Every blogger dreams of having massive organic traffic in their blog. But the problem is that appearing in the top search results isn’t that easy anymore.
Earlier, you would find keywords that had low competition and high traffic. And then use them strategically in your content.
Marketers would also use a bunch of meta keyword tags to tell Google what the post should rank for. And Google obliged, too, because back then, it wasn’t smart enough to understand what your content is about. So it used meta keywords to understand its context.
But things are not the same anymore.
Unlike in the past, search engines are no longer using just keywords and meta keywords to rank your posts. Google is getting smarter every day, and it now uses Artificial Intelligence(AI) to understand the intent of your post.
So instead of ranking your content just for certain relevant keywords, it now focuses on offering a better user experience by matching the search results with the user’s search intent. But this doesn’t mean keywords are gone for good.
Although you can say that for meta keywords, you still need to optimize your content to help Google understand it better. For that, you’ll always need keywords. But how do you use keywords in your content for the smarter search engines and help your post attract massive organic traffic? Let’s find out.
Focusing on long-tail keywords is a great way of attracting more traffic organically. Also, such keywords have a higher possibility of converting your visitors.
But what exactly is a long-tail keyword. The keywords that consist of more than 3 words are called long-tail keywords. Such keywords are easy to rank due to their lower level of competition and are highly targeted.
People using such keywords in their search query are often in the ‘ready to make a purchase’ stage. These users have already reached a stage where they are narrowing down their options by making their search queries more specific.
Long-tail keywords give them a chance to find what exactly they are looking for. So instead of looking for ‘best smart TV'; they would probably make their query even more specific by looking for ‘best 46 inches Samsung smart TV.'
This means that when you use long-term keywords in your content, you’re actually narrowing down your focus to those users who are ready to convert. So it can not only help you attract more traffic but also massively boost your conversion rate.
If you want to rank for multiple keywords, you should know how to use different keywords in your content. But what’s more important is to rank very well for your primary keyword.
Of course, you can use synonyms and related keywords in your post, but it’s extremely important for you to identify the keyword that has a higher possibility of ranking in the top 3 results.
Once you know these keywords, use the best SEO practices to strategically include them in your title, heading tags, meta description, and your content. This will help you rank higher for your targeted keywords, and you can easily secure a top position in the search results.
Once that is done, it’s time to shift your focus on synonyms and LSI keywords. LSI keywords are those keywords that are semantically related to your primary keywords.
There are many free LSI tools like LSIGraph that offer LSI keywords for your targeted keyword. So use them to find more LSI keywords and use them in your content.
Doing this will give a quick boost to your content, and it will start showing up for different search terms.
Heading tags or subheadings are not just meant to give your blog post a structure and improve its readability. It has another major advantage too. And that is nothing but to improve your search rankings.
By using your keywords in the subheadings, you help Google index your post. It’s a great way to help search engines understand the content intent and find a position in the top search results.
So never create posts without adding relevant subheadings. Doing that can only decrease your chance of optimizing your content for better results.
You must have heard experts say that it’s easier to rank in Google if you write long-form content. By long-form, the experts actually mean blog posts with 5000+ words. But it’s not really easy to create blog posts of that length too often. Not only do such posts take time, but you also need to put in a lot of effort to create them.
But the good news is that you can skip creating such long articles if you can create several blog posts with similar topics.
Once you have a few posts on the same topic, interlink them using relevant anchor texts. This is a very powerful SEO technique to improve your search results. When you write a lot of content on a similar topic, Google thinks that you have authority over that topic. This helps you rank higher in SERPS.
For example, you create a home decor article on how to decorate your living room. Now create several other posts around the same idea like quick home decor tips, best living room decor items, how to feng shui your living room, etc.
Now you can link all of them to the main post (how to decorate your living room). This will make your blog post more relevant for your users by matching the content to the search intent of the user. As a result, it will start having higher authority and will appear in the top search results.
Nowadays, boosting your search rankings doesn't simply depend on keyword targeting and keyword stuffing. Rather it is more important to work on matching the search intent of your audience. But that doesn’t mean you stop using keywords altogether in your blog posts. After all, it’s the keywords that help Google understand the context and the intent of the post and match it with search queries. So be smart with the way you use them, and you’ll soon find your post in the top search results.