SEO trends are known to change over time. Google is constantly updating its algorithm in order to make its platform better for users. In other words, Google wants to ensure that its audience can find the best websites and exactly what they are looking for. Businesses have to learn to adapt to these algorithm changes in order to be discovered online. Indeed, this means having a search engine optimisation or SEO strategy.
If you do your best to follow SEO trends, you might see people saying that keywords are overrated and no longer important for SEO in 2021. Is this true or are people speculating? Let’s take a closer look at this topic once and for all.
What are Keywords?
First of all, it is important to understand what exactly keywords are in relation to SEO. Namely, these are words that are used when people are searching online for information. They can be single words or they even can be popular phrases. Businesses want to know about keywords because when they include them in website content, they can connect with the right audience and those that are searching for the terms.
There are a few reasons why people have assumed that keywords are not important anymore. In particular, Google used to make keywords easy to find out, as well as other software platforms doing the same. However, this type of visible data disappeared. So, there was an assumption that it no longer mattered. Various changes to the algorithm after this point meant that people thought keywords no longer had the significance they once had. Again, this was only an assumption.
Do Keywords Still Matter?
As a simple answer to this question; yes, keywords still matter in 2021. They are still going to play an important part in ranking pages and how your audience will find you on Google. But, something you do have to realise is that keywords are not going to be the only component of an SEO strategy.
You are going to have to spend some time researching SEO before you can put this into practice with your business. For example, it can be beneficial to take an SEO training course with ClickSlice. You are going to learn all about search engine optimisation and the best ways to implement it. What’s more, this training is tailored to your business, which makes sure everything is relevant beneficial for you.
Something that is still important for keywords is that you spend time researching them. Namely, you are not just picking words out of a hat at random. You need to find out what users are searching for when it comes to products and services in your niche. This can take some time and you will have to choose them wisely.
In 2021, you are going to have to be aware that there are different types of keywords. Namely, there are head terms, body keywords and long tail keywords. So, you have head terms, which are going to be a single keyword. While these can seem like they are highly searched, they do not always convert well for your website. Then, there are body keywords, which are made up of two to three words. They can be beneficial for your business and are more specific. As you may have guessed long tail keywords are the longest and contain four or more words together to form a phrase. Often, there is less competition, which can mean that you can rank higher when you use them. Your strategy should contain all three of these keywords. But, you will have to think carefully about what you do with them.
There is no doubt that keywords have changed when it comes to SEO. For example, how many times you used a keyword in your content used to matter. But, this seems to be less important when it comes to Google. Yet, this does not mean that keywords do not matter at all. Instead, you are going to be more concerned with keyword placement. They should still be used where it makes sense, such as on page titles and image descriptions. But, it is less about frequency. Google wants your content to be engaging and what the user is looking for. The focus is now on quality.
Therefore, you have to be sensible when it comes to keywords. They are going to be part of a successful SEO strategy but they are not going to be the sole component used on its own. Take some time to do some more research and you can perfect your search engine optimisation approach.
