![search terms](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/3hlB7H8Jm58yl97oN0cnkT/ac8ce51ba45d4dcf7d50ff9884fbbb4e/search_terms.png) <a href="https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1454165804606-c3d57bc86b40?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=870&q=80" target="blank">Image Source</a> 

Keywords are the linchpin of every top-performing search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.

The fate of your SEO strategy and website depends on the quality and relevance of the keywords you choose to target.

But extensive keyword research doesn’t guarantee SEO success. You need a framework to sort, filter, and organize the selected keywords.

Otherwise, you’ll find your team members racking their brains, trying to monitor keyword performance and rankings.

Keyword planning is crucial for improving the outcome of your SEO strategy. Also, it skyrockets the efficiency of your SEO experts. It even helps maximize the return on investment (ROI) of your paid search ad campaigns.

That’s the reason professional <a href="https://www.gotchseo.com/keyword-research-services/" target="blank">keyword research services </a> use various metrics and tools to organize their keywords.

In the following sections, we’ll explore a few powerful keyword organization techniques used by keyword services. Let’s dive right in.

## 1. Analyze Value and Usefulness
While evaluating a keyword, the first thing you need to consider is how useful it’s going to be for your website.

An easy way of assessing usefulness is to check the search volume and cost per click (CPC) associated with a particular keyword. 

Use any standard keyword research tool to find those metrics for your selected keyword.

Also, run a Google search with the keyword to assess the ranking potential of your keyword. Typically, you can divide your keywords into the following groups based on ranking potential:

- Top - Keywords with the highest-ranking potential and competition
- Moderate - Keywords with decent ranking potential and low competition
- Bottom - Ideal for finding long-tail keywords and variations of your target keywords.

## 2. Prioritize Relevance
Even keywords with the best ranking potential will prove to be futile if they aren’t relevant to your brand/industry.

You need a thorough understanding of your target audience and niche to understand whether a keyword is relevant to your brand.

Analyzing keyword relevance will go a long way to help you streamline the list of target search terms. Also, it’ll come in handy when you’re creating <a href="https://moz.com/blog/the-advanced-guide-to-keyword-clustering" target="blank">keyword clusters</a> for your content strategy.

## 3. Understand Search Intent
If you’re targeting keywords without understanding the associated intent, you’re aiming in the dark.

Keywords describe what your target audience is looking for. Search intent describes why they’re looking for it.

Typically, keywords can be divided into three groups based on intent:

1. Informational (example: ‘content marketing tips’)
2. Navigational (example: ‘content strategy guide HubSpot’)
3. Transactional (example: ‘free keyword research tool’, ‘best keyword research tool’, etc.)

Enter your target keyword into the Google search bar. Check out the topmost organic listings for a clear idea of the search intent associated with that keyword.

Make sure you map search intent to each stage of the <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/what-is-the-buyers-journey" target="blank">buyer’s journey</a>.

For instance, if you want to attract consumers in the awareness stage of the buyer’s journey, your best bet is to use informational keywords.

On the other hand, consumers in the decision stage of the buyer’s journey are more likely to use transactional keywords in their search queries.

## 4. Identify Brand-Specific Search Terms
Brand-specific search terms are the ones that include the name of your brand/company. Organize all such keywords into a single group. They’re particularly useful for building brand awareness. 

## 5. Sort for Product Terms
If your business offers a broad spectrum of products/services, it’s wiser to sort and filter your keywords according to product terms. You can group your keywords into the following categories:

- Search terms related to products sold by your company
- Search terms related to products sold by your competitors
- Substitute and complementary product terms

## 6. Explore Business-Specific Terms
It’s another clever way to organize keywords based on their relevance to your brand. Business-specific terms could encompass a wide array of keywords that are related to your industry.

You need a deep understanding of your target audience to select relevant business-specific search terms.

For instance, if you’re running a digital marketing agency, business-specific keywords for your industry might include:

- Digital marketing company
- Social media marketing agency
- SEO services
- Instagram marketing company

If your target audience includes lawyers who are looking to establish their online presence, you’re better off using keywords related to ‘SEO services.’

On the other hand, if you want to target young entrepreneurs looking to build their personal brand, ‘Instagram marketing company’ would be a more suitable keyword.

## 7. Leverage Google Keyword Planner
Manually filtering various search terms and organizing them into lists is time-consuming and inefficient.

The good news is that various keyword planning tools are available to simplify the process.

If you’re looking for a free and easy-to-use tool for organizing your target keywords, <a href="https://ads.google.com/intl/en_in/home/tools/keyword-planner/" target="blank">Google Keyword Planner</a> is a great choice.

You can use the tool to filter your keywords based on advanced parameters, such as location and language. Also, you can group your keywords based on their relevance to specific topics.

## Make the Most of Your Keyword Research Strategy
Identifying high-performing target keywords will only take you so far. If you want your SEO strategy to yield the best results, you need to organize your keywords into meaningful groups.

Evaluate the usefulness, relevance, and intent of various search terms to identify the ones that are worth targeting. Also, use a feature-packed tool, like Google Keyword Planner, to streamline the process.


organize

Powerful keyword organization techniques used by keyword services.

7 Search Term Organizing Methods Used by Professional Keyword Services

![seo](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/3guvy7qFxmquh5nJSMF0tI/a0d787315b2eae11e9a2fff7866892a2/seo.jpg)
Search engine optimization (SEO) may feel like technical wizardry, but it’s simply the art of making websites more visible in search engine results (like Google and Bing) for specific keywords. 

For example, someone that wants to look at more information about Allstate might type “<a href="https://www.quickquote.com/allstate-life-insurance-review/" target="blank">Allstate insurance online</a>” into Google’s search box. Being #1 — or close to it — is really the name of the game here. 

When you’re looking for someone to __lead__ your SEO team, a few characteristics come to mind: strong skills in seeing the ultimate roadmap ahead, careful attention to detail, and a deep well of technical knowledge. An SEO team lead is always changing and trying to keep up with Google’s curves. 

### Allstate Excels at Making Insurance Come Alive
When choosing someone to lead your SEO team, a deep understanding of content creation is important. Creating content that’s engaging and easy to understand keeps them on the page longer and lets them know the site is a resource they can use again. 

Allstate takes time on its website to explain how its programs and offerings work with feature-rich articles that are perfect for SEO purposes. Visitors not only learn about these programs but also get more information on how to save money on car insurance. 

Building strong content that remains evergreen is a  <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/44-underutilized-seo-strategies-and-tactics" target="blank">strong SEO strategy</a>. The right lead for your SEO team embraces strong content, builds strategies around strong content, and knows that it takes an entire team to build great content. 

### Macy’s Uses SEO to Make Online Shopping Fun 
There’s nothing more frustrating than going online to shop for everyday items but struggling through a company’s website. Macy’s is changing the way we shop online by focusing on navigation and clear product descriptions for every item in stock. 

Good SEO team leads look at what’s working, and it’s great to see that Macy’s, a retail brand going back to 1858, continues to innovate for the web that we have today. 

One of the key metrics in SEO isn’t just keywords, even though keywords are certainly important. It’s about how long visitors stay on the site. A visitor that spends an hour on the site browsing signals to Google that the site does satisfy the needs of its searchers, boosting the site’s visibility overall. 

Leadership in the SEO space isn’t just looking at what’s working, it’s also about looking at how to improve for the future. Like any technical project, SEO is about constant refinement, feedback, measurement, and revision. What worked in 2005 just won’t fly today.
![fast webpages](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/y2Lxp1Gh6VMECWPiUD6cN/686e3e4e2ecafdff43e3cfc10dd3ea08/fast_webpages.jpg)
### REI.com Keeps Search Attention High With Fast Webpages
Can a website be too fast? Absolutely not. You can never have too much speed with the way websites load these days, but you can certainly have a slow and unresponsive website. In terms of priorities, most people expect any web page to load within a matter of seconds. Anything over five seconds is visibly noticeable and can cause visitors to click away. 

REI.com is our next example, and it’s very clear that someone’s SEO team is in full swing at the company. Indeed, speed is a strong indicator, and today’s SEO teams should be concerned with overall page load speed. 

The best person to lead your SEO team should have a good understanding of how Google’s  <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/evolution-google-serp" target="blank">search engine results</a> rank each page for the specific search term. 

### Etsy Makes Homemade Goods Fun to Shop for Online
Etsy is one of the top destinations for homemade goods online. People are making everything from earrings to dried herbs and offering them for sale. The site is well regarded for its SEO, ranking extremely high for numerous keywords and benefiting greatly from organic search traffic. 

Organic traffic is highly prized because, over time, it costs far less than pay-per-click advertising and other forms of paid marketing.

### The Road Ahead for Companies Pursuing SEO 
SEO isn’t just for big businesses. Small and medium-sized companies can study what’s working in SEO and build strategies that work with the setup they already have. When you’re looking for someone to lead your SEO team, make sure that they are taking the best practices from multiple industries from the very beginning. It truly makes all the difference.

Hiring an excellent SEO lead is not just a matter of chance. It’s a matter of evaluating the right combination of technical and presentation skills. Indeed, the ideal SEO team lead can speak to the technical elements of great SEO, like what we’ve referenced above on the leading company websites. 

Finding a rockstar is a cliche. You need more than that to lead your SEO team. You need someone willing to grow with your team.


When choosing someone to lead your SEO team, a deep understanding of content creation is important.

Who to Look for to Lead Your SEO Team

Ranking higher in the search results is the goal of every content marketer and blogger. That’s because over <a href="https://www.smartinsights.com/search-engine-optimisation-seo/seo-analytics/comparison-of-google-clickthrough-rates-by-position/" target="blank">62% of the available clicks</a> on Page #1 go to the top three positions in the search results.

But how do you rank higher in the search results?

That’s what you’ll discover in this article: seven tips for ranking higher in the SERPs.

# #1 - Optimize your meta tags

Every time you publish a new blog post or article, you should optimize the meta tags. Meta tags tell the search engines what your article is about.
There are only two meta tags you need to focus on: the title tag and the meta description
![optimize your meta tags](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/2UlKjdbq2zwruWczqZjdKK/b555e8a2e29811a1d469612102df3d5e/optimize_your_meta_tags.png)

## Title tag

Often called the SEO title, the title tag is the title of your article as it appears in the search results. It’s the first thing a searcher looks at when they see your SERP snippet in the search results.

Your title tag should contain your keyword and a benefit. What will the reader get from reading your article?

