Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an important process to consider when coming up with content ideas for your blog. Often, marketers will focus on two different things when generating ideas: topics and keywords.
But what’s the difference between topic-based SEO vs. keyword-based SEO? And which one we should choose?
In this blog, we’ll answer these questions and take a closer look at how search engine algorithms have evolved and how this affects SEO.
The Difference Between Keywords and Topics For SEO
Keywords are the search terms you enter into a search engine like Google to find the information you need – the side effects of the flu jab, the top ten things to do in Mexico, etc. As a content creator, it’s important that you do keyword research and include targeted keywords and phrases in your blog posts so search engines will rank your blogs higher in searches. This way readers will be able to find your content easier.
Topic generated SEO, by contrast, are the subjects your content is organised around. If the main topic of your blog is digital marketing, this can influence the content ideas for your blog posts. For instance, your digital marketing blog may focus on subtopics like email marketing, social media marketing, and SEO.
Are Topics or Keywords More Important for SEO Strategy?
When you follow the most up-to-date and proven keyword-based SEO strategies and practices, these targeted keywords can boost your blog posts ranking higher in SERPs (search engine results page), thereby driving more traffic to your blog and website.
Unfortunately, in the early days of SEO, digital marketers would get carried away and “stuff” keywords into their blogs in an attempt to be included on page one of Google searches. Not only did this lead to poor and hard-to-read articles, but it also resulted in Google putting an end to keyword stuffing. Websites using bad SEO practices were punished by being pushed down in the rankings.
Over time, Google’s algorithm improved and evolved by focusing on semantic search capabilities like Google Hummingbird. This algorithm can evaluate the search ‘intent’ behind a query and determine if a user is looking for informational, transactional, or navigational content.
Benefits of Using A Topic Generated SEO Strategy
With Google’s latest algorithms, it’s important to do topic research when generating ideas for your content. Unique topic ideas for articles and blogs that reflect what your audience is searching for rank higher in SERPs than content written entirely around keywords.
That’s not to say that SEO Keyword targeting is completely obsolete, though. Keywords still play a big part in matching users with the right content. And knowing which keywords are best to target helps Google find your blog when your posts’ keywords connect with high-volume search queries.
Key Takeaways
The bottom line is that using an SEO strategy that combines the use of both targeted keywords and topics will give you the best SEO results. There are benefits for both, and here are the most important key benefits:
● It’s not a good idea to solely focus on using keywords because your user experience will be unpleasant, and your rankings will suffer as a result of the newest Hummingbird algorithm, your rankings will suffer.
● Focusing exclusively on topics for SEO can be risky. Even though Google is extremely intelligent, it may not be able to connect the dots from your content to high-volume queries.
Keywords are still important—but they should only serve as guides to help you come up with great topics, and as anchor points to help guide search engines in the right direction. Simply put, do keyword research before selecting topics, but don’t sacrifice your direction or content based on a handful of keyword phrases.
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