How to boost your Google ranking with simple SEO keyword tips

Every little word placement can help you with your SEO.

I’ve recently been helping clients to make the smallest of changes to their website copywriting to achieve some great results in Google.

Yes, SEO is a huge beast that encompasses so many elements, but I focus on the copywriting side of things and how to use your words for both humans and Google.

And it all starts with you – the business owner.

Before you write anything, the one thing you need to nut out is who you’re speaking to. Who is your ideal client/customer, what are they like, what do they need and how do they think?

So, how do you work out SEO keywords your clients would use?

To start, you could ask your existing clients. What did they type into Google when they were trying to find your service or product? What words or phrases did they use?

As a business owner, it’s easy to get stuck in our own little world when we’re too close to the service we offer or product we sell. We think we know what people would type into Google to find us, but it may not always be the case.

For example, I work with a few Virtual Assistants (VAs) who love to use that exact term. For a start, it’s highly competitive so harder to rank for. So I encourage them to add a location, or think about their services and use those keywords.

And if you do have a generic product where it’s obvious what people would type into Google (i.e. Wedding Photography), add your location to get local hits. Then play with ‘long tail’ keywords such as ‘Affordable wedding photographer in Grantville’.

Where do you put your SEO keywords in your website copywriting?

• SEO title and description tags
• On-page Headings (H1 through to H6) – making sure your very first headline is the absolute best
• Your content throughout the page but especially in the first 100 words or so
• In your blog title and content (regular blogging is a great idea for building your SEO rankings using copywriting)
• Image alt tags
• In links to other pages or websites, articles, blog posts etc.
• Your URL slug

What not to do with your SEO keywords

Long gone are the days where Google favours keyword stuffing. Not only is it dead in the water, but it’s poisonous to read – not for human consumption.

Google also ranks the amount of time people spend on your website, so if you’ve simply stuffed keywords to get the top positions when people start reading your copy, it will be boring and unappealing, and they’ll leave your website quickly.

Don’t use keywords if they’re not relevant to your website. Just because a keyword may get a high search volume, doesn’t mean you should use it. Google looks at your content and ranks you as an authority based on the relevancy of the keywords/content you use.

For example, if you sell kitchen cabinets, there’s no point writing blogs on women’s shoes just to get more women clicking through to your website in the hope you’ll convince them to buy a new kitchen! They’ll see no shoes, and flick straight off.

Know your audience and write better than anyone else

Although keywords will always be relevant, it’s more about knowing your audience and writing words they’d use to find you on Google. Stay relevant and be authentic and you’ll be fine! If you need any help with your keywords and how to make changes to your words for better Google rankings and hits, get in touch.