Since the annoucement of a new Penguin Update 2.0 some people are running scare and others are shouting, “Keywords?! I don’t even know what keywords are. I just write for my audience!” What makes you think using keywords is some sort of dirty trick? Google wants you to use keywords to guide them in cataloging your content. How else would they know where to put your stuff?
Google didn’t say keyword targeting is not allowed, people! Far from it. In fact, Google has a tool to help you target the keywords that are relevant to your business and ideal client. Why would Google punish you for using keywords? With the help of their keyword tool you can find the most popular keywords and phrases for your industry for free! Unless you believe it's a trap to use this tool. I believe we can safely assume that Google wants to help businesses and consumers match services and needs. As Jason DeMyers, published in a recent aricle article on Forbes, You begin with your keyword research and build your SEO strategy from it. Until you know your keywords you can't optimize your website.
What will get you into trouble is the over use of keywords in a very unnatural way or providing no value to the reader.
Example – of awkward keyword stuffing -
This was the way to get your page or business indexed in some days past. I used it back in the beginning because I thought you had to repeat yourself like that to get the search bot to understand your site. HaHa Well, I saw that it was using by sites that were indexing high so I thought that was what your were supposed to do! Google started pasting out penalties for this type of over optimization or keyword stuffing. That's an example of what not to do!
Why Keyword Research is Important
Keyword research will help you find the solutions to the problems your ideal client is dying to know. When you research keywords you’ll see what people search for most often. People “google it” to find the answers to problems every day. If you have the answer to the burning question that you see in research then why would you not target that search result? Search engines can tip you off to the what people are seeking within your market. This is the beauty of a search engine – bringing people and products together with technology.
Where am I going to put You?
How will search engines index and organize your content if you don’t help them understand what your articles and posts are about? How useful would a search engine be if it couldn’t predict relevant content for a particular subject or topic? When you use keywords properly search engines and clients will know what your content is about and it’s important to a particular topic. Otherwise there would be billions of articles out there with no way to be found. The internet would be usless without the organizing and cataloging of ideas.
What are you afraid of?
As long as you are not “gaming” or trying to cheat the system you have nothing to fear from Panda or Penguin. Google wants the best content for it’s users to be available to them. I think that’s fair. It’s a good thing! If you think about what Google says it’s trying to do you’ll see that it’s a good thing. They are trying to make the search engine weed out the spam and poor quality results so that the cream rises to the top! I’m not sure about you but that’s what I’m trying to be! By striving to provide readers with what they want to know and using it to provide for their needs you will be at the top. Use keywords in a normal fashion and stop listening to rumors and those that like to game the system. There's nothing naughty about using keywords no matter what you've heard!
It’s your turn to share your ideas about keyword research, Best SEO practice and Pengiun 2.0. Are you worried or have any questions? Leave a comment below and let’s talk about it.
