Once you have created your keyword list, you can begin implementing the keywords by placing them on your website in the most pertinent places to give you optimal results. Utilize your categories to organize your website into more relevant groups. From there, you need to make a new page for each keyword that isn’t already covered on your website and re-do pages that can be tailored to target other keywords. This way, you can target one keyword per page.
Google’s web-crawlers read individual pages of your website and will send traffic directly to a page that best fits a search. When you have a plan in place for new pages and a new menu, follow these steps to optimize one page with one or two keywords that fit.
Where to Place Your Keywords
URL
One of the first places search engines and web crawlers scan is the URL, or web address. Google trusts that the URL of a web page will accurately describe the page. The following is an example of what your URL should look like:
https://www.mywebsite.com/keyword-phrase
Optimize Your URL Structure
Improve URLs for SEO by thinking big picture and keeping it simple. Make sure your URLs include keywords that are relevant to the content of that page. The simpler the URL, the better for web crawlers. According to SEM Rush, SEO friendly URLs:
- Include your keyword
- Are descriptive and meaningful
- Are easy to read
- Use relevant categories/subfolders
- Contain three to five words (if possible)
You can check your URLs with SEMRush’s On Page SEO Checker, which verifies whether or not you have a keyword in your title and meta tag, as well as offers suggestions if you do not.
SEO Title
The SEO title, also known as the HTML title tag or page title, is another place search engines look to find the topic of each web page. When you are on a website, look up at the top bar—that’s the SEO title. You should put your keyword here.
<title>keyword phrase|company name</title>
This is the first thing people see when come to your page from the search engine results page. You’ll also see your SEO title if you look at the tabs within your browser after you click on the result of your choice. This will help you rank for the keyword, as well as get the user to click through.
Google uses the click through rate to determine how relevant your organization’s website is for a specific keyword, meaning you WANT to encourage people to do so with enticing yet helpful and relevant SEO. Keep in mind that if no one is clicking on your result within the search results page, your ranking may go down over time.
Yoast SEO is a great tool to help you come up with optimized titles. The plugin checks two crucial aspects: the width and if you use your keyword. The width shouldn’t be too long or too short—try for around 600 px. Also, keep in mind what it will look like in mobile. A good width looks like this:
Meta Descriptions
Also known as the page description, this is a short section of your website’s code where you get another opportunity to describe what searchers will find on the page. When you perform a search on Google and view the results, check out the short description provided for each listing. You’ll notice that whatever you searched will appear in bold in that description. A good page description helps attract searchers to your listing on Google.
<meta name="description" content="Our organization helps people find this keyword and accomplish this keyword phrase.">
The optimal length for meta descriptions is between 155 to 160 characters, as Google truncates if it goes any longer. Keep in mind that you want to keep your meta description as informative, relevant and enticing as possible to drive clicks. However, meta descriptions do not factor into Google’s ranking algorithms.
Headers
Headers are the titles within your web page and provide much needed structure, especially for people who tend to scan the page as opposed to reading it through. Your header should be consistent, interesting, relevant and relatively short.
Search engines see H1 (header 1) title tags as the most important title within a web page. For your website, your header should include the keyword:
<h1>keyword phrase here</h1>.
According to Search Engine Journal, H1 introduces the topic your page is about (only use one per page). H2 describes the main topics you’ll cover, and H3 through H6 serve as additional subheadings within each section. Make sure to include keywords in your header tags and optimize for featured snippets like in the example below:
Image File Names
It’s important to have images on your website because pictures are pretty to look at, and they give you another opportunity to further describe your web page to search engines. Images should also be relevant to the page and topic at hand. You want Google to be able to know what the image is without even looking at it, so using a key phrase is imperative. Save images on your site with the following nomenclature:
keyword-phrase.jpg
Image Alt Tags
Since search engines can read text but not images, you need to describe images in search engine language. That’s where the alt tag comes in. Depending on how your website is built and updated, you’ll find an area to describe images in an “alt tag” or “alt section.” While the file name is image’s online address, the alt tag is a short phrase that describes it. Make sure the image relates to keyword, though. You might get a slap on the wrist from Google if it doesn't. Here’s an example:
alt= keyword phrase and description" />
Website Copy
Make sure the first paragraph includes the keyword. Google knows that well-written introductions should cover the main topic. Mention the keyword when possible throughout all of your content. Do not, however, stuff it in everywhere. Search engines don’t like that, and neither will your readers. It is generally recommended to make sure your keyword phrase represents less than 5% of total content on that page. For example, do not mention your keyword more than five times if you have 100 total words on the page. The SEO Toast tool is a good device to help make sure you are not overusing your keywords.
On top of links
Your website is likely to include lots of links. Your website menu is full of links to other pages on your site, so keywords should live there, too. Rather than pasting the link directly in the content, add the keyword to sit on top of the link so people click on the keyword to reach the correct web page. Link building is important, and search engines factor those links and “anchor texts” into their rankings.
Support With Relevant Phrases
Search engines hate to be tricked. For example, they don’t want you to optimize a web page about bicycles for “dress shoes” just to try to get your site on the first page of search results. What you should do instead is make sure all your content relates to the keyword, and support it with relevant phrases. For example, if your main keyword is Chicago recreation, make sure you mention Chicago and recreation individually.
Now that you have your one page optimized, apply the steps to other pages, and create new pages for new keywords to have a home. From there you’ll have a highly optimized website, and you’ll eventually get more people to see what you're doing and want to participate.
ACTIVENet, ACTIVEWorks Camp & Class Manager, and ACTIVEWorks Endurance will be there for you when it comes to your organization’s needs. Whether that means engaging your community, streamlining operations or managing participation, our software is here to help your organization perform at its best.
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