If there is one salient point to take away from all the planet's accumulated knowledge about how SEO writing works, it is that high-quality, substantive content is the coin of the realm. Make your site useful, make it valuable to other human beings, and the rankings will follow. We say this on every single page here, and not just because it's good business: we say it because it's true. So why devote an entire article to SEO keywords?

Because they matter.

This is one area where some wonky knowledge of search engine design comes into play. SEO keywords actually refer to entire phrases. These are the phrases people plug into their search engines—the phrases that let your customers find your site. Sadly there is no search engine in the world that can reliably answer a question in plain English, such as, "Where can I find a Peoria-based pet-sitter who only serves organic dog food?" Your customers know this, which is why they are likely to search with a series of words such as "pet sitter Peoria organic food." This collection of unintelligible clues? That's an SEO keyword.

SEO Keywords: from Research to Reality

The job of an SEO expert is to take those keywords and translate them into great content. Each page of content, be it article or blog post, should target a different SEO keyword. You don't need to do any "keyword stuffing" here; simply write a compelling page devoted to that phrase. If you've done your job right, the phrase will appear organically, fluently and intelligently. And because that page is both substantive and focused, it will rise to the top of search engine results the next time it's searched.

Remember: search engines do not rank sites; they rank individual pages. That's why it's wise to create targeted SEO articles for each of the keywords you need.

SEO Keywords: When Big is Too Big

But here's the problem. Most business owners want to rank for a few magical terms, and often these terms are overly broad and highly competitive. Say you own a business that sells fancy wristwatches. You may think the key to success will be to claw your way onto the front page of search results for the word "watch." In fact this is a pretty bad plan, for two reasons:

1. That term is extremely competitive, so millions of people are vying for it.

2. Lots of people who type "watch" into their search engines are looking for something else altogether. They may be searching for digital watches, or neighborhood watch information, or even how to watch television online.

In other words, it would take tremendous effort to rank well for a one-word keyphrase like "watch," and the resulting traffic would be very low quality. You would be lucky to net a few customers a week from that term alone.

Specific is Better

The solution is to get more specific. You can expect a far higher conversion rate if you attract visitors who already know exactly what they're looking for. A phrase such as "men's Bulgari watches" may draw in only a few hundred people a day, but you can bet that a far more significant slice of those people will buy a watch.

And here's the beauty part: winning the rankings for more specific phrases is much easier, because longer SEO keywords tend to be less competitive. Better traffic, better rankings. Everybody wins.

So Do I Need a Million Pages?

So why not just build a page for every possible iteration of every possible product on your site? Because there is a downside as well: if you get too specific with your keyword optimization, you could find yourself the proud owner of several #1 rankings that nobody is searching for. You may win the top spot for the phrase "men's matte finish Bulgari diving watches 1500 meters" with ease, but if nobody is searching for that phrase, it doesn't really matter.

Effective SEO relies on good analysis to choose the most promising keywords for your site. There is a sweet spot here: You want keywords that are popular enough to bring in good traffic, but not so competitive that they are nearly unwinnable.

Choose Wisely

SEO keywords are the language of Internet search. You simply must take advantage of this fact if you want to improve your rankings and bring in higher quality traffic. Click here to get started right away.

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