The nature of SEO continues to evolve and shift, making long-term content creation and marketing plans difficult to establish. What may work this year could be in jeopardy of harming your rankings next year, which is why staying abreast of the latest trends in the world of SEO is absolutely required.

For the longest, much attention has been given to the use of keywords in content, whether it be for websites, blogs or multimedia. For bloggers in particular, keywords are a first resort of optimization that can help search engines more adequately identify the context of your content. However, there are both good and bad ways to utilize them in your posts.

Let’s take a look at some examples of what to do – and what not to do – with keywords.

Keywords Inform Your Blog Strategy

Any blogger who has conducted ample research will have likely found several niches where targeting is opportune. This initial research can definitely help guide blogs in the right direction, as building multiple posts over time around each targeted keywords can produce exponential results in the long-term. Furthermore, expanding that keyword research more broadly can also be an effective form of brainstorming, helping you to devise new blog ideas and ensure you’re pinging search engines with a variety of content offerings.

Keywords Shouldn’t Be the Content Goal

While keywords absolutely should be the basis for informing your broader blog strategy, they should not be the primary goal in content creation. In other words, creating posts with the primary intent of stuffing keywords inside of them will almost never produce better results than creating content that revolves around the keyword’s premise. Naturally inserting keywords into your content is a must-do, but creating content for the purposes of stuffing keywords in can backfire with readers and search engines alike.

Keywords Should Be Relevant to Your Clout

The bigger your blog is within a given niche, the more likely it is that people are going to find and read it. If you are a newcomer to the niche in question, then you likely do not have the SEO clout necessary to rise the ranks of most short-tail keywords and phrases. As such, any keywords you choose should be based on your blog’s level of popularity and influence; while some keyword choices may have ten times the traffic of others, they may also have twenty times the competition. Choose to focus on keywords in which your blog and its posts can feasibly rank well.

Keywords Are Not Static Targets

Just because a range of keywords were opportune to target last year doesn’t mean they’re still your best bet. Competition can ebb and flow, trends in various niches can change what consumers and visitors are looking for, and diminishing returns are a reality when targeting SERPs. As such, periodic review of what you’re pinging search engines with is required; new opportunities may emerge, while old ones may be out-of-date. Additionally, never allow your ideas to be completely contained to just your chosen keywords: it’s OK to follow through with a great idea even if it’s not directly tied to your keyword strategy.

By following the above advice, you’ll get the most out of any keyword strategy while also avoiding the most common pitfalls. Keywords above all else inform broader strategies, but they do not necessarily restrict you – and even then, ideal targets are bound to change over time. Keep this in mind and you’ll have an optimal blogging strategy regardless of the climate.