If you can, try to also include in your title tag:

- A number
- A power word
- A positive or negative sentiment

Numbers are easier to relate to than words. They tell the reader this is a listicle that can be skimmed and easily digested.

Power words are words that trigger an emotional response. Examples are:

- Discover
- Extraordinary
- Latest
- Unforgettable
- Irresistible
- Awe-Inspiring
- Shocking
- Step-by-Step
- Surprising

Here is a list of <a href="https://sumo.com/stories/power-words" target="blank">over 400 power words</a>.

Try to avoid title tags that are neutral in sentiment. People are either trying to get something or avoid something, so titles that have a positive or negative sentiment get more clicks.

Here are some examples:

- 5 Things You Should __Never Do__ When Selling a House (negative sentiment)
- 7 Tips For __Getting More__ Followers on Twitter (positive sentiment)

## Meta description

The other tag you need to optimize is the meta description. This is the 3 to 4 lines of text that appear in your SERP snippet, beneath the title tag. Your meta description should include:

- Your keyword
- A benefit from reading the article
- A Call To Action (CTA) (e.g. “Discover how to…”)

# #2 - Understand the search intent of the keyword phrase

To rank on Page #1 of the search results, you need to understand the search intent behind the keyword.  Search intent, also known as user intent and keyword intent, is a person’s purpose when they type a search query into a search engine. What is it they were looking for when they typed in that query?

I once did some keyword research and found a keyword with good monthly search volume and low competition. The keyword was ‘best free serp checker’. I decided I would write a blog post about ‘best free serp checkers’.

But then I typed that keyword into Google and what I found made me change my mind. Every single result on Page #1 of Google for that search query was an application or a piece of software for checking SERP results.

That was the search intent behind that keyword. People who typed that keyword into Google were not looking for an article comparing SERP checkers. They were looking for the software itself.

There are three main kinds of search intent:

__*Informational search*__

These are queries where the searcher is looking for information. An example would be ‘How many grams in an ounce’ or ‘what is a dslr camera’ or ‘lcd tv vs led tv’.

__*Commercial search*__

These are queries where the searcher is looking to buy a product or a service. Examples of commercial searches would be ‘best dslr cameras’, or ‘best lcd tvs’, or ‘flights to Rome’.

__*Transactional search*__

Transactional queries are ones where the searcher has gathered all the information they need and is ready to buy. Examples of transactional queries would be ‘dslr cameras under $1000’ or ‘lcd tvs under $2000’ or ‘cheapest flights to Rome’.

When you look at the search results for your chosen keyword, take note of what kind of results are showing up in the SERPs. Are they informational, commercial, or transactional? Your web page will need to match the type of search result that Google is showing for that keyword.

# #3 - Study the top 5 search results

A lot of people don’t realize that the secret to ranking on Page #1 of Google is staring you in the face. The top 5 results on Google for any given keyword contain all the clues you need.

That’s why you should closely examine the top-ranking pages for your chosen keyword.

Look at the type of articles that are ranking in the top results. Are they listicles, definitive guides, ‘how-to’ articles, or definitional articles?
If the top five articles for your keyword are listicles, then your article should be a listicle as well. Because that’s the kind of content that Google wants to show for that keyword.

Also, look at the word count of the top five articles. If they all have 2000 to 3000 words, then your article will have to be in that range as well. But if they are all 500 to 1000 words, then that’s the range you should aim for. I’ve sometimes gone up two or three positions in the search results simply by deleting 1000 words.

But the most important thing to do when you study the top five search results is to take note of the topics and subtopics that those articles cover. Your article will need to cover the same topics and subtopics. Ideally, your article should cover more topics and subtopics associated with that keyword than any other article on Page #1 of the search results.

To get an overall picture of the topics covered, copy and paste the headings and subheadings from the top 5 search results into a Google docs file. Sort them into categories and eliminate duplicates. Then make sure that your article covers all of those topics and subtopics.

You can add topics and subtopics to your article by looking at the ‘People Also Ask’ section and the ‘Related Searches’ section.

![people also ask](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/5535blCD03ebiBaLfcd5iS/7df75224853e73026d3371a1cf868bf8/people_also_ask.png)
![search results](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/69auwEeMwz0uorUF9jHQ0b/f2f9efb7b5563e2cad17d595d8c5d07d/search_results.png)

# #4 - Write powerful introductions

The Google algorithm records how long people stay on your page. The longer they stay, the more likely it is that your page answered their query. But if they click away within a few seconds, that tells Google that your page wasn’t a good match for the search query.

And that’s why a strong introduction is one of the keys to ranking well on Google. One of the most effective formulas for writing introductions is PAS:

- Pain
- Agitate
- Solve

Show the reader you understand their problem. Then paint a vivid picture of why it’s a problem. And finally, tell the reader there’s a solution and that’s what your article is about.

Here’s an example from <a href="https://backlinko.com/how-to-get-backlinks" target="blank">an article by Brian Dean</a>:

![write powerful introductions](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/1hxhuaJqNXw7cPcqHj2VOB/d7dbda5ca31cf1ec8d003cfd24b39e9a/write_powerful_introductions.png)

# #5 - Use transitional phrases

Transitional phrases are the lubricant that keeps your readers moving down the page. Transitions are a way of moving from one topic to the next. They are like signposts guiding the reader through your article.

But transitional phrases do much more than that.

They can also make your article conversational. They can give the reader a sense that you are having a one-to-one chat with them. And that’s the secret to reader engagement. 

Here are some examples:

- I think you’ll agree with me when I say…
- Here’s why that’s important…
- You won’t believe what we discovered…
- But there’s a catch…
- Fortunately, there’s a simple solution…

These phrases build a relationship with the reader. They make the reader feel that you understand them.

When the reader feels that you understand them, they’ll stay with you right to the end of the article. And that’s going to increase your ‘time on page’ (aka ‘dwell time’) which will improve your rankings.

You can read more about how to use transitional phrases in my SmartBlogger article: 

<a href="https://smartblogger.com/transitional-phrases/" target="blank">How to Use Transitional Words & Phrases to Make Your Writing Flow (with Examples)</a>

# #6 - Get your website to score high for core web vitals (CWV)

In 2020 Google announced three new page experience signals which affect how well a page will rank in the search results:

- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
- FID (First Input Delay)
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)

These core web vitals are mainly about speed but they also deal with other aspects of user experience. For example, cumulative layout shift is the unexpected shifting of webpage elements while the page is still loading. This happens when content changes dimensions while the page is loading. A common cause of CLS is unspecified image dimensions. When the dimensions of an image have not been set, the space allocated to an image will change as the text in the page loads. 

You can check your website’s core web vitals in Google Search Console:

![google search console](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/4J7RYRyOZmxbRRZ7BsZQaO/1d43d02c17297248bfd80ca1dbddaf98/google_search_console.png)

You can also get a CWV report on individual pages using <a href="https://pagespeed.web.dev/" target="blank">Google’s Page Speed Insights</a> tool:

![page speed insights](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/92z3aEbhu9TmcBvBFUPBN/482f48c900913b59c94f833da1c05584/page_speed_insights.png)

Core Web Vitals are mostly about speed - how fast your web page loads.
The best ways to improve your core web vitals are:

1. Change to a web host that has a faster server response time
2. Install a caching and speed optimization plugin such as <a href="https://wp-rocket.me/" target="blank">WP Rocket</a> or <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/" target="blank">W3 Total Cache</a>
3. Optimize your images by making sure that they are not larger than they need to be (e.g. displaying an image 3000 pixels wide in a space that is only 850 pixels wide)
4. Use an image optimizer such as <a href="https://shortpixel.com/" target="blank">Short Pixel</a> or <a href="https://wpmudev.com/project/wp-smush-pro/" target="blank">Smush</a> to compress the images on your website.
5. Use a content delivery network (CDN) to deliver static web page resources such as image videos, images, Javascript, and CSS.

# #7 - Build Backlinks

Backlinks from relevant sites in your niche are <a href="https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-ranking-factors/" target="blank">arguably the most most important ranking factor</a>.

Here are three ways to build backlinks safely.

__*Contribute to HARO*__

HARO or Help A Reporter Out is a service that links journalists with sources. Journalists are frequently racing to meet deadlines and they often need quotes to use in their articles at very short notice.

When you register at HARO as a source, you can respond to journalists’ queries and get linked to from their major websites with high DA or domain authority.
What sets HARO apart from other link-building strategies is that the queries come to you. Instead of cold pitching people who are probably not interested in hearing from you, these link-building opportunities come knocking on your door. Three times a day you’ll receive an email from HARO with queries that you can answer. 

For more information on this, see my article <a href="https://robpowellbizblog.com/how-to-use-haro/" target="blank">How To Use HARO for Link Building</a>.

__*Publish Roundup Posts*__

People love seeing their name in a list of experts and they love sharing it with other people. And that’s why expert roundups are a good way of building backlinks. 

Reach out to 25 - 50 experts in your niche and ask them for a tip on a particular topic. When your article is live, send them a link and you’ll find that 20% to 30% will either share it on social media or link to it from their ‘About’ page.

__*Publish Top List Posts*__

Top list posts are articles that list the top experts or websites in a particular field. Here are some examples:

- 30 Top Marketers on Twitter
- 25 Top WordPress Blogs
- 35 Top Copywriters on Instagram

Once your article is live, send each featured expert or website a link to your article. You’ll find that a good proportion will link to it on their website as ‘social proof’.

### Conclusion
The search engine results or SERPs are hotly contested territory: the competition is intense. But these seven techniques will give you an edge over your competitors and help push your pages higher up the search results.
Even if you only implement two or three of these techniques, you will eventually see your rankings improve.


rank higher

Seven tips for ranking higher in the SERPs

7 Tips for Ranking Higher in the Search Results

SEO is an ongoing project and a very important aspect to your marketing strategy; it’s not something you can set and forget. Looking at numbers in Google Analytics (GA) and any other tool you use daily, is extremely critical. But what if you see that your Google rankings are dropping and aren’t sure why? In this post I’ll explain the most common mistakes that can lead to a drop in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

### Your website’s mobile and desktop loading speed is slow

This is one of the most important things Google looks at when considering what
websites to serve up in the SERP. If your website takes too long to load, this will also cause a <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1009409?hl=en" target="blank">high bounce rate</a> on whatever page is being clicked on, and as a general rule of thumb, users don’t want to wait more than five seconds for a web page to load. 

