As search engine algorithms get more complicated, search engine optimization (SEO) has no option but to follow along with them. This has obviously made life a little more difficult for SEO professionals looking to make their websites rank highly in search results. 

Fortunately, something has remained true. For a page to rank, there’s a need to use well-targeted and relevant keywords. This is also referred to as keyword optimization. 

Keywords are basically the words that your potential customers will type in when looking for a product or service that you offer. As soon as someone types in a particular set of keywords, search engines don’t just randomly pull up results. It gives results that are based on a number of factors, including the words entered by the user in their search. 

To provide highly relevant results, a search engine will first look for websites that look like they’re related to the search the most, such as those with words or phrases in the search query. So, it’s evident that to do well, one must know which keywords have the best likelihood of a conversion rate and use them tactically on the website. 

As you optimize your site’s keywords, one of the best tactics you need to employ is how to map your keywords across your site. After identifying keywords, this is probably one of the most important skills you’ll have to master. This article will touch on it, but you should read further to learn more in-depth information about how to do it.

This article will guide you through the proper ways to do keyword optimization. Because if you do it incorrectly, top search engines may penalize you, which will harm your goal of ranking high. Here are some tips to optimize your keywords properly:

1. Start By Auditing Your Current On-Page SEO

Before you make any changes, you have to take a look at how your content is performing in different respects. How’s your current strategy working out? 

And to find this out, here are some things you need to consider: 

• Title Tags

Your title tags are the ones that inform a search engine of what each page is about, so make sure they’re well-optimized. They should be unique and not too long. The perfect length should be between 50 and 65 characters. 

• Meta Descriptions

These are the short descriptions of between 100 and 155 characters that will show just below your webpage in a search result. Your meta description needs to be focused and clear while staying within the optimal character count.

• Header Tags

Check all your headings and subheadings to make sure they’re in the correct format in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Search engines value this little detail, and keeping your headings in bold but regular text will hurt your on-page SEO. 

• URL Structure

Your website’s uniform resource locators (URL) should be short and straightforward for the best results. The URL should also ideally use relevant keywords, probably coinciding with those used in the meta title. 

• Images

Make sure that each image file name and the accompanying alt text are aligned with your content and relevance. This is because a search engine will use them to ascertain how to classify and rank your content.

• Your Content

In your audit, you should also check to see if the content is engaging and relevant. If it’s less than 300 words in length, then you might want to bump up your word count a little. In all this, ensure quality, as it’s the main thing that will keep a user on your page after they click on it. 

• The Links

Make sure that any links in your content are working and not broken. Check also if the links don’t lead to content that will directly compete with yours and that your anchor text is descriptive and relevant enough. 

• Social media

If one of your main goals is marketing, make sure to link your social media profiles to your pages. 

Once you finish checking for these things, you may now start to narrow down your keywords. 

2. Find The Keywords On Your Website

You could use the help of an SEO tool here, or you could manually type in a list of keywords in different search engines and observe how your website is performing. To do this, you’ll need to research your site’s most relevant keywords. 

Once you begin this process, you’ll want to pay attention to the metrics associated with each keyword. When you notice high-ranking keywords, you should be thinking about how to find associated keywords, possibly through an SEO tool as well, to save yourself time. Do the same with high converting keywords. 

3. Map Your Keywords 

Now that you know all the keywords you want to use across your site, you should now be concerned about placement. Where are you going to place each one on your site? This will help you avoid loading identical keyword sets on too many pages across your site. 

In addition, it will also prevent having an uneven distribution where you load too many or all on the front page while other pages don’t have any keywords. To do this well, you must place them on a page that has content related to the particular keyword. 

4. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Search engines won’t take kindly to keyword stuffing. This is when, in a bid to rank higher, you place too many keywords in unnatural places in your content that the content’s quality declines. 

When you stuff keywords and your content quality takes a nosedive, the keywords on your page stop doing what you’re hoping they will. Any search engine will actually punish you for it.  

Conclusion

With these strategies, you can optimize your keywords for greater sales, traffic, and overall SEO. The key is to know who you want your target audience to be. From there, you’ll most likely figure out the keywords you need to be working with or those that will work best.