Posted on 04 Mar 2016
Keyword planning
Keywords are words you should use to best describe your business or service to increase your visibility on search engines such as Google. For example, ICG is a marketing agency and therefore one of our keywords is 'marketing agency'.
This is a huge subject that you should dedicate time into and research thoroughly.
When keyword planning there are a few things to think about. Firstly, are you choosing keywords that are relevant to your product or service? Secondly, will those keywords get sufficient amounts of traffic if you were to target them properly?
You should use Google Adwords' Keyword Planner to see how many searches your keywords get each month. Google's Keyword Planner will also give you an idea of how competitive your keywords are.
Does your content match the keywords you want to target?
It's important that your keywords are relevant to your site's content. Many websites can become guilty of 'keyword stuffing', which is when your keywords are used too many times, in the hope that Google will boost your rankings.
This is a poor use of time and resource and could lead to your website receiving a Google penalty. All of your content must be of value to users and show what your product or service is about.
Meta Data
Meta data is proven to help increase the visibility of your website, if done correctly.
A Meta tag is a snippet of text that helps to describe the webpage's content. The Meta tag can't actually be read by users, however, it is inserted into the code of your website and is visible to search engines and users who know how to look for them. Correctly written Meta tags can help increase your website's presence on Google and other search engines and help search engines find out a little more about your site.
A Meta description is a short description of a page's content and is a primary source for the snippet of text displayed beneath a listing in the search results.
They are extremely important to users and can help encourage users onto your website. Meta descriptions should be compelling and tell users a bit more about what that particular page on your website is about. Make sure you write concise Meta descriptions that will engage users and be informative at the same time.
If you would like further advice on keyword planning and Meta data, speak to our SEO Specialist, Steph Byrne, on email or call 01772 679383.