Common issues for slow website loading speed times can be due to images being too
large and need to be compressed, not using browser caching, and poorly designed
HTML or CSS code. 

A tool I like to use and test my website for speed regularly is <a href="https://developers.google.com/speed" target="blank">Google’s PageSpeed Insights</a> (PSI) because it shows how fast your website is loading for both mobile and desktop. It also provides detailed solutions on how you can fix any issues, plus it also gives you a grade from 1-100, with 100 being the best. The tool that I think does a great job on showing what images are too large and are causing slow loading times is <a href="https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/" target="blank">Screaming Frog</a>.

### Make sure your website is “mobile friendly.”

Making your website mobile friendly is often overlooked because people assume if your desktop site is optimized then your mobile site is optimized as well, and this is not the case. Google has a <a href="https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly" target="blank">great tool</a> to check out your mobile site for errors. Mobile traffic versus desktop traffic has been increasing year-over-year, so having a mobile SEO strategy in place will set you apart from the competition, or at least be a competitor in your industry. Here is some data from TechJury that shows just how important mobile was in 2021, and how the upward trend in mobile search is only growing more. 

Christo Petrov from TechJury says, “In the course of one year, desktop internet usage dropped from 54.86% to 48.88% while mobile users' share marked an increase from 37.38% to 47.59% in 2021. Mobile usage vs desktop usage comparison shows that 58% of all multi-device purchases use mobile to close the sale.” Be sure to review your mobile optimization strategy because this is where consumer buying is heading, and you don’t want competitors to take your customers.

### You Could Be Telling Google to Ignore Your Site

This is an often-overlooked error on websites that you could be telling Google not to index your site. To make sure Google is indexing your site, I like to use the Google Inspection Tool which you can view <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9012289?hl=en" target="blank">here</a>. If Google isn’t indexing your site, then you aren’t ranking in the SERP.

### Duplicate Content

The adage “Content Is King” is still the core of any SEO strategy. The most common problem is when content isn’t unique enough or you have duplicate content. Google ranks pages that offer value to readers, which is of course what you want as well so you can get them into your marketing/sales funnel. Just as your product is unique from your competitors, Google wants to see this by writing insightful, useful and shareable content. Ensure each page has unique content and a relevant keyword. Do not keyword stuff by adding the keyword multiple times all over the page - Google will flag this. Also, be sure each page has its own unique keyword. If you use an SEO plugin such as <a href="https://yoast.com/" target="blank">Yoast</a>, it will warn you if you’ve used this keyword on another page.

### On-page SEO

This is the most important part of SEO. Again, using a plugin like Yoast will help guide you to fully optimize each page of your website. Each page should have a unique: title tag, meta descriptions, alt tag(s) and header tags. None of these should exceed Google character limit, but Yoast will let you know if they do. 

Another very important on-page SEO task is to check for broken links. You want the user to have the best experience possible and being taken to a broken link is not a good experience.

Being on top of your website’s data is one of the most crucial things to look at, and while it might sound simple enough, not checking data everyday can cause things to easily be overlooked. Make sure you have the right tooling and reporting in place so you can track SEO performance. If you follow these SEO tips and tricks, you should have your website up to Google’s standards and reclaim or start ranking for your top keywords.

avoid mistakes

The most common mistakes that can lead to a drop in the Search Engine Results Page.

Mistakes in SEO that can lead to Google ranking drop

<br>
__Other Categories in this Series:__
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/1-underutilized-keyword-research-strategies" target="blank">#1- Underutilized Keyword Research Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/3-underutilized-content-strategies" target="blank">#3- Underutilized Content Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/4-underutilized-link-building-strategies" target="blank">#4- Underutilized Link Building Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/5-underutilized-technical-seo-strategies" target="blank">#5- Underutilized Technical SEO Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/6-underutilized-local-seo-strategies" target="blank">#6- Underutilized Local SEO strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/7-underutilized-video-seo-strategies" target="blank">#7- Underutilized Video SEO Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/8-miscellaneous-underutilized-seo-strategies" target="blank">#8- Miscellaneous Underutilized SEO Strategies</a>


OnSite optimization

This is what the experts say are the most underutilized SEO strategies regarding onsite optimization.

#2- Underutilized Onsite Optimization Strategies

SEO Internal Linking Strategy - SEO Voice Search Strategy

# Local SEO
<br>
I posed the question to SEO professionals what they thought was the most underutilized SEO strategy or tactic. I got over 100 responses which I broke up into <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/44-underutilized-seo-strategies-and-tactics" target="blank">8 categories</a>, and 44 sub categories. This is part 6, which highlights the underutilized strategies related to local SEO.
<img src="//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/7EXJOgfCZjihviJTp0FpjV/b4a01d17b44b0316368ce5d1b2e072e0/local_seo.jpg"  style='float: right; margin: 1rem;' />

__Local SEO Sub Categories:__
- <a href="#Optimize_Local_SEO_Landing_Pages">Optimize Local SEO Landing Pages</a>
- <a href="#Google_Maps_Optimization">Google Maps Optimization</a>
- <a href="#Optimize_your_Google_My_Business_Page">Optimize your Google My Business Page</a>
<a id="Optimize_Local_SEO_Landing_Pages"></a>
<br>
## Optimize Local SEO Landing Pages
![Optimize Local SEO Landing Pages](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/ueaxYinRCphe69WLxgK7s/c1952af8e2d3cecee45ceb4c52eefadc/Optimize_Local_SEO_Landing_Pages.png)
__Carmine Mastropierro, Co-Founder of <a href="http://wisemedia.ca" target="blank">WiseMedia</a> points out:__

"Almost all businesses can universally optimize their website, service pages, and channels like Google My Business for local areas to generate leads and drive sales. I recommend using an SEO tool like Ubersuggest to first find local keywords to target. These are primarily a location followed by a service like "New York Business Accountant." They tend to have low competition but a high conversion rate. With voice search on the rise, these keywords are also continuing to drive more traffic. Optimize your website for these search terms and make dedicated pages for every location you service."

__Sean Darlow, Founder and business manager at <a href="https://affiliates-sloty.com/" target="blank">Affiliate Sloty</a> said:__

"The most underutilized SEO strategy is local SEO. The majority of businesses invest in SEO in order to reach a larger, often global audience. Local clients, whether online or in person, are still the lifeblood of most modern businesses. Local SEO makes a company more visible to local customers. Google has also been putting a lot of effort into regional results. As a result, adding local SEO to a small business's SEO plan is the only reasonable choice."

__Matt Tutt from <a href="https://matttutt.me" target="blank">Matt Tutt Digital Marketing</a> recommends to make use of local landing pages:__

"These have a bit of a dirty name associated - perhaps from some people who associate these pages with really thin, cookie-cutter content, which ends up being pretty spammy!

"For me I've seen them work really well when working with clients who are trying to target specific geographic areas. I actually love the process of creating these pages. Once you've got a great framework of the page, you can really scale them up in a huge way, obviously depending on how wide an area you want to target for your client.

"I've worked with a world-class dog breeder in the US who ships their dogs across the US, and this strategy has helped them to target many states where they had no kind of online presence before. It was just a case of creating a great framework page which talked about region-specific content in a way that was relevant to the topic (in this case, dogs!).

"Looking back at data from the past 12 months I can see that this landing page strategy has contributed approximately 30% of the total organic traffic for this client. So it's been massive - and has led to many additional leads the client wouldn't have had otherwise."

__Brenton Thomas founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.twibiagency.com/" target="blank">Twibi</a> says:__

"The importance of local SEO cannot be underestimated when a business has a limited service area. For example, if a small mom-and-pop restaurant is paying for ads seen by people all over the world that will never walk through the door. If there's a limited-service area such as only providing a service for several towns or counties, you don’t want people outside of that service area seeing the website. This also leads to disappointment when these visitors try to schedule an appointment.

"This is why local SEO is vastly underrated since it will generate more qualified prospects, people in that business' area who are looking for their products or service."

<a id="Google_Maps_Optimization"></a>
<br>
## Google Maps Optimization
![Google Maps Optimization](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/7f2qfJEODaUJE7dP9NTmoL/3eec6dee590c8d8b09a161bf1b0acb8e/Google_Maps_Optimization.jpg)
<div><center><a href="https://www.samma3a.com/tech/en/google-maps-full-article-en/" target="blank">Image Source</a></center></div>
<br>
__Danny Star from <a href="https://websitedepot.com/" target="blank">Website Depot</a> claims Google Maps Ranking and Optimization should be focused on.__ 

"For those who rely on phone calls as conversions, this is a gold mine that is often overlooked in favor of ad placement or organic SEO. In many cases, some of my best-performing clients like lawyers and treatment centers get a majority of their calls from their Google My Business listing that is showing on top of their competitors."

<a id="Optimize_your_Google_My_Business_Page"></a>
<br>
## Optimize your Google My Business Page
![Optimize your Google My Business Page](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/4l9FbGAqHnkqRceok8lnxF/ba4c92461fb211650b0de283071e8d7a/Optimize_your_Google_My_Business_Page.png)
__Ela Iliesi, Digital Marketing & SEO Trainer at <a href="https://londonmarketingacademy.com/" target="blank">London Marketing Academy</a> comments about creating a well optimised GMB page:__

Adding a keyword or key phrase in your business name besides the brand. This can offer huge visibility for free, something not even purchasing Google Ads publicity can offer, as you can appear in the searches for that key phrase and have your GMP posts seen and clicked by thousands of people each month, for free.

__Lauren Amor, Organic Search Specialist for <a href="https://tandem.buzz/" target="blank">Tandem Buzz</a> states:__

Another tactic that's more up and coming than anything is short snippets for Google and Alexa Echo products. This refers to the short snippets that people often say to Alexa when they're trying to find something quickly, such as, "Flower shop Miami". If you're a flower shop in Miami, it's important to have keywords that can double as short snippets on your GMB, site, and other online tools to increase your chances of coming up for these short searches.

### In conclusion

Optimizing your Local SEO is an important, even if it's an underutilized SEO strategy.

