Google Trends and Applying Keywords: Absolute Website Basics
One of the best and worst parts of SEO is that it’s so intricate. Now that you know some of the absolute basics about keywords, let’s dive a little further into the best methods on how to apply them. Today, we’ll talk about Google Trends and weaponizing your keywords.
Google Trends Help With Ranking
As mentioned previously, keywords don’t necessarily match up perfectly to what you might think. But, what can you do to find what is trending right this very moment? This is where Google Trends shines. Google Trends is a fantastic little tool to help you find out what is trending right now.
Let me begin by breaking down some of the important parts of Google Trends. You start off searching for a term. But, you can compare and contrast up to five terms. Let’s use Call of Duty as an example here. Like I mentioned in the previous entry, Google Trends can help me compare the popularity of people searching for specific terms. This means that people are more likely to search COD over Call of Duty. But, if I add Fortnite to the mix, the Activision shooter pales in comparison to the battle royale at any given time.
You can adjust the time frame to any varying degree, up to a full year worth of data. Anything beyond a week is likely unnecessary. If writing blogs, you even want to focus it down to the past day, or even the past hour for the hottest trends. As of writing, people seem to be looking for when the next COD beta starts in both terms, which can be easily noticed by the high percentage near the related queries. The higher the percentage, the more people are looking for it currently, with “Breakout” being really highly ranked at that time. See wordpress gaming themes that can help you organise and set up tournaments in the above games here.
Weaponizing Your Keywords
Copyright: Activision
Now that you’ve found your best keywords for a webpage in Google Trends, where do you use it? I mentioned a couple of staples of every keyword in the previous entry, such as the headers, title, and the first paragraph. But, there’s honestly a much longer list of applicable places that Google may utilize.
For purposes of depth, we’re going to talk as if you have a blog. While many of these attributes work for any website, blogs and news sites are doing everything they can to be on the front page for every article they publish. Even if your website doesn’t currently have a blog, you can learn from their techniques to better the entire website.
As I said, the title should include the keyword, as close as you can get it to the beginning of the headline. Not to mention if you have a subtitle and/or meta description, do the same thing. Make sure your URL slug includes it, as well as at least one of the H2 headers within the article. These are the basics, of course.
What about in the article itself? The first time needs to be in the first paragraph, no matter what. It’s the first thing read, so why not entice them with your most eye-catching writing. Try to plug the keyword in exactly as-is throughout at least 1% of your article, but try not to make it any more than 2% or so. In a 500-word blog post, this means you need to include it at least five times, so find tactful ways to include it. Don’t forget to add it into your final paragraph as well!
Images Can Help Google Ranking Too
But, wait! That’s not all! Your images play a part in your keyword usage as well. When you add an image, you should name it something relevant to your article or website. It’s going to be noticed if someone were to save it and see that it’s called “IMG2304982954.jpg”. Why not make it “call-of-duty-cod-cold-war-beta-screenshot.jpg” instead? It not only looks nicer to those that care, but Google will notice it looking cleaner, too, and could latch onto certain keywords.
When you add pictures to WordPress, you can include alt-text as well. This is what appears when someone hovers over the image. This is another great place to include your keywords. Yes, it can help your Google ranking. Yes, it looks way more professional.
Who knew there was so much to SEO? With Google Trends an invaluable tool, you can use it to keep yourself up to date on your best keywords. While you’re making your most professional website with highly-ranking keywords, don’t forget to grab yourself a professionally made gaming website template for WordPress by Skywarrior premium themes.
