Is It Still Relevant To Use Keywords In SEO? Semalt Knows The Right Answer!

When you think of SEO, what first comes to mind? Probably one of the first things you think about is keywords. After all, we've been told for years that targeting the right keywords is the key to attracting the right audience, improving your SEO, and beating out the competition. But as we all know, ranking highly for your keywords is getting harder and harder every year as the Internet just gets vaster. 

So, is it even worth it to focus on keywords anymore? Or are keywords in SEO dead? Should you be focusing only on topics instead? Are there other aspects of SEO that are more important than keywords? We're here to break down the importance (or lack thereof) of SEO keywords and what you should really be focusing on to give yourself the best shot at SEO success.

Semalt is a full-scale digital agency specializing in helping global clients improve their SEO. We offer thorough tools like our Dedicated SEO Dashboard to assist clients in enhancing their websites from the inside out, leading to a better web experience for all audiences and increased conversion rates for clients. 

In addition to our popular Dedicated SEO Dashboard, we also offer services such as analytics, SSL, AutoSEO, FullSEO, and more. 

When you're asking, "Are SEO keywords dead?" The answer is complicated. Yes and no. While keywords as a whole are certainly not dead, many of the SEO concepts we've become accustomed to are. These outdated tactics might be hurting your SEO efforts more than they're helping you.

Still, targeting the right SEO keywords can definitely help you attract new audience members and lead to higher conversions. However, you might need to shift your focus and come up with an updated SEO strategy to make sure you're making the best use of your time. 

Many experts in SEO believe that topics are more important than keywords these days. Is that true? Again, yes and no. Targeting topics is definitely more instrumental than it used to be, but that's not to say that you can't target specific keywords altogether. In general, SEO these days is about finding a balance that both search engines and human users will appreciate. 

SEO isn't simply about targeting the right keywords. There are tons of other aspects of your website that will impact your SEO performance as well. For instance, one of the most important aspects of SEO (for Google, at least) is link building. You want to build reliable, top-quality links that will provide your audience with plenty of relevant content based on what they're already looking for. 

Additionally, optimizing your content is a great way to improve your SEO. Search engines are becoming better and better at determining what exactly your page is about, so you want to make sure your content is crystal-clear. Having a good balance of evergreen content and trending pieces can be a huge benefit to your website, both from the viewpoint of search engines and users.  

All in all, your user experience should be one of the top focuses of your site. After all, it's important to appeal to Google, but it's the people behind the screen that are actually going to be using and (hopefully) benefitting from your website. Plus, Google is now working harder than ever to provide audiences with useful content, so appealing to the audience actually does appeal to Google at the same time. 

One of the best ways to improve your SEO is by using keywords strategically. In the past, it was simply the quantity of keywords that mattered, so many businesses would simply overload their content with those keywords. Today, however, this practice is frowned upon. And, let's be honest, it doesn't make very appealing content for your reader. Instead of loading up way too many keywords in your content, focus on specific keywords and integrate them naturally into your pieces.

You can also improve the performance of your keywords by transforming your research. Instead of researching to find specific keywords in the first place, focus on researching topics. These days, it's not quite as important that your content is optimized for certain keywords, but rather, your content should be topically relevant. 

Additionally, many business owners believe that they need to simply produce new content to improve their SEO. While this can definitely help, it's not necessarily all you can do (and plus, it can be exhausting to come up with all these new ideas). Spend some time focusing on editing and relaunching some old content. You probably created much of your older content under some of the outdated strategies we've discussed here, so you might be due for an upgrade. Not only will it save you time and effort, but it will help improve your SEO at the same time. 

The world of SEO is only getting more and more complicated every year, and it can be hard to keep up with all the changes. But you don't have to do it alone. The team at Semalt is ready to help you achieve SEO success by analyzing your website, showing you what's already going right, and helping you fix the inside and outside aspects of your site that could stand to be improved. Best of all, we won't just show you what needs to be changed, but we'll walk you through how to fix it. 

We are proud to have served clients from around the world in countless industries, proving that Semalt is the go-to expert no matter what type of business you run. We've spent countless hours learning the ins and outs of SEO and creating tools that put you in control. So, are you ready to bring your SEO strategy into the 21st century? Contact Semalt today to get started!