Why Keywords Are Still Relevant to SEO

Connectica • September 16, 2016 • SEO

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Search Engine Optimization Florida Keeps the Keyword

Have keywords been savagely killed by various Google algorithm updates? We think not they are alive and well. A keyword’s ability to be analyzed was the sole source of its power for search engine optimization. It is still important to invest resources into incorporating keywords into your SEO strategy. You have no reason to feel that the keyword has lost its sheen or relevance to search engine optimization. The keyword underpins all other major driving factors in search engine optimization. Whether the searcher is using a voice search function or looking specifically under location or image based searches, and regardless of the device, the keyword is what ensures that you still show up in the search.

This confirms what a few people in the know have held to: the keyword has begun to reveal its true power since many major updates. Google may have stripped you of the ability to use old tools to gauge how effective your keywords were to your strategy, but that doesn’t mean that the keyword is dead in the water. Of course it is still necessary! How else would Google be able to link relevant sites to any kind of search? In fact, these updates are merely a hint that Google has gleaned a deeper understanding of the power of keywords in a search. Keywords are still your target audience’s only access to your content and your page. The people on the other end of the screen do not think: “search engine optimization”; they think: “what words will get me to the most relevant page”. Thus, your apt use of keywords will reflect to Google when your site best fits the customers’ needs.

Before the more recent algorithm updates, keywords were used and abused by SEO writers and strategy creators, who would just cram them into their content a dozen times to drive plenty of traffic. That’s all that mattered. But…isn’t conversion the goal? Keyword stuffing and the use of short, direct keywords resulted in content that was not of very high quality and not very useful or relevant to the searcher. Google has implemented changes to combat this; to judge context and intent as well as removing previous algorithms’ reliance on exact keyword matches and keyword density. Therefore, keywords should now be playing a much greater role in your ROI.

Google quickly realized that searchers are not robots – when they search, they don’t all use exactly the same words. They especially don’t use a random string of words that barely reflects a thought. They speak, they ask questions, and their word choices have several layers of nuance. Google updates now tap into this by putting more emphasis on long tail keywords, semantic search, and conversational search. Any relevant search (be it something correlated, synonymous, relative to your products or services) should now be able to link to your content – pulling traffic that specifically wants what you’ve got.

If you look at it this way, almost everything you say is now as valuable to conversion rates as intentional, specific, handpicked keywords were, in the past. Everything from your links to your tags to your content (all of which consider the importance of accurate keyword choices), are accounted for by Google as it translates the randomly shaped questions of online searchers into words and phrases you, as a professional, are more likely to have used.

Connectica understands that the trend has changed, but the value of the keyword to search engine optimization has increased.

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