Do Keywords Really Matter For SEO?

Keyword research has long been part of the SEO world, and universally believed to be important. But as search engines and algorithms got more advanced over the years, some SEOs have questioned whether or not keywords still matter.

After all, Google should be able to detect what a blog post or landing page is about even if it’s omitting certain keywords, right? Plus, so many other websites have access to the same keyword research tools now. Isn’t it just a waste of time?

Not so fast. Read on for my take before you abandon using keywords for search optimization.

Do Keywords Still Matter For SEO?

Let’s get straight to the point—yes, keywords absolutely still matter for SEO. 

Quality keyword research and knowing both how and where to insert the right terms can help you climb the search rankings and get more organic traffic. But there are still some caveats that you should be aware of, as keywords alone won’t aren’t the only thing you need to be focusing on.

• Keyword stuffing doesn’t work anymore (and it actually does more harm than good)
• Search engines don’t just use keywords, so you still need to a holistic SEO approach (quality backlinks, fast loading times, etc.)
• Make sure to use keywords naturally on pages, blogs, and meta tags
• Keyword research can help you identify gaps where you’re losing traffic to competitors and ideas for new content
• Focusing on long-tail keywords increases the chances of ranking (especially for highly competitive subjects)
• Producing high-quality content should always be a priority over forcing keywords into your copy
• Don’t worry too much about exact match keywords
• Focus on other relevant and contextual keywords (like Apple, Mac, founder, and iPhone if you’re writing about Steve Jobs)

It’s also important to understand that keywords should be related to your website and other topics. For example, let’s say you’re running a blog about B2B software services. You’ll have a hard time ranking for a one-off post targeting something obscure like “best safari tours in South Africa.”

Blog Keyword Checklist

Keywords matter as much on your blog as they do on your business’ website, but when you’re posting to your blog—as opposed to writing website content—you also need to think about where keywords need to appear for maximum blog SEO.

Here’s a blog keyword checklist to keep in mind as you design and post to your blog:

• Keywords in text, especially the first paragraph
• Keywords that interlink the blog to other posts and to your main site
• Keywords in post and page titles
• Keywords in the URL of each page and post on the blog
• Keywords in outbound links
• Keywords in bold tags
• Keywords in heading tags
• Keywords in image alt tags
• Keywords in meta description tags
• Keywords (sparingly) in blog tags
• Vary the keywords so you don’t overdo the same ones over and over

If it seems like a lot to remember, consider that many of the blogging platforms you can install in your website have keyword prompts (i.e., the WordPress All In One SEO Pack). Eventually, keyword optimization will become second nature.

At the same time, your business blog will lose credibility among your readers if you load up every post with so many keywords that it reads like spam or gibberish. Finding the best balance between compelling copy and copy that’s attractive to search engines isn’t always easy, but if you find writing keyword-rich copy difficult, err on the side of great content. The better the content you have, the easier it will be for the search engines to figure out that you’re an authority and should rank well.