<br>
__Other Categories in this Series:__
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/1-underutilized-keyword-research-strategies" target="blank">#1- Underutilized Keyword Research Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/2-underutilized-onsite-optimization-strategies" target="blank">#2- Underutilized Onsite Optimization Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/3-underutilized-content-strategies" target="blank">#3- Underutilized Content Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/4-underutilized-link-building-strategies" target="blank">#4- Underutilized Link Building Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/5-underutilized-technical-seo-strategies" target="blank">#5- Underutilized Technical SEO Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/7-underutilized-video-seo-strategies" target="blank">#7- Underutilized Video SEO Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/8-miscellaneous-underutilized-seo-strategies" target="blank">#8- Miscellaneous Underutilized SEO Strategies</a>


local seo

This is what the experts say are the most underutilized SEO strategies regarding Local SEO.

#6- Underutilized Local SEO strategies

Local SEO Strategy - Local Search Strategy - Local SEO Strategist

# Miscellaneous Underutilized SEO Strategies

I posed the question to SEO professionals what they thought was the most underutilized SEO strategy or tactic. I got over 100 responses which I broke up into <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/44-underutilized-seo-strategies-and-tactics" target="blank">8 categories</a>, and 44 sub categories. This is part 8, which highlights miscellaneous underutilized strategies related to SEO.

__Miscellaneous Underutilized SEO Sub Categories:__
- <a href="#Offshore_SEO">Offshore SEO</a>
- <a href="#Contingency_Planning">Contingency Planning</a>
<a id="Offshore_SEO"></a>
<br>
## Offshore SEO
![Offshore SEO](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/46pWfH8DMQt19nJ0YdBJoq/bf79b7955a93435c12ff6cb1a56c080b/Offshore_SEO.jpg)
<div><center><a href="https://nanoglobals.com/how-to-outsource-seo-effectively/" target="blank">Image Source</a></center></div>

__<a href="https://jontorres.com/" target="blank">Jon Torres</a>, a digital marketing consultant touts using off-shore SEO:__

"Offshore SEO has well-documented cost benefits. However, I find that fewer businesses are taking advantage of the benefits of localization. If your business  has an international market, hiring SEO experts based in your overseas market may be a huge benefit for you. These experts are likely to have a better understanding of the local culture than SEO agencies located in the business's primary market. Thus, the offshore SEO company can help design SEO practices that resonate locally and, along the way, improve the business’s  conversion optimization strategy."

<a id="Contingency_Planning"></a>
<br>
## Contingency Planning
![Contingency Planning](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/6hVBbV3u6eEvRfkvYSFCsz/88fd686c48e6d6577865bcbcf97a596b/Contingency_Planning.png)
__A very underutilized SEO tactic or strategy is basic contingency planning, according to Cary Haun, the Technical SEO Specialist at <a href="https://www.digitalmarketingcompany.com/" target="blank">Twelve Three Media</a>.__

"More often than not, we see every other SEO personality trying to be the first one to announce something SEO-related. Whether it be that they've noticed a change in traffic, there's been an algorithm update, something or some tool doesn't work anymore, etc. The common ground you'll find among these announcements, updates, and general shouting is that they are all touting a new fix or an updated solution. At face value, these reactions seem expected.

"However, what you will rarely see is an SEO who is touting not just that they saw this coming, but that they've already had a strategy in place to account for it. This is because planning for contingencies isn't necessarily a marketable solution. If it's not new, shiny, or the latest and greatest thing you've ever heard in SEO, then it's not actionable enough to garner profit.

"An explicit example of this is the recent uproar of SEO opinion regarding Google's rewriting of title tags in the SERPs. Google started replacing title tags with other, possibly more relevant text from the site. The conniption alone could be heard around the globe. But the solution was far more obtuse. We watched only days later as popular SEO personality accounts on Twitter griped that they were re-optimizing tens of thousands of title tags and H1s in order to fix what they considered to be an immediate issue.

"The punchline is that the SEO community has known for years that Google does whatever it wants with whatever text it wants in the SERPs. That is literally the strategy behind making the title tag and the H1 relatively identical in context and form. So that, if Google decides to use another piece of text, it's already approved on the SEO-side of things. Therefore, we made no immediate changes and suffered zero drops or fluctuations in search traffic because we planned for contingencies.

"There is no reason to race to a finish line that never had an accompanying starting line in the first place."

### In conclusion

Offshore SEO and contingency planning may be valuble to focus efforts on to help with your SEO efforts.

<br>
__Other Categories in this Series:__
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/1-underutilized-keyword-research-strategies" target="blank">#1- Underutilized Keyword Research Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/2-underutilized-onsite-optimization-strategies" target="blank">#2- Underutilized Onsite Optimization Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/3-underutilized-content-strategies" target="blank">#3- Underutilized Content Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/4-underutilized-link-building-strategies" target="blank">#4- Underutilized Link Building Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/5-underutilized-technical-seo-strategies" target="blank">#5- Underutilized Technical SEO Strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/6-underutilized-local-seo-strategies" target="blank">#6- Underutilized Local SEO strategies</a>
<a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/7-underutilized-video-seo-strategies" target="blank">#7- Underutilized Video SEO Strategies</a>


This is what the experts say are the most underutilized SEO strategies regarding Offshore SEO and Contingency Planning.

#8- Miscellaneous Underutilized SEO Strategies

Contingency Strategy - Strategic Contingency Planning

![The best plagiarism tool](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/7ITwPaDzHePK0CkhQbeXfC/2d2e0fe87256874aad0a69b28ac3b530/image.png)

Plagiarism isn’t always intentional. People usually write out their ideas thinking that they are original, but sometimes someone has already published those same concepts, making their content suspicious. Even 1% of plagiarism in their writing can make it unreliable, causing trouble for writers. We all want to adhere to [Google’s policies](https://support.google.com/adsense/thread/62311527/how-much-plagiarism-is-allowed-for-news-website?hl=en) when we add and share our writing content.
Numerous plagiarism checking tools are available to help you avoid any unintentional plagiarism by easily identifying and removing it from your articles.
Hundreds of online plagiarism checkers have been introduced, and it can be difficult to judge the best one.
The following parameters are found in a good plagiarism checking tool:

⦁	These tools enable you to enter the content in a variety of ways like pasting the material into the text field, or uploading text and document files.
⦁	It provides results quickly.
⦁	It also tells you where your content was copied from.
Here we will talk about the three best plagiarism checkers and discuss their features. 

These tools are the best for users as they meet all of the necessary elements you’d need to check for plagiarism.
⦁	Prepostseo.com
⦁	Grammarly.com
⦁	Smallseotool.com

Let's compare the features of each tool and decide which one is the best of them.

### [Prepostseo.com](https://www.prepostseo.com/plagiarism-checker)

The Plagiarism Checker tool by Prepostseo is a web tool for detecting duplicate material. 
It checks for plagiarism and displays the results with a percentage. Users can then check out the duplications that were made in their content.
An advanced algorithm used in this tool makes it easy to take out the copied or paraphrased content

![Example image](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/2yqYmfbdPkViq4XXjoiWXk/ee29098a374a5d75b5efde79451e905e/image.png)

Let's discuss this tool's advanced features that make it unique and top among all the plagiarism checkers.
⦁	Secure to use
Privacy is the issue of every person in modern times. Everyone wants to keep their data safe and secure.
This tool provides comfort to the users as it doesn't keep their data. Instead, it deletes the data of the user instantly after each use.
⦁	Generates reports
After using this tool, a user can generate a report which will highlight the content that is plagiarized.
The user can remove those plagiarized lines and download their content after making them unique.
⦁	Results with sources
While generating the results, the plagiarized content gets highlighted. In addition, the source of these lines is provided from where it was copied.
A user can visit those websites and make their content different after changing the plagiarized content.
⦁	Mobile application
This tool brings ease for the users as one can download the application on a mobile device and use it there.

![Tool bar image](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/3a6RtCKOriv6SwrCC7JJkm/d80fa15c2c29b57b0439e45847c9ff00/image.png)

⦁	The free and paid version
A user can get both free and paid versions of this tool. If you are willing to use this tool for free, you can upload 1000 words.
For more words, get the premium version and enjoy all the features with increasing the word count.
Here is the list of the word limit for this plagiarism checker.

![Word Count](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6UBAMpjz62NLSVuMxlU8zr/5e5644bfc2384f8e19cb735cb01a328d/image.png)

These are some basic paid versions. The prices vary with the number of words you need to use. 

![Pricing image](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/3teL7ApMbedWkqKxXYcNYU/bfc18daaf18551a8bfba9bac446eec32/image.png)

### Grammarly.com

This is also one of the best online tools that help users to make their content unique and error-free.
The primary work of this tool is to remove the grammatical errors from the content, but it is also quite good in detecting plagiarism.
Let's talk about the features of this tool that are immensely helpful in making your content plagiarism-free.

⦁	Writing enrichment
As told earlier, the basic purpose of this tool is to make the content grammatically perfect.
So, this tool helps the user improve their writing career by making the content error-free.

⦁	Comparison with billions of pages
When the content is placed in this tool, it compares it with billions of other web page databases.
Here it matches the content, takes out the text copied from other websites, and highlights it.

![Grammarly image](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/1CYuaCDP8QsmajnMMjn0JT/96cf72907549051c69f4f85060aa311e/image.png)

⦁	Upload files directly
This tool has an option where the user can directly upload the files instead of pasting the data.
Users can click on the import button, insert the file there, and check for plagiarism quite easily.

⦁	Efficient
The working of this tool is swift. It provides the results quickly which makes it efficient to use in your work.

⦁	Freemium
This tool has both free and paid versions. For basic features, you can avail them for free. For advanced features, you have to go for premium plans.

For premium plans you have to pay $12 per month in which you can improve the clarity and make the text error-free.
If you are running a business, you can get an offer to pay $12.50 per member each month and enjoy all of their features.

### Smallseotools.com

Many people trust this plagiarism checker all around the world due to its proficiency.
This tool is free to use and provides plagiarism features without any cost.
This tool is one of the best plagiarism checkers due to the features that help to make the content SEO optimized.

⦁	Compatible for the Cloud
This tool is compatible with the Cloud enabling someone who keeps their files in the Cloud to have direct access in uploading them there.
The user has to choose the content then the plagiarism checker will directly access those files and check for plagiarism.

![Smallseotools image](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/55oMHlBhhkmE4RYyXppaM9/57da5336a7a4e1c6d5ef22d735e26b16/image.png)

⦁	Gives percentage
When the user checks the plagiarism, they can get the result in a percentage, which shows the amount of content that is copied.
A user can remove the copied content from there and make it 100% unique. 

