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Sunday Morning SEO: How to Find Good Long Tail Keywords (Part 2)

Sunday Morning SEO: How to Find Good Long Tail Keywords (Part 2)

In my last post, I gave the first step to finding good long tail keywords. Here is the second step.  Also, I’ll talk about part three next Sunday.

Part 2: Target the keywords.

Targeting your keywords is a pretty simple process.  But many bloggers make one of these two common mistakes.

First, don’t spam the keyword in your blog post.  Most bloggers don’t seem to have this problem, but it’s worth mentioning just in case.  Google has penalties for keyword spamming.  Also, keyword spam is annoying to your readers.

The second mistake is more common: not being aggressive enough with your targeting.  Yes, I know I just talked about not spamming but some bloggers make the mistake on the other end of the spectrum.  They barely include the keywords in their posts.

There’s a balance between spamming and barely targeting a keyword.

Let’s look at two specific ways to target your keywords without spamming.

Title Tags: Inserting the keyword in the title tag is by far the best onpage SEO strategy yet many bloggers don’t do this.  Now, you don’t need to repeat the keyword unless it makes sense to.

In regards to blogging software and title tags, I only have experience with WordPress.  WordPress automatically takes you post’s title and inserts it in the title tag.  I suspect that most software does the same.

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Also, try to add the keyword at the beginning of the title tag.  The first words in the tag hold more weight.

For example, let’s say your keyword is predictably irrational book review.  Between the following two title tags, go with the second one.

  1. Customers Don’t Act Rationally: Predictably Irrational Book Review
  2. Predictably Irrational Book Review: Customers Don’t Act Rationally

Keyword Repetition: I think a good guide is repeating the keyword every 150-250 words.  This keeps you from spamming while still letting the search engines know which keyword you’re targeting.

So, if you write a 500 word post, make sure the keyword is in the post at least twice but no more than three times.

View Comments (4)
  • Ahhh – you had me thinking you were providing some good ideas for n00bs until the ‘Keyword Repetition’ part.

    Keyword density is a complete SEO myth, systematically tested and debunked (search for “Keyword Density Myth” to find out more). ‘Keyword Placement’ – where you put your word/phrase – would have been better advice, along with some basic LSI/synonym usage.

    I know that covering such a large, and mostly evolving discipline, like SEO is a hard task – but when providing basic ‘guidance’ it’s critical you stick to empirical facts rather than supposition.

  • I always struggle with this one.

    Do I read a fun or attractive opening or a bland one that works for SEO purposes? I do try and mix it up to see how it works out.

    I think your message on keyword density is still valid, at least from a readers viewpoint.

  • When it comes to SEO you want to make sure your targeted keywords are mentioned in the relevant pages and that you get the balance right, because at the end of the day you want your SEO to work. Your text will be read by the user as well as the search engines so you still want your text to read well and not just look like you are spamming, else it won’t do well in the search engines and your readers will not enjoy reading it, as it probably makes no sense.

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