Most of us are aware that keywords are important to how well our sites rank in the search engines. But do you know the best places to place these keywords?
First and foremost, the meta keyword tag is irrelevant. You should not even bother putting this information on the pages of your site. Search engines ignore it and simply determine the keywords that are relevant to each page based on the actual content. What’s worse, is that you are actually broadcasting your keyword strategy to your competitors.
The number one place to have your keywords is in the title tag. Not only is this displayed in search engine results, but it is actually used by the search engines.
The second place is in the meta description. Much like the title, the meta description is displayed in the search engine results if it is an accurate depiction of the content of the page and matches to the keywords that the user was searching for.
The third place is in the header tags of your site (H1, H2, etc.). I often use the keyword in an H1 tag as the first part of the actual page content.
The last place is in the body of the text on the page (i.e. The paragraphs). The usage of the keywords should appear natural and not forced. Sprinkle them early and often, but make sure the sentences make sense and add value to the reader.
As with anything you do to your site, consider getting a keyword research tool that can help you accurately determine which keywords are worth promoting to begin with. Once you know which ones are worthwhile, make the changes to the pages on your site as you see fit.
As always, don’t abuse the system. Dumping too many keywords into a page will be noted by the search engine indexers and you will likely be viewed as Internet spam.