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How to Spot if You’re Optimizing for the Wrong Keywords

Rahul Agarwal1058 04-May-2018

If you have researched digital marketing, one of the things that probably stood out the most is Search Engine Optimization or SEO. In short, SEO helps websites to get higher positions in search engine’s results when people look for relevant topics. There are a lot of things involved in SEO and all of them affect the ways a website generates traffic and reach. One of those things is most definitely the proper usage of keywords. 

Using keywords is one of the most important aspects of SEO, but they can be a bit tricky to fully understand and master their use. You need to do a thorough keyword research before you start anything SEO-related, and even then, you can’t always be absolutely sure if the chosen keyword really has the correct meaning. Even with some experience, you might not fully understand your audience, feedback or competitors, and this affects everything, from your keywords to the overall SEO of your website. 

We did a bit of digging around and we’ve come up with this short guide through keywords and SEO. Hopefully, this article will help you learn how to spot when your keywords are off, and what to do when or if that happens. So, don’t despair, your content might be excellent, but you need to focus on your keywords. Let’s dive in and see how to do it. 

No Organic Visibility

One of the definite signs that something’s wrong with your website is low organic visibility if there is any at all. In order to optimize your website properly, you have to focus on your content. There is basically an endless sea of texts and articles which emphasize the importance of content when it comes to SEO, but having a good content is not enough to cut it. You need to understand how to use keywords to your advantage. 

If you’re trying to push a product, you must specify the keyword in such a way so it works the best. For example - if you’re offering marketing automation services and software, you need to make sure you’re using proper keywords. If someone types - marketing automation in Google, their search results will show definitions and practices people use in this process. So, if you want to push a product this way, you must be more specific. This is where you start using long-tail keywords. With a simple change from - marketing automation to - marketing automation software, your website becomes more relevant in specific searches, and your services and products can reach the top of the search results. 

Low Click-Through Rates

It happens to everyone - you’ve just created a great content which is currently ranking perfectly for the targeted keyword. You start getting impressions, and you’re following everything with Search Console, but the traffic rates are not changing at all. When this occurs, one of the possible mistakes is wrong keyword optimization. 

When you’re running paid ads, it gets much easier to see all the necessary data you need to adapt your ad content and serve it to the right audience. With SEO, this is not the case. By the time you manage to collect the data you need to analyze the behaviour of your audience, months have passed and you’re at a loss. Sometimes the solution can be as easy as simply updating your HTML title to help get those clicks, but when it comes to proper keywords, you must do a thorough research. Once you’re certain your content is in line with the search results, and once it matches the purpose of all the other relevant results, you will know you’re on the right track. 

High Bounce Rates

Another pretty certain sign of improper keyword usage are high bounce rates. When you’re trying to create enticing CTAs and forms on your website, keywords are probably the most important thing to have in mind. We talked to the experts from SEO Sydney and they’ve told us that the point is to use keywords to get the right audience. 

Adjusting the content of your CTAs, headlines and updating the general content so that it matches the needs of your target audience can really make a difference. Bounce rates and time spent on your website are never perfect, and even if they are good, they are not the most important factor for the traffic it generates. However, they can help you realize that you might have a problem, and they might even provide you with the solution to that problem, so you should pay attention to them. 

Final thoughts

If you really want your website to be optimized in the best possible way, you must fully understand the intent of your keywords. You need to re-evaluate them, change them and adapt them to your goals. You need to make sure your keywords are aligned with your content in such a way so that search engines can place you high in the search results. With just a little bit of research, you can really create enticing content which will take your website very far. So, don’t waste any more time and start doing your research!


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