Ok. I admit it. Keywords aren’t my favorite things. In fact, the writer in me struggles with keywords.
A lot.
Keywords, I find, can really get in the way of some otherwise good writing. When writing for the offline world, keywords don’t apply. Instead, I simply focus on establishing a natural flow and rhythm in both words and sentence structure. The creative side of my brain relishes the opportunity to paint a clear picture with words and leave the reader with the exact impression I want to convey. In this artistic process, redundancy is neither entertained nor tolerated.
Online?
Not so much.
Keywords make it darn near impossible to write with the same eloquence or artistic mindset. To achieve peak search engine optimization, an appropriate amount of keyword redundancy is necessary. The trick is to find that balance where human visitors aren’t annoyed and search engines can find what they need. Keyword “cramming” can confuse or turn off a human reader (and get you in trouble with the search engines). However, without a proper level of keyword saturation, search engines will have a tough time “figuring out” what that page or site is all about… and will be unable to return that page (or site) in relevant search results.
Which, of course, is the entire point of organic search engine optimization. Higher natural search engine results drives more and more targeted (by those keywords!) traffic to your site. More traffic = more leads or customers for your business.
So, yes, the writer in me struggles with keywords. In fact, I will probably always cringe a bit when using the same words or phrases repeatedly throughout an article or post. On the other hand, the entrepreneur in me – the part of me concerned with revenue and the bottom line – is getting more and more comfortable with them. 
Til Next Time,
P.S. Over the next week, I’ll go into more detail on keyword research. Be sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter for even more ideas to use keywords and fresh, unique content to increase your traffic – and grow your business!
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