May Your Keywords RIP?

Are keywords really dead? And, should you be thinking about keywords when building your blogs or writing blog posts?

In short, the answer is "YES, YES and YES!"

There seems to be a myth going around right now amongst some webmasters that keywords are dead and using them on your webpage could hurt your ranking. But, I want to set the record straight …

If you don't use keywords in your title tag, description and on page, you're going to find those "clicks" harder to get.

What is deemed dead with regards to keywords are meta keywords which, we bloggers don't have to concern ourselves with since meta keywords are not a standard aspect of the blog architecture.

Basically, the meta keyword tag for those that may not be familiar with the term is a way to insert text into HTML pages making the text invisible when the page is viewed with a browser. Some search engines read the content of the tag and associates the words contained within the tag with the web page's body copy.

From my own research, the saga about their validity has stretched back as far as 1998 … maybe earlier.

But, my point about webmasters making generalistic views about keywords being dead is that there are a few aspects that need to considered when trying to rank high in the search engines and in my view, comments such as "meta keywords could hurt your ranking" has to be taken into consideration with a whole host of other issues that could hurt your ranking more …

• It's my understanding that some of the other search engines besides Google still rely on meta keywords to index pages and so my advice is to use no more than three keywords on each of your html pages.
• Don't keyword stuff, either in your title, meta keywords (if building html pages) or, in the body of your web page. If anything, this is what will get you penalized by the search engines. At this point, I also suggest you go check out Google's Webmaster Guidelines as well as their page on keyword stuffing.
• Do theme the content on your site. I think this has a major impact on your overall ranking and so, the "flea market" sites are out the window! Flea market meaning that you promote and talk about every and anything on your site! You need to give it a theme such as "dog breeding" or, "hair braiding."
• Whether you are a blogger or using html pages to build your site, ensure your title isn't the name of your blog unless it has the keyword in it. The title is the very first thing the spiders see when they come to visit your site so make it easy for them! So, ensure you have the relevant keywords in the title of your site. No one who doesn't know you online are looking for FredsGraphic.com but, they are looking for a "web designer" or "website developer.
• If you are a blogger, do make use of tags in your blog posts. Tags are a way to categorize your blog posts and certainly helps you get found by those browsing and searching online.

In essence, when writing the content of both your web pages and your blogs, always ask yourself how the way you have constructed the page is going to help searchers find you online.

The search engines want to provide searchers with pages that are most relevant to the terms they typed in search box and naturally, you want your page to be in the top 10 or top 20 search listings.

Use your keywords wisely and there will be no reason to be penalized by any of the search engines.

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