The modern consumer searches for and obtains information about products and services much differently than years ago. With the Internet so widely and easily accessible, businesses need to get on board or get left behind. If you already have a website and a digital marketing strategy, you are on the right track. However, are you using keywords in the content that you are putting on that site?

If you answered no to that question, you’ve got some work ahead of you! The reality is that there is no content without keywords. Remember when we talked about creating unique, credible and valuable content – well, once you have that down, what good is it if no one can find it? Using keywords allows your content to become searchable, and for a business, this is imperative!

How To Find Appropriate Keywords
Keywords are not just phrases and words that you imagine are popular. In fact, there are many resources out there that writers can utilize to search and find the most searched keywords and keyword phrases.

We recommend Google’s Keyword Tool for your all-purpose keyword searching. It allows you to type in your topic ideas and words and figure out which variations of keywords – both long-tailed and short-tailed—fit in best with your content.

This tool will also show you how competitive the search is both globally and locally – this is great for businesses that are targeting local customers. And this will also give you an idea of how hard you need to work to generate an authority for yourself around specific keywords.

Places you can also consult for topic ideas and keyword ideas:

• Twitter – you can search anything and see what users are talking about
• Ubersuggest
• Your website’s analytics – Do you use Google Analytics for your site? Find out what keyword referrals are coming in. These are personalized to your site so you can really capitalize on what people are consulting your expertise for.

Once you have a list of keywords to implement, the next step is to figure out a way to get them into your content, naturally. Content that is stuffed with keywords will not only sound “spammy” but it will also not do well in search engine optimization, either.

Implementing Keywords Into Content
There are many different strategies that people use to implement keywords. We recommend doing so as naturally as possible.

Above all, you want your keywords to be consistent with:

• Relevancy to your topic
• Uniqueness to your topic

If your content is relevant to the keyword, it should flow naturally. As for long-tailed and short-tailed keywords, you may choose to implement them as they appear in the keyword suggestion tools, or you may choose to break them up. With the way the search engines work, the appearance of the word is enough, even if it is not in the exact long-tailed order. Google has gotten pretty smart about creating a search engine experience that users can benefit most from!

Above all, remember the golden rule: content that is unique, credible and valuable will keep your readers on the page. The keywords may bring people to your content, but you have to work hard for the rest!