Work through this list to plan how to use keywords/key phrases to boost your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). The actions are ranked in order of importance.

1. Using keywords in your title tag.
   
   • Having the most relevant and responsive keywords within your page title tag is very important to your SEO.
     
     
2. Keywords/key phrases in your URL.

   Having the word/words in your URL helps a lot with SEO, for example the URL www.MarketingMentor.net/misc/Marketing_Strategy.asp, where Marketing Strategy is the key phrase.

   But if you don’t have the keywords in both the page/document title and elsewhere in your content then don’t expect the URL to generate increased SEO by itself.
   
   

3. Keyword and key phrase density in your content.
   
   
   • Aim to have between 3 to 7% of your content as keywords and key phrases.
   • Don’t exceed a 10% density as this will look like keyword stuffing and you could be banned by the search engines.

     Plus if you optimise for an excessive amount of keywords, especially unrelated ones (known as Keyword Dilution) then you can seriously affect the performance of the relevant keywords and keyphrases on your site.
     
     

4. Secondary key phrases/keywords
   
   
   • Using secondary key phrases allows you to achieve a greater tailoring of your message to smaller segments, e.g. using ‘Plymouth Insurance Broker’, as opposed to using just ‘Insurance Broker’.
     
     

     Your traffic levels will be much better targeted, the relevance will be higher and the return on your SEO budget potentially that much greater.

   • Add to this that the cost and competition for secondary key phrases is usually smaller, and you have a very cost effective strategy to implement.
     
     
5. Keywords in your anchor text.

   This is especially important for anchor text for inbound links.

   If you have the keyword in the anchor text in a link from another site then this suggests to the search engine that you are particularly relevant on this subject.
   
   

6. Keywords in Headings and the titles of documents.

   This will increase your SEO but not as much as the tactics listed above.
   
   

7. Keywords in the alt tags.

   Spiders don’t yet ‘read’ the images on your site but they do read the textual descriptions.

   So fill the alt tag with relevant keywords. Note that alt tags appear when you hover your mouse over the images on your website.
   
   

8. Other uses of Keywords/phrases on your site that contribute to SEO.
   
   
   • Keyword proximity. How close your key words are. For example, Marketing Strategy in the first paragraph is going to be more valuable than Marketing in the first sentence and Strategy in the second.
   • Search engines are smart enough to use synonyms to rank sites, so they are worth including.
   • Keyword spelling mistakes. This can work to your advantage if your keywords are commonly misspelt. But having spelling mistakes on your site is not recommended so best to keep these for your metatags only.

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This page content was reviewed in September 2024.