![smallseotools](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/1uZ0hbTU2hELn9HbeBc0yk/da44349381d47ab03e4cd666c5199da1/smallseotools.png)

⦁	Download reports
After getting the plagiarism report, one can download it directly from there. This factor brings ease for the user.
It also helps by keeping the user's record in a database to access at any time for future use.

⦁	Multiple languages
A user can get the results in different languages as it is supported. Other than English, you can convert your content to русский, 日本語, italiano, français, Português, Español, Deutsche, 中文.

### Who can use these tools?
The plagiarism tools are straightforward to use, and anyone can use them to get the copied text from their content.Whether you are a teacher, student, blogger, writer, or journalist, you can use these tools to make your content plagiarism-free.

### Which tool is best to use?
All of the tools mentioned above are full of features but the Plagiarism Checker tool of Prepostseo is the best of all.
This plagiarism checker has both paid and free versions, but the most important thing is its accessibility on mobile.
I ran my own test using the same content in all three tools and Prepostseo caught the maximum amount of plagiarism from the content I used..
It checks every online database and gives the best results. Also, it provides links to the copied content.
The features provided by Prepostseo make this tool stand out from the rest. The other two tools are also helpful for the users, but they are subpar to Prepostseo.

### Final words
To check for plagiarism and help you write unique content, these tools can be pretty helpful.
You can directly download your files, increasing your work efficiency.
If you purchase the paid version of this tool, you will get extra features like increasing word count and more search queries, which seems like a great investment to the quality of your writing.


online-plagiarism-checker

Numerous plagiarism checking tools are available to help you avoid any unintentional plagiarism by easily identifying and removing it from your articles. Let's compare the features of these tools and decide which one is the best of them.
⦁	Prepostseo.com
⦁	Grammarly.com
⦁	Smallseotool.com

Analyzing which is the best plagiarism tool among Prepostseo, Grammarly and Smallseotools

Which is the best plagiarism tool among Prepostseo, Grammarly and Smallseotools

In layman's terms, Local SEO is the practice of increasing the search visibility of your businesses in local search results on Google. Local SEO techniques are most beneficial for businesses that have a physical location or serve a geographic area. By using the local SEO strategy, businesses can drive more people towards brick-and-mortar stores. This article will help you with ten actionable local SEO tips and tricks to help you stay at the top of your local SEO game.

### Before we move forward, let's see some stats first

As per the latest stats, <a href="https://seotribunal.com/blog/stats-to-understand-seo/#local-seo-facts" target="blank">46% of all Google searches</a> are local, and over 50% of 'near me' searches result in a physical store visit. Another report reveals that <a href="https://seotribunal.com/blog/stats-to-understand-seo/#local-seo-facts" target="blank">97% of people</a> learn about a local business by online means than anywhere else.

![Google local SEO strategy 2021 - Google maps SEO](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/7JWSu8JpSqGQsTXnGcCby2/3c51a98e9af3beb894a2e0d84f2adcfc/photo-1548345680-f5475ea5df84.jfif)

## Here are ten actionable local SEO tips and tricks in 2021

### 1. Create A Google My Business (GMB) Listing

When it comes to local SEO search visibility, Google My Business listings are the most influential component. Because Google is paying more weight to social media presence, please share these posts on social media. If you receive visitors to your Google Posts page, Google will see that you provide valuable information and updates. You can also write mini-posts for your clients to demonstrate that you are actively managing your listing.

### 2. List Your Business in Other Directories

It would help if you listed your firm in various online directories in addition to having a Google My Business account. You can find this suggestion in practically any <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Local-SEO-Handbook-basics-marketing/dp/1720029075" target="blank">local SEO handbook</a> because it is a powerful SEO component.

You can target the following directories:
- Yelp
- FourSquare
- Angie’s List
- Bing Places
- HotFrog
- Best of the Web
- About Us

In addition to these national and worldwide directories, you should check to see any online business directories in your area. Listings on these sites will offer additional local SEO signals to Google.

### 3. Keep Your NAP Information Correct

If feasible, keep your <a href="https://www.google.com/intl/en_in/business/" target="blank">Google My Business (GMB)</a> information up to date. If there are differences, Google has no means of determining which information is correct. If your company relocates, you should update this across all platforms as soon as possible. Consumers can now recommend modifications to a company's profile information, and Google may act on them.

### 4. Target Local Keywords

Targeting rank for local keywords is one of the fundamentals of local SEO optimization. Local keywords are self-explanatory. However, it would help if you still looked at long-tail local keywords for your business.

Suppose you operate a plumbing business in New York City, for example. In that case, you should examine <a href="https://www.thegratifiedblog.com/search-visibility/" target="blank">search visibility</a> for different variations of search phrases like "plumber, New York City," "plumber, NYC," and so on. You might also wish to look for hyper-local keywords like "plumbing services, Manhattan."

![local search engine marketing optimization strategy - Google maps ranking](//images.contentful.com/z8uwv83tofbw/5UnD7TuEIoxbB46sIVOfrb/f096aa721a36b1caedf179ec34d67fc9/photo-1616469829718-0faf16324280.jfif)

### 5. Optimize Your Site with Local Keywords

The next step is to optimize your site for the local keywords for which you wish to rank. Again, it is a tried-and-true <a href="https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/mobile-search-trends-consumers-to-stores/" target="blank">google local SEO tips in 2021</a> that will be just as relevant as it was five years ago. 
Site optimization is a separate topic, but here are some onsite local SEO fundamentals.

To begin, ensure that your home page and any service pages include the local keywords you want to rank for in the:
- Headings
- Title tags
- Meta description
- Body
- Footer

When feasible, you should also strive to add your core local keyword within the URL.
When incorporating keywords, be sure you employ them naturally rather than keyword stuffing.

### 6. Create Local Content

If you want to maximize your content marketing efforts for increased lead generation, you must also provide local content. By inserting local keywords into the blog article, you may connect local content to your offerings. In addition, it allows you to add local keywords and events into your text naturally.

### 7. Optimize for Mobile

Optimizing your site for mobile is another of the top local SEO suggestions for 2021.
Making your website mobile-friendly is critical for overall SEO success. It is, nevertheless, especially vital for local SEO. It is why.

According to statistics, <a href="https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/mobile-search-trends-consumers-to-stores/" target="blank">30% of all smartphone searches</a> are location-based. It is a large amount, implying that many customers who find you through google local search are likely using a mobile device.

Potential clients will be put off if your site does not display well on mobile devices or navigation challenges. As a result, customers will most likely abandon your site in favor of one of your competitors who has a more professional online presence.

### 8. Optimize for Voice

It would help if you optimized for voice searches in addition to smartphone searches. According to research, mobile voice searches are 300% more likely to have local intent than text searches.
Because the voice search era is still in its early stages, many businesses have yet to optimize their website and content for speech. As a result, it provides you with an excellent opportunity to stay ahead of the competition.

### 9. Take Time to Build Inbound Links

<a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/inbound-links-faqs" target="blank">Inbound links</a> are a critical ranking component that can help both traditional and local SEO.
Begin by compiling a list of these companies. Then, optimize your process by looking for pages on their websites to place a contextual link. You can then contact the businesses on your list and recommend link positions.

Guest posting is another approach to build contextual inbound links for increasing your search visibility. For example, if any of the companies on your list have a blog, you may offer to write content for them that includes a link to your site.

In some situations, you may also want to consider obtaining backlinks from major websites such as Forbes.

### 10. Look Into Location Pages

Does your company have many locations? Make sure you're showing up in local searches for each of these locations.

You can accomplish local search engine marketing visibility by <a href="https://www.rialtomarketing.com/location-pages/" target="blank">creating location pages</a>. For example, assume you provide services in Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. Instead of having a single service page that lists all of these locations, make one for each city.

## Conclusion

Optimizing your site for a specific local area will increase your revenue and drive more people towards your store. Now that we've covered many actionable SEO tips here, we recommend you get started with a local SEO strategy before your firm falls behind. 


photo-1548345680-f5475ea5df84

Local SEO is super important for businesses that have physical locations or serve specific geographic areas. Here are 10 actionable SEO tips to help you stay on top of your local SEO game.

Stay on top of your game with these 10 local SEO tips

10 Actionable Local SEO Tips & Tricks In 2021

10 Google Local SEO Tips in 2021 - Local SEO Strategy - Local Search Engine Optimization Tips

SEO tactics and strategies are constantly evolving due to ongoing advancements in Google’s algorithm and machine learning drastically changing how search results appear. eCommerce enterprise sites especially, have an even bigger challenge understanding which terms are seeing the biggest fluctuations and more importantly, why they are seeing fluctuations. 

For example, when we looked at the term “one piece swimsuit” over a 7 month period, the websites that ranked on page one of Google fluctuated week to week. We know seasonality, location, personalization and numerous other factors play into what will show up for each person, however, we wanted to see how a search engine results page (SERP) for a specific 
search query changed over time.    

Here is what that result looks like when comparing September 2019 (average results that showed up on page one compared to March 2020). The image below shows what that looked like over time.   

![Sept. 2019 Page 1 Ranking Image 1 URL](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/7Kw5UOXm43vdx6cVclgMc7/c1691c33b1b4f8ead6a5b3556b3e4521/Sept._2019_Page_1_Ranking_Image_1_URL.png)

Nearly all of the results saw a drastic shift in ranking over a seven month period. The websites that remained relatively untouched were pacsun.com, macys.com, swimoutlet and nordstromrack.com. Three sites (victoriasecret.com, roxy.com and ae.com) are now ranking on page one of Google. 

Tracking a single term doesn’t take much, but when you multiply that by thousands of search terms on page one it becomes overwhelming. Take the massive eCommerce site macys.com. Macys as of June 2020, has 416K+ keywords the entire site ranks for just in position 1-3. They have another 964K+ terms ranking in position 4-10. 

![Enterprise SEO keyword traffic](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6o2GYmeBWOVocAKx5CjqV/69e87be57e54e33468ceb1e5bb6df90b/nozzle_image_2.png)

With all this change comes a need to have a robust enterprise SEO strategy that helps you to not only maintain but grow search visibility 

We will walk you through our top enterprise SEO strategies designed to <a href="https://www.stryde.com/ecommerce-seo-guide-rankings-google/" target="blank">improve your ecommerce Google rankings</a>. Keep reading to learn how to succeed in 2020.

## Increase Your Focus on Second Page Keywords

Keywords that rank on the second page of Google (rankings 11-20) are often coined as keywords in “striking distance.” These keywords are low-hanging fruit and have the potential to give your site a needed boost with a little SEO optimization. 

