Did you know that implementing this one strategy – keyword prominence – can make all the difference in whether or not your website is found over the millions of others being searched? And while keyword prominence is not the only factor in search engine rankings, it is vital to getting found on Google and other popular search engines.
Need to familiarize yourself with keyword prominence? This article will tell you everything you need to know regarding this key search engine ranking factor, as well as how early and often you need to use your target keyword within your content. Let’s get started!
What is Keyword Prominence?
To understand keyword prominence, we first have to break down what keywords are when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO keywords, or “search queries,” are topics that define to search engines what your content is about.
Keyword prominence is defined as the location (or placement) of a particular word in the HTML source code of a web page. The rule is that the higher a given word is on the web page, the more weight is assigned to it by a search engine when a user searches for that word.
Imagine it this way: You get up in the morning and grab your daily newspaper. You sit down to breakfast, coffee in hand, and what’s the first thing you do? You read the headlines. What are you looking for? Simply put, you’re looking for the ones that immediately grab your attention. Out of the numerous articles you can read, you scan through quickly to decipher the most interesting, compelling, and relevant articles. And you do it in seconds.
That’s precisely what keyword prominence is to search engines like Google: strategically placing the words or phrases on your website where search engines will look for them.
Where Should Keywords Be Placed For SEO?
While keyword density (the number of times a keyword or phrase is used within a blog post) has some weight on your content’s SEO ranking, where your keywords are placed is just as, if not more, crucial. Here are some general rules for where keywords should be placed for SEO purposes:
Meta Description
While a meta description is generally not displayed within a blog post, it is a summary of what you will find after you click on the search result. A meta description is located in a blog post’s search results and must be specifically filled out by the publisher. It is not only essential to display your SEO keyword in your meta description, but displaying it in bold can double its impact!
Page Title
Ensuring your keywords are in page titles is essential to ensuring that your blog post gets chosen over another similar result. Your keyword should be featured as early and prominently in the title as possible to ensure that readers know that your content will answer their queries.
It’s important to remember that we live in the digital age, where time is limited, but the options are unlimited. Search engine results are not read – they are scanned, left to right. Featuring your keyword phrase in the first few words of your title is vital to ensuring that your content is clicked on over another result.
Headings, Top of Paragraphs, & Beginning of Sentences
Keyword prominence isn’t just crucial for your title – it needs to be included several times within your content. It’s essential to address the user’s query in headings and the first paragraph to avoid them bouncing to another search result.
Using your keyword in headings will act as mini search results within your blog post, allowing readers to quickly navigate your page and find exactly what they’re looking for.
Why Keyword Prominence is a “Key” Part of SEO
Let’s look more closely at why keyword prominence is vital to your website SEO strategy. Think back to our previous analogy. Imagine you heard about a major fire in your town and want to find that article in the local newspaper. Instinctively, you know where to look first – the front page. Apart from photos, you would scan the headlines. If it weren’t on the front page, you would turn the page and check on pages 2, 3, and so on. You would never jump from the first page, then the last page, and back to the middle of the newspaper.
Also, you always know that the word “fire” would appear somewhere near the top: in the headline or first few sentences. Because you know the rules of how to search through a newspaper, you can find the article you’re looking for. Very similar rules apply to the search engine optimization of your website.
If you type the word “fire” into a search engine like Google, the rule of keyword prominence will scan the HTML code from the top of the website down, locating the keyword “fire” and placing your website page in search engine rankings accordingly. If your website strategy uses keyword prominence, placing keywords in suitable locations, you have a greater probability of your website being found.
Keyword Prominence as a Key Google Ranking Factor
Using strategies like keyword prominence can determine whether or not internet users will find your website in their search results. Google has repeatedly reinforced that keyword prominence is one of the most critical factors in getting your content seen, yet website owners and bloggers rarely utilize it.
Ready to start implementing keyword prominence into your marketing strategy? Start with an SEO audit, on us. Your free SEO audit will give you access to decades of marketing experience, answers to your SEO questions, and strategies you can use immediately! Contact us to speak to an SEO expert and start getting found on Google today.
