In the last post I talked about how to find and evaluate low competition keywords. As promised, this one continues with a discussion of how to use keywords in an article or post.
There are two ways you can use those relatively high search volume and low competition phrases in your content. You work them into an existing post or you can write a new post targeting the keyword.
Most often I end up doing both.
Work the Keywords into an Existing Post
I usually write away at a post without worrying about keywords. If I stop to check for keywords in the middle of writing, I know my post will not flow as naturally as if I just write whatever comes into my head.
Once I have a first draft of the post, I go back and look for keywords that might fit well with what I have already written. Then, I go back and look for places I can fit the phrases in while keeping the language natural. Always write for humans - never for search bots.
In the last post I did some keyword research for growing tomatoes. A section of that content might look like this if I write if off the top of my head.
Most gardeners buy small tomato plants from a nursery and transplant them to their own garden. They can be grown from seeds but that takes more time and special equipment to start them indoors. Good varieties for new growers include Better Boy, Creole, Big Boy, Early Girl, Brandy Wine, Celebrity, Lemon Boy, and just about any variety of cherry or grape tomato.
It is best to plant number of varieties that mature at different times to ensure an extended harvest. Choose a sunny spot to transplant your young tomatoes. A site receiving full sun, at least seven hours a day, is best. Tomatoes need lots of sunshine for the best taste...."
With the content written. it is time to find some good keywords we can fit in. "Grow tomatoes" would seem like a natural fit but a keyword search shows it is actually a poor choice. The competition is high. We can do better.
The post is about growing tomatoes outdoors in a garden so how about "growing tomatoes outside?" That gets a "Great" rating with pretty low competition - looks good.
The first line of the post currently looks like this:
Do you want to learn how to grow your own plump juicy tomatoes?
Let's change it to this:
Do you want to learn all about growing tomatoes outside in your own garden?
We can use that plump juicy part some where else in the post.
Don't stop with one keyword search. Look for other phrases in the text you wrote and search those. If I try "tomato plants" I get this result.
There is a good one there too - "grow tomato plants" seems like a natural fit and gets a Great ranking.
The opening sentence could be:
Do you want to learn how to grow tomato plants?
Simple and right to the point.
Grab some other phrases from the text and run keyword searches on those too. Best tomato plants is another good example from the search above.
After doing that and adding an eye catching image, here is the revised content I came up with:
Do you want to learn how to grow tomato plants? You've come to the right place! Plump, juicy tomatoes are easy to grow almost anywhere. They need warm summer days, plenty of sunshine and water. With those three things - and patience, the fruit takes quit a long time to mature - you will be rewarded with lush plants full of vine ripe tomatoes!
Most gardeners buy small tomato plants from a nursery and transplant them to their own garden. They can be grown from seeds but that takes more time and special equipment to start them indoors. Best tomato varieties for new growers include Better Boy, Creole, Big Boy, Early Girl, Brandy Wine, Celebrity, Lemon Boy, and just about any variety of cherry or grape tomato. It is best to plant a number of varieties that mature at different times to ensure an extended harvest.
Choose a sunny spot to transplant your young tomato plants. A site receiving full sun, at least seven hours a day, is best. Tomatoes need lots of sunshine for the best taste....
With just a little effort searching for good keywords in Jaaxy I found eight for this short portion of a post. They are underlined in the reworked version. As you can see, every phrase you write is a potential keyword. Some didn't need any change at all while some just needed minor tweaking to make them low competition keywords. Because I wrote first then looked for the keywords, the writing stays natural and not forced like it might if you try to include a bunch of preselected keywords.
Write a New Post
As you search for good keywords for your existing posts, you will come across phrases that don't really fit well but that are ideas for future posts. Write them down and use them as for new content. You will soon have so many great article ideas that you will never be at a loss for a topic.
While searching for keywords for this short passage, I came up with many possible ideas for future content.
- How to grow tomatoes in pots
- Grow tomatoes from seeds
- How to grow tomatoes in the winter
- Grow tomatoes upside down
- How to grow tomatoes for beginners
- Tips for growing tomatoes
That is just a small sample from the two example searches. Other searches I did turned up other ideas. You can keep writing content for a long time with what you find.
The Post Title
Pick one strong - low competition keyword from your search that you have included in your content and use that keyword as your title. For the tomato piece I would choose "How to Grow Tomatoes" for my title. It is a good low competition phrase that works for me.
I know many people will say the title should come first and you can do it that way if it you choose. I prefer to pick a title from the text so that I don't have to figure out how to work it into the post - it's already there.
Add a little something after the main title to make it more interesting. If you don't, Google will just tack on your website name. That gets boring when you have a lot of content online. It's better for you to add a snippet that might make it more likely for someone searching to click your site. Maybe:
How to Grow Tomato Plants - Juicy Fruit from the Garden
Or maybe not. I'm sure you can do better.
Keyword Frequency
You will see many different opinions about how often the main keyword should appear in the document. I tend to go with a less makes room for more philosophy. Using the main keyword sparingly opens up more opportunity to include other keywords. Google only needs to see a keyword once to rank for it so I would rather get a bunch of them in the post.
Your main keyword should appear in the title, in the first few paragraphs of the content and maybe once near the end. However, as long as it comes up naturally in the content I don't worry too much about it.
I hope you found this post about including keywords in content helpful. You questions and comments are always very welcome.