Keywords continue to be the cornerstone of SEO. Your strategy should always include a process of incorporating keywords and phrases naturally in your content.

While the various aspects of the Google algorithm continue to evolve, searches are still performed using keywords and common phrases. If you’ve included some of these in your content, your pages will be easier to find and users will find what you offer more easily.

Aren’t Keywords in SEO Dead?

Whether is simply clickbait to make you think you’re on to something new or it’s coming from someone who wants to sound like they’re on the cutting edge of progress, keywords are not dead. In fact, the more things evolve, the more keywords and key phrases are needed in your content. Here are four major arguments that are being heard when it comes to whether or not keywords are still a viable part of your SEO strategy.

1. Keywords are Not Provided

Starting in 2010, Google began to remove keyword data and by the latter part of 2011, most organic keyword visibility was stripped from data banks. Does this mean keywords are dead and don’t have a place in your SEO content? Not at all. Just because the old way of tracking them was gone doesn’t mean users aren’t always typing or speaking keywords as part of their search.

2. AI and NLP Made Keywords Obsolete

Google improved its way of interpreting your search intentions with advanced analytics including AI and NLP features. Instead of simply giving you results strictly based on your search words, you now receive search results that relate to what you’ve asked for. This development has taken nearly a decade, but Google is much smarter and the former way of interpreting keywords is dead, but not the keywords themselves.

3. Hasn’t Voice Search Rendered Keywords Useless?

Considering the fact that voice search interprets what we say into the microphone of our devices, keywords are stronger than ever. We’ve gotten long-winded in our descriptions and questions regarding what we’re searching for. This means Google has to be smarter and keywords play a larger role in the results we receive during a search. Using voice search has made keyword and phrases more important than ever before.

4. Keyword Planner Provided Keywords Aren’t All that Different

Various keyword groupings offered on the Google Keyword Planner tool are extremely similar to each other This tool would show that closely-related keywords receive the same results marker instead of being separated by phrase. This means the Keyword Planner tool might not be viable any longer, but keywords are still an important part of what’s needed for your SEO strategy.

Why Are Keywords Important to SEO?

Two big reasons that keywords are important to your SEO strategy are:

• Keywords give us clues to who people are and what they want, making it possible to meet their needs more easily
• Keywords provide a “bullseye” toward the content they want to see based on the search

This means the use of keywords in SEO is necessary to make sure you can see the results you’re looking for when a search is performed.

Keywords are Like Personas

The keywords you search for are often related to you and your interests. Because of this, Google learns more about your personality and what you want to see, which allows the searches made to be geared toward you. The more searches performed in similar industries or categories, the more often you’re going to see results related to them when you perform a search on Google.

This is More than Enough to Make Keywords Important to Your SEO Strategy

Rather than consider killing off keywords from the SEO planning for your organization, it makes more sense to understand how to naturally incorporate them into your content without adding them too often. The audience you’re trying to reach is online using the keywords related to your business, make the connection by offering content that has the right keywords for them to find you and what you offer.

Keywords for Automotive SEO Planning

Your car dealership offers several models to choose from along with the service customers are looking for. This means you’ll have hundreds of keyword possibilities for your SEO strategy. Learn which ones will perform the best for you and make sure the content you have on your pages is rich, easy to read, and offers the keywords and phrases related to your products. Make it easy for users to find you online with the right keywords in your SEO content.