In the previous module, we learned how using keywords in your content can help improve your site’s SEO. Techniques you can use to help improve your search engine rankings. rating, and this approach forms one component of your optimization strategy. Overuse of keywords, however, can detract from your site’s ranking. Although it might help more people find your content, if your pages and/or posts aren’t friendly to your human readers, they’ll more quickly leave your site. That can lead to an increase in your site’s bounce rate, which can negatively affect your SEO ranking.
We’ll say it again: it’s a balance. By utilizing more of the long-tail terms that real people search for, and not just the most popular keywords, you’re helping to guide search engines to your content when potential readers look up those terms online. By ensuring that your writing has various words and phrases to discuss a particular topic, your site’s human visitors will remain more engaged rather than feeling banged over the head with an oft-repeated keyword or phrase.
Take a look at this example phrase:
I’ve adapted my baking methods to come up with a chocolate chip cookie recipe that the kids can make.
To make your content better optimized and more readable, you could consider using a long-tail term:
I’ve adapted my baking methods to make a chocolate chip cookie recipe easy for kids.
In addition to the potential for higher search rankings, these long-tail keywords might be highlighted on the search result page when your post is shown as a result. See how “best chocolate chip cookie recipe” is bold and repeated in this screenshot example:
This is helpful especially when you’re using long-tail keywords that more directly target a specific search. Having the exact phrase someone searches for is an advantage and draws a bit more attention to your site’s result on Google.
If you already have a live site with content, doing keyword research and editing/rewriting your more important pieces is certainly worth the work.
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