Getting Better Google Rankings by Using Keywords Wisely

You can be successful in getting better Google rankings by just managing how you use keywords and keyphrases.

I have been trying to build readership for my Dr. Z Reflects blog over the past month. There are many tips and tricks. Steve Dembo has a 30-Days to Being a Better Blogger series (I am on Day 10). Franklin Bishop has a number of ideas for gaining subscribers on his blog. Darren Rowse has a variety of ideas on his ProBlogger. I even found some interesting discussion at the Webmasters Marketplace and Blog Catalog.

Strategies abound for building better Google rankings. I have done some research and today I will share ways that you can get better Google rankings by just knowing how to manage your keywords and keyphrases.

As you may know, Google learns what is on the Web by sending out search programs (called Bots) to travel from website-to-website cataloging what is there. These Bots use algorythems to analyze web content, send the data back to Google where each website is ranked by content. The trick is to know how the bots analyze your website.

Here are a few tips on how you can organize your posting and write your content to optimize your Google rankings. (I have tried to use these tips in this posting so see if you can find them:

Keywords: Identify the keywords or keyphrases you want to use for your post. It is important to determine these before you write because you will want to integrate these keywords into our content.

Prioritize: List these keywords or keyphrases in your keywords box. The most relevant words should be listed first.

Title: Your first keyword should be included in your title. Use more if you can.

Be Relevant: Make sure the words and/or phrases listed in the keywords section are relevant to the topic. It shouldn't make a difference, but apparently Google will punish you if you have words that aren't relevant.

Be Concise: Limit your keywords to three or four words/phrases. Use keyphrases to address specific niche topics. Notice that I am using "better google rankings" as a keyphrase. This phrase is specific enough to limit the competition and worded in a way that searchers would use.

Placement: Placement is important. Consciously use your keywords in the first few sentences (most important). Include them in the middle sentences as well. Finally, use your keywords and keyphrases in the last two sentences of your post. Google seems to like those final inclusions.

Headline Tags: Include your main keywords using one of the headline tags (h1, h2, h3 . . .) Google Bots seem to consider keywords in headline tags as more important than keywords in the article itself.

Images Too: Use your images. Bots analyze the whole website so it can make a difference if you put one of your weaker keywords in the alt tag of your image. Remember that these image alt tags are meant to assist the blind in knowing what is on the screen. This means that you should select images that relate to your topic so that the keywords will be meaningful.

Finding these tips have made me reconsider how I will create my future postings. In fact, I plan to go back to review and modify some of my previous postings. What tips to you have to help your website achieve better Google rankings as the result of using keywords and keyphrases more efficiently?

photo: evoart.info