Key words can be just as effective outside of your content as in it.
That's because no matter where they appear, they are still search terms.
In this article, I want to offer some guidance on how to choose those words that are most likely to attract targeted prospects to your content.
Key words were not invented by Google, or even the Web.
Long before them, it was possible to search academic databases for research according to topics chosen by professors.
One of the frustrations was that quite often these words were unrelated to the subject of interest.
And it's possible for the same thing to happen online.
Just as you want your visitors to be in your target market, so, too, do you want your key words.
Now this may sound obvious; after all, a key word is central to your niche.
But I think that the zeal with which some people try to optimize for them actually backfires by attracting the wrong traffic.
Here's what I mean.
Let's say that your niche is how to raise teenage high school boys.
If you're not careful, you'll pick words that could be applied to a different niche.
For example, if you chose the word basketball, you could get either boys or girls, parents of boys or parents of girls.
That's because that sport is played by kids in both genders, even though there was a time when they didn't.
What would happen if you chose the phrase high schoolgym class? You could have the same problem, except now it wouldn't be just a mix of boys and girls, but also anything else that schools use their gyms for: not just sports, but assemblies, and even musical events.
So it's possible that people who search for your key terms may come to your content, only to discover that what you've created is irrelevant to them.
And you know how it feels when you arrive at a site that you thought would be helpful to you, only to discover that it has nothing to do with the information that you were hoping to find.
One thing that can contribute to this problem is the list of suggested words offered.
Depending on the platform that you're using, they could include words that occur more often than others.
In this case, those words could be taken out of context and, as a result, convey more meaning than they were intended.
All this is to say simply, that you need to think about the key words that you include with every piece of content that you write, no matter where it is.
One thing that I try to do is to make the category one of those words or phrases.
That way anyone who would be interested in it, would also be drawn to something that I'd written about a part of it.
Targeted traffic is an essential part of your online business.
If you choose the right key words, then you will increase your chances of getting people to come to your squeeze page who are interested in you.