Website SEO – keywords explained
Have you got a website, but are struggling to get visitors? Then you need to apply a little SEO to your content by thinking about ’keywords’.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It describes the process of making your website more accessible, visible and relevant to people searching for information online.
One of the core elements of SEO involves matching the keywords in your website content to the ‘key words’ that people are typing into search engines such as Google.
What is a keyword?
Think about how you’d search for information about a new digital camera using the web. You might type in best digital cameras. Or, if you know the make and model you’re interested in, you could type in Panasonic Lumix FS16 review.
All of these are ‘key words’, aka keywords. Search engines aim to match what you type into the search box to web pages that best answer your query.
With good SEO, your web pages will be found when people type keywords into a search engine.
How keywords are used
For example, if you want your website to show up in the list of search results when somebody types in therapist in Manchester, you need to include the words therapist in Manchester in one (or more) places, such as…
- the ‘title tag’ of each website page (the words that appear right at the top of the window)
- your headings or subheadings
- within a paragraph, especially in the first or last sentence
- in image captions
- in links to other pages throughout your website
To increase relevance, you should also include variations of your keyword phrase. In this case: therapy in Manchester, Manchester therapist or counselling in Manchester.
Don’t stuff your website with keywords
Use keywords wisely and don’t go over the top. The text on your website still needs to be clear and concise without constant repetition. So, insert the keywords into your text in as natural a way as possible.
Further advice
We’ve written a blog post that gives you more SEO tips – you can find it here.