How do you find the keywords that are in striking distance? The process is quite simple.

![organic SEO keyword research](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/3HQUWsqDJyIjIB7RZFQotF/27f49f7e2edde7e071d094b857f28c9c/nozzle_image_3.png)

1. Enter your domain in the Organic Research Bar of a tool like SEMRush.
2. Select the Positions Tab.
3. Filter by selecting 11-20 in the Organic Keywords Trend graph.

It is likely the data set is too large so you will need to filter down more and look at a specific bucket of keywords. Sticking with macys.com as an example, they have 5,002 terms on page two that contain the word “swim” in them. 

![Enterprise SEO strategy page rank](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6Xr9r84kXziRvELi5ghN0I/97931c0e505d61be555bf206962c3a91/nozzle_image_4.png)

Or you can look at your focused keyword set in Nozzle and get more granular to know how many phrases are in the 7-10, 11-15, and 16-20 buckets.

![Number of Phrases within Striking Distance](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/rkGnLm8URFEFDbVYGFSaF/fb7f567cac40ad12a860de48fa1e486c/Number_of_Phrases_within_Striking_Distance.JPG)

1. Go to the Single Domain dashboard
2. Add a filter to show rankings between 7 and 20
3. Add a filter to display results for only one specific keyword group

![Number of Phrases within Striking Distance filtered to one keyword group](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/7uJN9mzrVnlyAQnA3b55p0/80a09ef2646916599f0a5dcdf15e2788/Number_of_Phrases_within_Striking_Distance_filtered_to_one_keyword_group.JPG)

__Main Goal:__

Keywords sitting on page two of search results have the best opportunity to make the jump to the first page with the least amount of effort. Second page results have proven they are relevant to the selected search query, reviewing how the keyword relates to the ranking page and optimizing the landing page for the selected keywords along with synonyms  can provide that needed boost to make it on the first page. 

Focus on reviewing how the keyword is being used on the ranking page. Make sure the keyword is in the title tag,  H1 tag, used throughout the copy and has internal links with the keyword as anchor text pointing back to the ranking page. These small adjustments can greatly improve your ranking. 

__Key Benefit:__
- Increased Traffic
- Potential Boost in Revenue
- Increased Brand Visibility 

## Improve Content on Ranking Pages

After you have identified striking distance keywords that you would like to focus on improving, you will want to look at what content you can create and expand to not only meet your end-users expectations but exceed them. 

This tactic will be extremely beneficial to sites that have thin copy or no content on their pages. Why? Google search bots are not able to see visuals while they crawl sites for ranking purposes. Instead they look for words that describe what each page is about and rank sites based on how well they answer an end-users question. Using the example above, macys ranks on page 2 for the term “swim shorts”. Both the mens and womens pages rank but neither are on page one. In this example, the search results seem to be more geared toward womens swim shorts rather than mens as shown by the sponsored product listings, even though mens do show up in the organic listings. 

![improving SEO content on ranking pages](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/PvH6Nqg0gTMv8EeTPk6n1/568db7f779826863ec5fbf39582f5d19/nozzle_image_5_Screen_Shot_2020-06-17_at_10.07.50_AM.png)

The page that ranks is the following: 
https://www.macys.com/shop/b/womens-swim-shorts?id=72487 but they link to a similar page (https://www.macys.com/shop/b/swim-shorts-for-women?id=73380) using internal links with the text “swim shorts”. No bueno.  

![SEO strategy content examples ](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/2Fay7Furvg95ElJZS32Unl/e7bad7cb1a6575ed901113b01b974afa/nozzle_image_womens_shorts_13.png)

There are a number of issues with the content above, but we recommend they could make some small tweaks to include things like:
- Activities the swimwear is good for such as jogging, paddle boarding, etc. 
- Include similar terms in the content such as board shorts, swim bottoms, etc. 

## How do you find pages with thin content?

- Review your domain with an SEO tool such as DeepCrawl, ScreamingFrog, or Botify.
- If using DeepCrawl you can use the following process:
  - Once the crawl is complete, navigate to the Content section and select Body Content > Thin Pages.

![SEO tool instructions within DeepCrawl](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/3aELkorLJWcCfo1OiUOvKt/9a28e9915cdcdbc14901f093e9efafb0/nozzle_image_6.png)

- Export the list of URLs into an Excel file or Google sheets (if the amount of pages is less than 500.) Large data sets are not good for using Google sheets. They will crash when trying to run filters and formulas when the data set is large. 
- Run an SEMRush pages report in the Organic Research section to see how many keywords each URL ranks for. Export those URLs and match them up with your DeepCrawl data set to see how many  keywords your thin pages rank for. 

![Enterprise SEO strategy organic research](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6VoGu0uAhvcJlnUQD5fwS4/a57d530cadb833e6907b288fb04f2c76/nozzle_image_7_Screen_Shot_2020-06-18_at_1.30.15_PM.png)

- In Nozzle below, you can then analyze each thin page separately to see which keywords are in striking distance and should be considered when improving upon, and adding to, the content of that page.

![single URL keyword rankings](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6klCgbfGBDKHp9KxzfCrEH/606bb6b78615c9c00ebec949d1fb52d1/single_URL_keyword_rankings.JPG)

- Note keywords that are relevant and in striking distance to rank for page one search results. 

__Main Goal__
Google’s algorithm rewards websites that provide end-users with expertise, authority and trustworthy content. Recent Google algorithm updates have been targeting websites with thin content and reduced their rank. 

<a href="https://digitalmarketersworld.com/content-marketing-guide/" target="blank">Quality content</a> provides users with a satisfying experience. Brands that work to provide a one-stop shop to answer all questions a user might have pertaining to the subject will be most rewarded. Content that provides little insight neither ranks well or provides your end user with a satisfying experience. 

This concept boils down to one simple thought: Focus on support and let the sale follow. 

__Key Benefits:__
- Increased traffic to websites. 
- Increased session durations.
- Stronger domain authority.
- Positive end-user experience.

## Increase Content to Support Current Pages

SEO strategists will be first to tell you content plays a significant role in rankings and brand awareness. Many prospects begin their customer journey by researching a solution to their problem. This means it's crucial your website not only focuses on building transactional content but educational content as well. 

Brands that want to rank on the first page or have content pulled as the featured snippet on Google must continue to create and expand their content library to include pieces that speak to a customer at each stage of the buyer's journey. 

Enterprise SEO looks to create all types of content. Content goes well beyond a blog post, it also can be images, videos, polls, infographics and webinars. All pieces of content you create should be built with the purpose to answer a user’s questions. 

Let’s take a look at a specific example:

![SEO tips on how to increase page content ](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/4t96GdxUH3GAv4m8bfvsap/2de0e0d9d164ffca3351a9c7ad569187/nozzle_image_8_pasted_image_0.png)

![Enterprise SEO content creation](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/2Q07t9CUROzK8BuiAvuxtc/a9f52f5f7985992d826354ae71b3c1ab/nozzle_image_9_pasted_image_0.png)

![Enterprise SEO video content creation](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/2uvytcuGdIANUtOtoftTSi/d8dde2e5435cdeb942c82200f414d7c4/nozzle_image_10.png)

Immediately upon searching how to clean cloth diapers, you are flooded with resources to walk you through your question. You are immediately struck by a featured snippet that contains a detailed step-by-step process. As you scroll down you will see additional questions that commonly appear with the query and videos to walk you through the washing process. 

Long-form content consisting of approximately 1,500 words consistently <a href="https://searchengineland.com/seo-user-science-behind-long-form-content-230721" target="blank">rank higher than short-form content</a>. Long-form content has the ability to get to the bottom of multiple questions and provide deeper insight into the topic at hand. 

However, short-form content has the ability to provide resourceful information. Testing long-form and short-form content on your website will provide you deeper insight into what your audience better responds to. 

A simple take away is to focus on user-experience. 

  __Key Benefits:__
      - Improved user experience. 
      - Increase in session duration.
      - Increase ranking opportunities.
      - Increased brand awareness.
      - Attract top-of-funnel prospects in the research phase.

## Featured Snippet Optimization

Enterprise SEO strategies must include featured snippet strategies if they want to be most effective. Featured snippets are the text boxes that are not only attached to voice search queries but they also appear at the top of organic search page results. Pulling up as the featured article gives your brand maximum exposure and traffic. 

![Enterprise SEO strategy using featured snippet](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/JXx7IkT2f9ujmQiQefQgM/d2a226ff206c2e7e31be2ed02988e2f2/nozzle_image_11_pasted_image_0.png)

__Featured Snippet Recommendations:__

There are two things you can do to best optimize your content to be considered for a featured snippet: Immediately answer the end-users question in the first H1 tag and mold your content to your end-users preferred format. 

Ask yourself if your content is specifically answering your prospects question. Are your headers clearly guiding your users throughout the article? Is the solution front and center? 

Using SEMrush you can review queries that have featured snippets. You will be able to see what article is being rewarded the top spot, and you will be able to see if lists, tables or paragraphs are specifically ranking. 

This knowledge can lead you to audit your content to see if your message is formatted in the way end-users prefer. If the featured snippet contains a bullet-point list that is concise and to the point, you may want to adjust your content to mimic the rewarded format. 

__Key Benefits:__
- Maximum exposure to brand content.
- Rank for voice assisted search queries.
- Increased brand exposure.

## Optimize website for voice-search

As of 2019, there are <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/973815/worldwide-digital-voice-assistant-in-use/" target="blank">approximately 3.25 billion voice assisted devices</a> in homes around the world. This innovation has introduced a new way for users to search and get connected with your brand. 

Organizations should add voice-search optimization to their enterprise SEO strategy. Voice search goes beyond implementing keywords; it focuses on adding content around conversational questions.

![Enterprise SEO strategy to Optimize website for voice-search](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/WwM9GWsyXB4XQYNoNi8zT/1e5d1f78c3a4d06dffea9e7f5c37cc8f/nozzle_image_12.png)

Source: <a href="https://moz.com/blog/how-voice-search-will-change-digital-marketing-for-the-better" target="blank">https://moz.com/blog/how-voice-search-will-change-digital-marketing-for-the-better</a>

If you have a smart device in your home, you have likely asked Alexa a long-winded question instead of two concise keywords pieced together. 

An example may include: 

When we search on our mobile phone or desktop, we might type, “make homemade facemask.” 

