Where Should Exact Match Keywords Be Located?

As you browse the Internet, you may have come across website copy like this:

Source: BBEX Marketing

Notice the repetition of “red apples” in the copy. A common strategy to boost SEO ranking is to insert relevant keywords wholesale into the website copy to make sure search engines pick up on its relevance. However, ‘stuffing’ your keywords into the text can be counterproductive.

Some examples of Keyword Stuffing include:

• Lists of phone numbers without substantial added value
• Blocks of text listing cities and states a webpage is trying to rank for
• Repeating the same words or phrases so often that it sounds unnatural

Source: Google

Excessively stuffing the page with keywords puts your website at risk of getting penalised by Google. Should the keyword be included within the body, it should read naturally. Keywords don’t need to be repeated verbatim throughout a piece of content for Google to understand what your page is about.

There are only three locations where Exact Match Keywords should be located:

• Main heading / title
• First sentence or paragraph of the copy
• Within the last paragraph

The goal should be to write to inform the reader, not to inform the search engines.

Adapted from our eBook: 18 SEO Myths You Should Leave Behind In 2017