What are keywords?

Well, they are the words that are key in your message to connect users of your site or search engines with what you want to tell them.  In our case, we sell websites to recruitment companies, so we have pages on our site where we talk about those keywords, in relation to the total service we sell.

How are they best used?

In simple terms, if you have multiple keywords which can describe what you have to offer, then it is critical to search engines that you distribute those keywords throughout pages on your website (landing pages).  For example, if you are a recruiter based in Maidstone who places people in the Accountancy, Sales, and HR sectors, as well as a brief description of that on the text on your homepage it would be useful to have a page just about your Accountancy recruitment service.

Try not to spam the page with just continual references to Accountancy jobs or recruitment; Google wants and is able to detect text which is written this way. Rather, look at all the places on the page you can distribute these terms.  Many people think it is just the page text when in reality it is all of the following:

• Your page title.

• Your page URL.

• H1,2,3,4,5,6 Tags.

• The body of the copy.

• Your meta description.

• Your images (as alt text) – try to ensure the images you use are relevant to the copy on the page as well.

• Links to other pages on your site.

• Links to pages out of your site.

• Be sure to investigate and test keywords

Recruitment companies have some key terms which are obvious – using our Accountancy recruitment example of a company based in Kent, they may be:

• Accountancy recruitment

• Accountancy jobs

• Accountancy recruitment Kent

• Accountancy recruitment in Kent

• Accountancy jobs Kent

• Accountancy jobs in Kent

• Kent Accountancy recruitment

• Kent Accountancy jobs

What testing permits you to do is work out if you need these terms or should even try to rank for them.  For example, if you put your jobs on the top 10 job boards or specialist job boards, then those boards, and/or services like indeed who take that job content and aggregate it, may well beat you to the top 10 results every time – that is unless you invest in an SEO plan which helps you to push up your site’s authority for these terms or use Google Adwords (PPC) to advertise for these terms.  So it might be best to just say, “The marketing spend I have on the job board does those major keywords with jobs and sectors/specialism for me, but the ones which use the terms recruitment, search, temp, interim, contract, agency, staffing, gangmaster, etc. I might rank for myself, as they are terms more related to client inquiries, which job boards can’t get me.”

Then consider your jobs: every year most of the global population gets a bit more savvy to how the web works, and that translates into search engine habits.  For example, the Accountant who is looking for work in Kent, who has performed the aforesaid search and as a result signed on for 10 job board/job alerts and been contacted by 15 agencies, who still does not have a job offer in 4-6 weeks, will either by recommendation or curiosity start to alter their use of Google/Keywords.  Examples follow:

• Accountancy jobs in Tonbridge

• Accountancy jobs in Southborough

• Accountancy jobs in Hildenborough

• Accountancy jobs in Leigh

• Accountancy jobs in Penshurst

• Accountancy jobs in Borough Green

• VAT Account jobs in Tonbridge

• VAT Account  jobs in Southborough

• VAT Account  jobs in Hildenborough

• VAT Account  jobs in Leigh

• VAT Account  jobs in Penshurst

• VAT Account  jobs in Borough Green

These kinds of searches are very specific and will ultimately lead to a placement of a candidate in these areas; test for these terms and you might find a nice surprise on who is your competitor.

Darren Revell
Director

Please note I am Dyslexic, and in my form, I am blind to grammar, and sometimes I get my fors and fours, etc. backwards.  I am not stupid – in fact, my IQ and EQ are both quite high.  Please keep that in mind when you read my posts.  Thanks.