When we use a voice assistant we might ask, “Hey Google, what do I need to make a homemade facemask?”

These queries are focused on obtaining the same information, yet their structure is different in nature. Incorporating more conversational keywords into your website copy will greatly benefit your business as voice search is constantly increasing. 

__Key Benefits:__
- Increased brand visibility through voice assisted search.
- Rank for voice assisted search queries.
- Increased brand exposure.

## __Internal Link Building__

SEO strategists should continue to focus on yielding the power of internal linking. 

As you continue to build and improve content, linking pages that relate to one another will improve the SEO health of each page by passing link equity to multiple pages on your site. 

Websites that take advantage of internal linking make it significantly easier for Google search bots to crawl, understand and properly rank your site for relevant search queries. Links can direct bots to crawl through multiple pages on your website giving you a better chance to rank for additional keywords. 

Companies should also take advantage of internal link building because they have the ability to dictate where the link is directed to and what anchor text they will use for the link. 

__Key Benefits:__
- Improves user-experience through descriptive anchor-texts.
- Distributes link authority.
- Internal linking can increase the number of pages a user visits.
- Internal linking helps with search bot crawling and indexing.
- Internal linking can help increase page rank.

### __Conclusion__  

Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving and keeping SEO strategists on their toes. This means ranking on page one requires an in-depth and well thought out enterprise SEO strategy that will help them remain competitive in the changing landscape. 

While there are several elements that go into an effective SEO strategy, these are recommended strategies that will help boost enterprise brands. 

<a href="https://www.stryde.com/" target="blank">Stryde</a> is an Enterprise SEO Agency helping businesses perfect their eCommerce SEO and content marketing strategy. See how you stack up with a free analysis of your business.

Number of Phrases within Striking Distance filtered to one keyword group

While there are several elements that go into an effective SEO strategy, these are recommended strategies that will help boost enterprise brands. 

Enterprise SEO Strategies for eCommerce Sites

Once upon a time, the search engine was like a fishing rod that would pull content up based on how keyword-dense it was.

Website owners were more focused on writing content that included lots of keywords that they inserted everywhere they could. This meant that a reader was greeted with the same key phrase in the title of the article as well as in the first line, the first heading, and repeatedly throughout the content.

However, in the past few years, Google has made it increasingly clear that it has grown smarter with age. It no longer rewards a higher position based on how many keywords you’re sprinkling throughout your content.

Starting with Panda, Google takes into account content quality ranking factors to position your content in the search engine results pages (SERPs). For instance, content gets ranked based on how reader-friendly and useful it is.

The days of inserting a keyword that doesn’t make much grammatical sense are over. Writers have to make sure they write content that pleases humans to attract Google’s attention. And they also have to play smarter – insert relevant keywords more strategically than just follow a laid-out formula.

## What most websites get wrong

Consider John. He has recently created a new business website and has a blog page for it. John sets out to find writers who can write him SEO-friendly posts for his site with the hopes to attract more traffic to his business. But, because he’s so desperate for success and he’s not up to date with the latest Google guidelines, his focus is on creating keyword-rich posts.

Question is, even if John’s writer adds the correct keywords and uses them wisely throughout the content, do John’s blog posts have a chance of ranking immediately?

Not really. Even if John’s content contains a good load of keywords placed in a 2500-word guide, Google still wouldn’t tug it up to the first or even seventh page. 

This is because the algorithm also looks at other factors than just how detailed and keyword enriched a content piece is. You see, there are more than <a href="https://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors" target="blank">200 ranking factors</a> that Google looks at to determine where it should place your page in the results.

Majorly, it looks at the authority and credibility of a site. Therefore, if a website has <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/building-backlinks-should-be-building-your-brand" target="blank">more links from authoritative sites</a> pointing toward it, the higher its spot will be in the SERPs. Furthermore, you want as many links as possible to each piece of content on your site to build up your website’s authority.

Now, building authority and credibility takes time. And this process requires you to write unique, evidence-based, and worthy content that speaks to humans. After all, other high-quality sites will only give you backlinks when they find your content to be a helpful, educational resource.

Put simply, don’t merely focus on keywords when you start out. Write conversationally and provide value in your posts. Most importantly, have a proper, well-thought-out content plan to crawl your way up in the SERPs.

As for other ranking factors, here’s a look at the <a href="https://ahrefs.com/blog/google-ranking-factors/" target="blank">top 10 Google ranking factors</a> that you shouldn’t ignore.

## So, you should write for your readers. But how to go about that?

Think of it like this – how do you, as a reader, react to content that chokes your throat with its obvious keyword volume? You roll your eyes and leave the page to go to another that serves you with an in-depth solution to your query. Even better if the article packs in some additional tips.

If you understand what you, as a reader, expect from the content you come across on the web, then you’d be able to nail what Google (and your readers) want from it. But content that is filled with jargon, difficult words, and hasn’t been structured well repels you.

Google gets this which is why it positions content that is authoritative, valuable, and readable at the top. Put simply, your content should be:

-  __Well researched and full of value__ – readers should leave with actionable takeaways from what you’ve written.
-  __Easy to read__ – write in simple language and shorter paragraphs. Also, use bullet points + headings, and structure your content properly.
-   __Interesting__ – add relevant images such as graphics and screenshots to explain your point and make your content clearer and more interesting.
-   __Conversational__ – speak to your audience by addressing them and be natural in your writing.
-   __Properly edited__ – cut out fluff and make sure your piece <a href="https://alafiyamemon.com/2020/04/13/how-to-edit-your-writing/" target="blank">doesn’t include any grammatical or other errors.</a>

Look at how properly structured this Evernote blog post is. It has short paragraphs, uses heading tags, bullet points, and simple language:

![ Should you write for your readers or the search engine?](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/3pFD1BLQWYYOCW9tdqnjWX/82aa5009c151cbe0d1a5ff2198f7d0b8/PICTURE_1_Should_you_write_for_your_readers_or_the_search_engine)

<a href="https://evernote.com/blog/capture-ideas-accomplish-more/" target="blank">source</a>

## Don’t forget to optimize for the search engine too

Yes, you should write for humans and Google bots are adapting more to measuring your article based on how reader-friendly it is. But this doesn’t translate to completely forgetting about keywords and other algorithm-attracting guidelines.

Google wants you to write content that answers people’s queries in-depth, which is often better achieved with longer content. It also appreciates if you use relevant and applicable keywords at the right places. Moreover, you get brownie points for adding internal and high-quality external links.

So, along with writing for your readers, also make sure you pay heed to the following SEO factors:

- __Content length__ – as per HubSpot’s latest data, your blog post should ideally be 2,100 to 2,400 words long. The length of your article can vary depending on whether you are writing a how-to guide or a listicle. <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-long-should-your-blog-posts-be-faq" target="blank">Here’s what HubSpot has to say</a> regarding the length of your blog post. 

- __Links__ – make your article more resourceful or evidence-based by adding outbound links to credible sources. Also, link internally to other relevant, informative blog posts you’ve written.

- __Focus keyword__ – use tools like <a href="https://www.semrush.com/" target="blank">SEMrush</a> or <a href="https://neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/" target="blank">Ubersuggest</a> to find your keywords and then <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/where-to-add-keywords-in-your-content-to-improve-your-ranking" target="blank">place these keywords naturally</a> in your title, image tags, URL, and meta description. Keep in mind finding the right keywords isn’t easy. Consider using long-tail keywords too and ponder over a reader’s search intent before finalizing which keywords to include.

Take a look at how strategically the focus keyword has been used in this Visme blog post that also happens to be conversational and easy-to-read.

![Choosing the right infographic for your blog post](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/n1dAJeIRmKbFtTLRqxxWp/246035f2211ccc63008c4206952ad9f2/PICTURE_3_Should_you_write_for_your_readers_or_the_search_engine)

<a href="https://visme.co/blog/infographic-dimensions/" target="blank">source</a>

## Summing Up – user and Google friendly writing practices can go hand in hand

Once you get the hang of it, it won’t be challenging to create content that is pleasing to both your readers and search engines. If anything, Google wants you to write for your readers, which is why it insists you use keywords intelligently rather than forcefully.

The only reason Google favors long-form content is that people want more detailed solutions when they enter a query. You’re unlikely to be able to jam in all the value and information that cover a topic within just 250 words, isn’t it? It also wants you to add links for offering further value to readers – they should be able to dive deeper into a topic with just a click. In short, write for both your readers and the search engine. 


Choosing the right infographic for your blog post

Once you get the hang of it, it won’t be challenging to create content that is pleasing to both your readers and search engines. If anything, Google wants you to write for your readers, which is why it insists you use keywords intelligently rather than forcefully.

Important tips on how to write an SEO optimized blog post.

Should You Write For Your Readers Or The Search Engines?

How to write an SEO optimized blog post

Are you wondering how to use keywords for search engine optimization (SEO)? Do you find yourself at a loss when figuring out where to put keywords in your content? Then you’re at the right place because we’ve dedicated this guide to telling you exactly where you need to use keywords for SEO so Google can rank your pages higher for those keywords.

Before we dive in any further though, let’s get this right off the bat – you need to use keywords in your content. Organic search is responsible for over half of website traffic, <a href="https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/seo-statistics/" target="blank">51% to be specific.</a> So it makes sense to conclude that your business is losing out on potential traffic, leads, and sales when you aren’t paying attention to adding keywords in your content. I suggest using a <a href="https://nozzle.io/" target="blank">keyword rank tracker</a> to organize your keywords and monitor their performance. 

Now that we’re on the same page regarding the importance of keywords for better ranking, let’s talk key placement.

By the end of this guide, we’re hopeful you’ll learn exactly how to use keywords in your content naturally and strategically.

Let’s get started:

## Where to use keywords in your content: 7 different places to pop your KWs in

Here’s a handy infographic showing you the exact places you need to add keywords for SEO, followed by a detailed look at why you need include keywords in the places identified:

![Where to add keywords in your content for on page optimization](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/6hXVqixeCkvxI8474uQyvq/977e623a117e00bf01e25c161e74b52e/Where_to_add_keywords_in_your_content_for_on_page_optimization.jpg)

### 1. Use keywords in your title tag

Your title tag is the first thing Google looks at when determining what your page covers. It’s also an invite for your readers, which helps them decide whether they’ll find what they’re looking for on your page.

As is common practice, invites are better off when they’re direct, which is why you need to add your keyword to your title tag.

