Keywords, Content, and Matching Issues

One of the important challenges for the website designer is choosing keywords that match the content of the web page. The keyword/content matrix relates to matching words the designer chooses for copy on a website with content on a given page. Simply put, search engines look for keywords when they access a site. Those words need to clearly reflect content.

Libraries and bookstores throughout history catalogued books by title or subject or author. Twenty years ago if I wanted to read a book about fishing, I would go to that subject area in the local bookstore. I wouldn’t go to books about meditation or spirituality to find fishing material.

Internet technocrats used the same methodology and thinking when they created search engines for cyberspace. Effective internet searching today requires keywords accurately reflecting what a site is all about. So let’s take a look at some considerations for writing keywords.

Copy needs to make sense and it needs to be easily readable. If a keyword is used a dozen times, the content may be boring and the reader may believe that you just want to attract traffic to your site rather than provide quality information. A natural tone is appealing and readers will stay on your website to read your material if you remain focused on quality writing.

The popularity of content-related keywords can be a double-edge sword. They are popular because they’re used by hundreds of web sites. However, because of that, your ranking by a given search engine may be low. Don’t let this discourage you. Use them anyway, knowing you may not rank well in the beginning. Be patient and watch your rank improve slowly.

Adding qualifiers to popular keywords is another strategy that may help improve rank. One kind of qualifier is geographic—city or state or country specific language attached to keywords makes use of their popularity and at the same time delimiting use. Sector qualifiers (e.g., business or telecommunications) provide the same benefit. Thus while ‘fishing’ might rank poorly because it’s so popular, ‘fishing Minnesota’ might rank quite highly.

There is a lot to learn about matching keywords and content for maximum traffic to your site. Keeping some basic considerations in mind is a good place to begin.