Content Matters: Use Keywords to Increase Visibility
At #TeamOnsharp, we’re always looking for ways different industries can improve their websites. For most companies across all industries, “rock bottom” just means that they’re not ranking on the first page of Google or Bing. In this blog, we’re focusing on the engineering industry and how using keywords is a necessary component to help their on-site SEO, which ultimately gets them more website traffic.
What Are They?
First, let’s start with the basics. If you didn’t already know, keywords have a search volume and difficulty score affiliated with them. Search volume stands for the number of searches that keyword receives on average. These search volumes can range anywhere from 0–50 to 100K–1M. Difficulty score (also known as a competition score) represents a prediction of how difficult it will be for your website to rank for a keyword. This score is based on factors like competition from other websites for that keyword, your current rank, referring links, and domain authority. The higher the number, the more challenging it will be for you to rank for a particular keyword.
Why are they necessary for engineering companies?
Integrating keywords with high search volumes and low competition scores in your engineering website content, page titles, and meta descriptions will help boost your SEO, which will result in reaching your target audience. If you’re looking for specific words to analyze for search volume and difficulty score, use the Google Keyword Planner to see where you rank on the ones you’re currently using (plus get some ideas for new words and topics to add to your content!).
Now that we’ve given you a taste of what search volume and competition scores mean, let’s go over how to effectively use keywords throughout your content so your website can appear in one of the first positions on the first search engine results page (SERP).
The Most Important Places to Use Keywords
Page Title:Â A page title is a short string of text that describes your web page. Your page title won’t appear on the page itself, but it will be visible in search results and in your page URL. Search engines will list pages that have relevant keywords in their page titles, so make sure to include yours here.
Meta description: When you search for something on Google, the meta description is the information that’s displayed underneath the page title. Google will bold the words or phrases you searched for in the results, which helps make your site seem more relevant than your competitors. For example, here’s what it looks like up when we searched website design for Onsharp:
On-Page Written Content: This is the main written text on your website; anywhere there is text, there should be relevant words and phrases that describe your products and/or services. Keywords should be mentioned several times throughout the content on your website, but not too much. Keyword stuffing, or overusing the same words and phrases, can actually make you rank lower on Google. Integrating them naturally is the best way to get high results without people noticing that you’re repeatedly using the same words.
Using Different Types of Keywords
As a best practice, you should target one keyword per page, then target multiple variations of that keyword on the same page. Google recognizes different variations of keywords and will consider that when ranking your website. For instance, if you’re using the word “engineering,” you should also use “engineer,” “engineered,” and “engineers.” You should also use related words that have a similar meaning, but slightly differ, including, “fabrication,” “civil engineering,” “municipal construction,” and so on. But it must be relevant to your company—don’t include keywords for products or services you don’t offer.
Here are some examples of what you can do to optimize each piece of content with multiple, relevant keywords:
Synonyms: People conduct searches with various engineering terms. To reach the different audience members, you should include the synonyms of keywords you’re targeting.
- Examples:Â architect, builder, designer, director, investor, manager, planner, survey, assemble, set up, fabricate
Subtopic Terms:Â While your blog posts or content may revolve around a single topic, there are often sub-topics integrated within them. Use these topics to brainstorm additional content you could use to target your audience.
- Examples:Â Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Sustainable, Commissioning
Keyword Phrases:Â Instead of using single keywords, keyword phrases help search engines match users to results that are more relevant to them. While these phrases are longer than typical keywords, they can be helpful to include.
- Examples:Â engineering firm in Fargo North Dakota, civil engineering firm in ND, sustainable engineering, competitively priced engineering firm, wind engineering
How Often To Use Them
There isn’t a magic number of how many times you should use keywords. However, it’s important to avoid keyword stuffing and make your content sound natural. If you utilize different variations of keywords in the right places, you should be good to go.
Here’s an example of how to use a particular set on your engineering website:
Target Keyword: Mechanical Engineering
Page Title: Mechanical Engineering Services | [Company Name]
Meta Description: Our firm specializes in mechanical engineering services for building systems in the Fargo area.
URL: www.[companyname].com/mechanical-engineering
So how does your engineering website rank when it comes to using the right keywords in your content? Have you hit rock bottom in search results? You don’t have to stay there. Let us help you create and implement a successful keyword strategy so your engineering website will show up in the first organic search results.