Here are two proven tips for you to correctly use keywords in the title tag:

Use the keyword in the beginning of your title

- Although a title is worth a 100 characters, Google truncates the last 35 characters when displaying it.

![Use keywords in title tag for Keyword optimization - SERP screenshot](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/716KNvNEzzHOTgzkB2g1Vw/6caf9ea4d396a934475327da6e59954b/Use_Keywords_in_Title_Tag_-_SERP_screenshot_with_truncated_title_tag.png)

This means you need to add your keywords within the first 65 characters of your title so it shows up in search.

One good way of doing so is using the keyword right away. This is why you’ll find the following headline style common:

__Example keyword:__ Content repurposing

__Example title tag:__ Content Repurposing 101: Your Guide to Reusing Your Content for Maximum Reach

- Use the Yoast SEO plugin to differentiate your title tag and headline
You also need to know that there's a difference between the title tag and headline. The title tag is the title that displays on a search engine results page (SERPs). A headline, on the flip side, is your content’s title, displayed on your web page, and you can make both different using Yoast.

### 2. Add the SEO keyword in your meta description

The meta description is the small snippet that shows up below your title tag on a search results page.

![SERP Screenshot - Add the keyword in your meta description for on-page optimization](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/7diSOZSr2ZeUFBOOkQpchu/df73551d2aecaf9944ddc1046b1d1130/On_page_optimization_-_Add_the_keyword_in_your_meta_description_-_SERP_Screenshot.png)

I like to think of it as a couple of enticing words that support the invite (your title tag), encouraging people to read your content. That’s what it technically does too.

Come to think of it – how many times have you found yourself reading the meta description to get a sense of what the content includes? In the example above, the meta descriptions give a quick idea of what’s included, like calendar, noting taking, and to-do lists apps in the piece by CNET.

You’ll find yourself clicking on the result with the meta description that speaks to you the most. This is also the exact reason why you need to add your keyword in the meta description – for the reader – encouraging him to click.

Of course, the more the clicks, the better your chances of ranking.

On a side note, Google does not pay attention to keywords in meta descriptions for ranking purposes. You’ll be adding your keyword here for the humans, not the bots that crawl the content for ranking.

Always keep the following trick in mind when adding keyword in meta description:

- Use keyword in the beginning of your meta description
You have between 55-160 characters in a meta description before it’s chopped off by Google like a title tag. Therefore, a keyword toward the start of your meta description is a better idea.

### 3. Include your keyword in the URL

The URL is another important place Google looks at when figuring out what your page talks about. From a reader’s lens, the URL needs to be simple so it’s easy to recall.

Think of it like this – a visitor enjoys your content, even remembers your site, but not the exact title of your content. He has two options. Either he heads back to your site and does a site search or he remembers your URL and types it in.

Even typing the basics like “Visme how to make an infographic,” for example, can instantly spit out your piece (because how to make an infographic is what’s in the URL)

![SERP screenshot showing keyword in the url for keyword optimization](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/7Gfn6xjEXZAr6T2tFZHaX6/7fc1ac42ae2bc83f357d2d07da61162f/SERP_screenshot_showing_keyword_in_the_url_for_keyword_optimization.png)

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Plus, here are your tips for adding keywords for SEO in your URL:

- Add nothing but the keywords in your URL
- Remove any extra hyphens or punctuation marks so it’s clean and crisp – ideal to remember

Note the difference between an SEO-optimized URL and one that’s not tended to:

❌  __Bad URL example:__

https://xyz.com/content-marketing-tips-that-will-blow-your-mind-away-in-2020

✔  __Good example:__ 

https://contently.com/2020/01/08/content-marketing-2020-tips/

### 4. Don’t forget to include keywords to your content headings

Heading tags like the H1, H2, H3, and other tags guide Google regarding what’s on your page.

As for the reader, headings and subheading improve reading experience. How, you ask? One, by dividing the piece into readable blocks of text so readers don’t run into an ugly, I’d-rather-not-read wall of text (remember, you’re writing for the web – not an essay for your English teacher). And, two, by showing readers what’s covered on the page. This way, your reader can scan and tell if your piece is worth reading or not.

Here’s how to play with keyword placement when it comes to headings:

- Add your keywords in the H1 heading
You have two options here. Either include your keyword-packed H1 heading straightaway. Note how Fingerprint for Success does that:

![How to use keywords for SEO - Keywords in heading tags](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/542nWo3NCkSVrIhsq7mYB6/36033752eb806192bc4f29c0d7374e05/How_to_use_keywords_for_SEO_-_Keywords_in_heading_tags.png)
<center><a href="https://www.fingerprintforsuccess.com/blog/defeatist-attitude" target="blank">Source</a></center>

Or, include your H1 after the intro just as G2 Learning Hub here:

![On page optimization in SEO - keywords in H1 tag](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/1dIfENgGMpQ5YZmIgoPACN/2868cd99913068912d04ba71674ac03f/On_page_optimization_in_SEO_-_keywords_in_H1_tag.png)
<center><a href="https://learn.g2.com/graphic-design-mistakes" target='blank'>Source</a></center>

- Keywords in your subheadings H2, H3, and so on
This one’s important because keywords in your subheadings can show up in Google’s answer boxes or featured snippets like here:

![How to use long tail keywords - keywords in subheading H2, H3, H4](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/54xCFziep3qttrClmgI652/786173230a96e45440645f5c0ea6f1b8/How_to_use_long_tail_keywords_-_keywords_in_subheading_H2__H3__H4.png)

__Tip:__ Make sure you add keywords in your subheadings at least 2-3 times.

### 5. Sprinkle in keywords throughout the content

But don’t be a douchebag about it. Meaning: use them naturally + subtly. Here’s where your keywords will go:

- First paragraph
This requires you to be creative to get the keyword in the first line. If not, keep it to the first paragraph. 

- Throughout your content
It’s best to use keyword variations and long-tail keywords here. One quick way to find these is to conduct a quick Google search and see what results show in the search box:

![Using long tail keywords for seo within content - Find them in Google search dropdown](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/76xWtVDuMa33aU3I8xq4IB/95858f0dbd8d45ddb62ec57673241590/Using_long_tail_keywords_for_seo_within_content_-_Find_them_on_Google_search_dropdown.png)

Also look at the related searches and use them as your keywords variations. Find these at the bottom of the SERP:

![Search engine optimization keywords - Screenshot of bottom of SERP](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/7u8tVTju20cjHkJYaEef5u/952420773b05de518be6e89f4deb05e0/Search_engine_optimization_keywords_-_Screenshot_of_bottom_of_SERP.png)

- Last paragraph
Bonus points for slipping your keywords in your last subheading too.

__Tip:__ Don’t be spammy and overstuff keywords. Remember you’re writing mostly for humans while ensuring the bots see your page too.

### 6. Include keywords with images too

Google indexes images. So when a reader clicks on the ‘images’ search option, he finds all the images with the keywords. Naturally, this makes your content more findable.

Here’s an example: My featured image for ‘email writing tips’ is ranking among Google’s images, but not in the SERPs. 😀 See the difference using keywords in your images can make?

![SEO keyword optimization - Use keywords in alt text and image file names](//images.ctfassets.net/z8uwv83tofbw/3OQFcDwMMhIwnUTtTAvGgg/5c71d86bd417f57361ad027188156482/SEO_keyword_optimization_-_Use_keywords_in_alt_text_and_image_file_names.png)

You have two places to work your keywords with images:

- Image file name
This helps you get your images indexed on Google. A handy way to go about doing this is naming your image files and screenshots with the keyword or its variations as you save them.

- Alt text
Keywords in alt text play another important role – they make your content accessible. Wait, what? Yep. Alt text are small tags that pop up when you hover your mouse over an image. This is, particularly, helpful for those with visual impairments. Alt text is also great for making content readable for those who block images.

__Tip:__ Don’t use the main keyword only. Use variations and synonyms so people and search engines can better understand what your image talks about.

### 7. Last on how to use keywords: add them to links

Links? Yes, you heard that right. This applies to both incoming and outgoing links.

Let’s elaborate. Incoming links are links that come to your site. Of course, you have little control over these. But, when you’re consciously building links, say using any of the <a href="https://nozzle.io/blog/5-proven-off-page-seo-tactics-to-help-you-build-powerful-links-in-no-time/" target='blank'>off-page SEO tactics</a> like guest posting, you can have a say.

In that case, request the site linking to you to use your keyword phrase to link to your page. The keyword-packed text used here is the anchor text and it’s <a href="https://www.wordstream.com/anchor-text" target='blank'>an important signal Google uses to determine</a> what a web page covers. Don’t forget to make sure the linked page talks about the keyword. Otherwise, you’d be linking to the wrong page – misleading readers. That’s a big no-no.

On the other hand, outgoing links are links that go from your page to another one of your pages. Hence, when you’re internally linking content (just as I did above with off-page SEO tactics), make sure you use the right keyword too.

But here’s an important __tip__: always vary the keyword text linking to you. Using the same text for every internal link sends the wrong signal to Google, which can get you penalized.

### How to use keywords for SEO: Best practices

The truth is – an important difference between good content and poor content is that the former uses keywords as naturally as possible. Poor content, on the flip side, adds a chock-full of keywords in the content and throws it to their reader. How well do you think a reader will receive it? Pretty bad, if you ask me.

So here’s what you need to do:

- Always use keywords natural and subtly. This way your readers learn your content is answering their questions and isn’t written to please the search engine solely.

- Write for humans. Ultimately, Google appreciates and rewards in ranking the content that its users click, spend most time on, and link to. So if your post doesn’t satisfy them, it won’t be long before your ranking tanks. Or, like Wendy Piersall says, “Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.”

- Stick with using keyword variations, synonyms, and long-tail keywords. These are different versions of your primary keyword. Using them comes with a serious advantage – you don’t sound repetitive and unnatural with your keyword usage.

### Go on and use keywords in your content

So what are you waiting for? Now that you know where it’s best to use keywords in your content, you’re in a better place to create content that ranks. Remember, keywords go into your title tag, meta description, URL, headings, and images. Slip them into the rest of the content and add keywords to anchor texts too.

Where to add keywords in your content for on page optimization

Are you wondering how to use keywords for SEO? Nozzle presents a comprehnsive on page optimization guide plus infographic. Optimize your pages today to get more traffic tomorrow.

Keyword placement guide for on page optimization. Get optimizing!

Blog - Onsite Optimization