Whenever you type blogging tips, articles or blogs with high usage of the words will be ‘˜picked up’ by search engines. Don’t fuss over this first. What you need to do is to understand the concept behind the importance of keywords in terms of SEO and search engines.
Differentiate quality SEO keywords with low (or no) quality keywords
Like it or not, we are the one who determine the value of keywords. Let’s see it from this approach, alright?
500,000 people search for blogging tips
500 people search for best blogging tips
Which do you think is the better quality keywords? Blogging tips is actually the clear winner here. I know and I am definitely sure there are like 50% of bloggers will be against this but hear me out first.
Since blogging tips has a higher search value, it will automatically beat any other competitors in terms of quality. Period.
Even if you are going to pay for Google Adwords, the keyword blogging tips will be more expensive than best blogging tips.
Congratulation! You had just learned how to find quality SEO keywords! Grab yourself a beer or a cup of coffee. The next part is going to be long.
Finding better quality keywords for blogs
I hope you had a good break earlier (if you have not, go bookmark this page and take a 5 minute break). In this article, I basically promised you how you can increase your blog traffic with SEO keywords right? Here’s how you can do it.
If you are going to choose blogging tips as your keyword, that is absolutely fine. In fact, it is a good SEO keyword honestly. However, you are going to compete with thousands if not millions of websites who is using blogging tips as their SEO keyword as well.
Now, Google and other search engines had thought about this as well. So, there comes another term, long tail keywords. Heard about it? Maybe yes, maybe not.
For those who have not heard about long tail keywords, you came to the right spot as I am going to explain to you what that means. For those who know what it means, don’t go away! Have a read what I have to say and maybe you can share with me your idea using the comment form below.
What are long tail keywords?
Long tail means, long tail obviously. Is that so god-damn obvious? Indeed! But when it comes to keywords, it could also mean using longer keywords. For easier understanding, see below.
Quality SEO keyword + other words = long tail keywords
Long tail keywords are usually three words or more. Try not exceeding five words thought. Too long and you basically drop the value of the keyword in terms of SEO.
When you talk about increasing traffic to blog, you talk about using the right keyword. You want to get the more audience, traffic and search engines to point to your blog. And probably make them drool over the keyboard when they look at your blog. Whoa! Too much graphic!
I just want to say that to build good traffic to your blog, you need to focus on all types of keywords, well…basically just a few types only right? I like to go 70-30 or 80-20 where bigger chunk of keywords goes to common keywords people use and the small minority goes to high quality keywords and SEO keywords.
Long tail keywords doesn’t mean that these are low quality keywords. However, a part or a huge part of these long tail keywords are consist of some high quality SEO keywords which search engines determined them as important. Basically, normal words which ‘˜hang around’ with those famous words make them all, long tail keywords. Got it?
Recap on using SEO keywords for traffic boost
SEO keywords is important when it comes to building blog traffic. I said above and I will say it again. Striking a balance of keywords in your blog and article will actually determine how well the blog will rank on search engines.
Do I believe the hype on what SEO keywords people are talking about? Not really but I do believe that SEO keywords play a huge role in the success of an article, blog or website.
What do you think? Feel free to reply to this using the comment form below. If you like this article, could you please share this for me using the red Google+ button below?