Good Keyword Hygiene

Are you Practicing Good Keyword Hygiene?

Clean and Organize Your Keywords

I think most of us are glad that keyword stuffing is no longer rewarded by search engines, but keywords are still important. Even with all of the algorithm changes made by search engines, keywords are how your audience finds you online. Your keywords and keyword phrases are as essential as ever and will continue to be. However, you should organize your keywords and periodically clear them off of your list if they are no longer valuable to your business.

Finding Your Keywords

Begin by researching and creating a list of keywords to use for your niche using a keyword tool like Wordtracker or Google’s Keyword Planner. At this time, you’ll need to sign up for Adwords to use Google’s Keyword Planner.

When you start building your list, remember that many SEO gurus suggest that keywords that have high competition or those that few people are using will not be useful to optimize your content. Domains that have the keywords that you want to use in the URLs will also be hard to beat. Direct your focus on low competition keywords that have a substantial volume of monthly searches. Once you’ve identified a substantial list of keywords and keyword phrases, save them in an electronic document like a spreadsheet so you can use, organize, and update them easily.

Your Keyword List

After you’ve created your list, you’ll need to start noting some things about the keywords or phrases. Determine your main category keywords, subcategory keywords, and negative keywords; then list them under the appropriate category. Enter the keywords and keyword phrases you’ve used before, where they were used and the response received. Organizing your keyword list will help you keep track of them and how you’ve used them previously.

Do fresh research every few months to come up with even more keywords to use. Toss any keywords that are too competitive, or that have no real use within your niche.

If your budget permits, there are several specialized software programs available that help with managing keywords and keyword phrases and some predict the performance of the keyword or phrase. A quick Google search will produce a list of SEO software applications such as Clever Gizmos or Good Keywords.

Keyword Performance

Your content should include relevant keywords while providing value to the reader. Stuffing keywords into your content that are not closely related to your topic or niche will no longer help you with your optimization efforts. Keywords that are not performing well should be removed from your list. Your online content that contains the outdated keywords or phrases, such as your website and blog posts, should be revised to include better performing, more relevant keywords and phrases. (This is the reason why you should note where you used your keywords on your list.)

Keeping your keywords organized makes it easier to research and determine their relevance and how they are performing. You can easily research how your direct competition is using the same keywords, if you know what they are. Researching your keywords and keywords phrases, while keeping the list clean by removing useless or out of date keywords and phrases, will save you time and frustration when you are creating content to share online.