The importance of keyphrase optimization in SEO

A great website is just the first part of online success for most businesses and companies. This is because while your website might be stunning, well designed and fully functional, it won’t necessarily generate interest or traffic by itself. If your website content is not optimized for the search terms relevant to your products, services, or company in general, it won’t show up in the search results, and won’t attract much traffic. Choosing the right keywords to optimize for, used to be the primary focus of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices. But in recent years, it has become more important to instead optimize for keyphrases. So why is this important? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design, we are Preston’s leading web design and web marketing professionals. We provide valuable web design, SEO, and marketing solutions to a range of clients, across the North West, including Southport and Wigan, as well as Manchester. As a result, we have produced this guide to everything you should know about keyphrase optimization for your website.

What is a keyphrase in SEO?

A keyphrase is a few words, or a whole sentence, that could be used by your potential customers to search Google, or other search engines, for relevant information about your company, products or services. Some examples include:

• Popular cupcake styles for weddings
• When should I book a boiler service?
• Does my car windscreen need replacing?
• Red running shoes

As you can see, the keyphrase encompasses more than just the one or two words that used to be taken into account as part of the keyword research. So why have keyphrases become more important than keywords? And how important are keywords?

The rise of the keyphrase in SEO

Keyphrases have become more popular over the past few years, rising in popularity alongside the increase in use of voice search and digital assistants like Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa. This is because people use more natural language when searching via voice search, when compared to typing search requests online. This has also changed the nature of the search to a more direct question or query. As a result, website SEO that is focused solely on keywords, could be missing results for broader search terms and keyphrases, and missing out on organic website traffic.

The importance of keyphrase optimization in SEO

So, how important is keyphrase optimization as part of your company or business SEO? Well, keyphrase optimization is actually very important, and can bring a range of advantages, including:

• Securing more top spots on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP)- by creating content designed to answer direct keyphrase questions, or content that is designed to inform on keyphrase topics that are relevant to your company or business, you can secure more top results on the SERP. And this in turn will lead to an increase in organic traffic to your website.
• Creating authoritative content- targeting keyphrases generally means creating dedicated content in the form of articles, blogs or video content. And creating high level resources like these can instantly increase the authority and elevate your company to the position of industry leader. As a direct consequence, an increasing number of your potential customers and clients will be more likely to convert, and return.

For more information or advice about SEO techniques focused on different keyword styles, including keyphrases, get in touch with the experts here at Pumpkin Web Design today.