Whenever a search engine makes a change to its ranking rules, it often has a ripple effect on how people should be using keywords. The problem is, if you miss these changes then you could be one of the many who are still doing SEO the old way.
Check out my top 5 myths in keyword marketing and see if you should be changing the way you use your keywords…
Myth 1: I must use an exact number of keywords
This is probably one of the biggest myths in SEO, yet many marketers still believe it will lead their website to the top. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that overstuffing your content with keywords will do more harm than good, but did you also know that there isn’t a specified number of keywords to use? When it comes to keyword density there isn’t a set mathematical rule that you need to abide by in order to bring in traffic. Sure, it helps to be intelligent with your keywords, but don’t overthink how many times you are using it.
The goal is to make sure that you are using keywords so that the reader is clear on what your content is about. You should ideally use your keyword in the page title, the headline, the URL and naturally within the content.
Myth 2: Meta keywords will have an impact on my rankings
Including the keyword in your meta tag used to be an important part of SEO, but people started to heavily spam this method so search engines decided to stop focusing on it as an important aspect of rankings. That’s not to say you should forget about meta tag’s all together. It’s still an important practice of good SEO, but it’s more to do with controlling spider access.
Again, it’s all about being clear to the user with what your content is about in order to gain clicks, rather than search engines using it as a way to optimise your page for rankings.
Myth 3: I can get away with only using long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are the most desirable option because they’re cheaper, low competition, and they suggest that the user is closer to the sale. But the myth here is that you can get away with using only long-tail keywords. There’s nothing stopping you from using long-tail keywords, but it may slow down your advertising efforts, especially if you are a start-up.
SEO is all about variety, so although you shouldn’t dismiss long-tail keywords, you should also be focusing on other variations in order to get a mixed result of traffic.
Myth 4: I must use exact match types in my content
Now here’s a myth that can have a negative impact on your rankings. Thanks to LSI (latent semantic indexing) Google can take into account related words, semantics and synonyms in order to bring the right audience to your content. The truth is, search engines are a lot more intelligent at analysing how keywords are related, so there isn’t a real need to use exact match types in your content.
Although your audience may be lazy when performing searches, they don’t want to read a page of content that makes no sense. Keep your content natural to keep your website respectable and to encourage valuable links back to your site.
Myth 5: Upper and lower case letters make a difference
Whether you use capital letters in your keywords or not, it really makes no difference to search engines. For example, SEO can be seo and Keyword Eye can be keyword eye – making this good news for ensuring that your page is grammatically correct!
Using match types, you can tailor your searches to include misspellings, variations, close phrases, and exact terms, but upper and lower case letters won’t have any impact. Google does however recommend that you use lower case for URL’s, as mixed case letters can be harder to link to, but otherwise you are free to use lower or upper case for your keywords.
Takeaway
Some of the biggest takeaways here are to ensure that your keywords are varied and your content is natural. Although it’s important to use keywords to bring in traffic, It’s good practice to make sure you don’t overstuff your content and concern yourself with how many times you have used your keyword.
So forget about these myths and start using keywords the right way!