If you’re still thinking of SEO solely in terms of on-page keyword strategy, then you’re still stuck in prehistoric SEO (sorry). In fact, in the other extreme, some experts are now saying that keywords absolutely don’t matter even a bit anymore. And you’re not alone. Many local business owners and website owners are still within this framework.

But for the record: Keywords still matter – after all, the text on your website is still the main information source for search engines to understand your site.Only this time, for keywords to provide value, you need to see them in a different light. You need to use them through new ways that are more relevant to the changing SEO landscape today.

Scottsdale SEO experts list some of the ways to implement modern keyword use on your website.

User-focused content will make your keywords more powerful . In the past, simply adding the keywords as many instances as you can in your content is enough to get you traffic. We all know that’s probably the biggest and most embarrassing mistake you can do right now. What works these days is creating high-quality, relevant content. Make sure your content – and naturally, the keywords that come with it – serves a valuable purpose and are aligned with the needs and expectations of your target audience.

Placement is crucial. Afteryou’ve doneintelligent, user-relevant keyword research,simply distributing them throughout your content and on your pages is not enough. You need to know where to place them to achieve the highest impact. Putting your keywords in strategic locations such as the headers, subheads, slug and image alt text is helpful for both search engines and humans to understand your website better. Just make sure the placement isn’t forced, or the content will just end up looking spammy.

Make your focus sharp and specific .Make your content and keywords as precise as you can. Zoom in to make descriptions more clear-cut. For instance, instead of writing about cars for sale in Arizona, maybe “used cars for sale in Arizona” is a better option. You’ll find that this approach is very helpful in making your content more prominent since it will naturally turn toward the most compelling topics, cultural references and issues in your geographic location.

Keywords are still important for optimizing your website and gaining more visibility for your local business. But like the various factors and elements in the online marketplace, the function and performance of keywords have dramatically shifted and continues to change along the way. Local businesses, website owners and marketers should recognize these shifts – and know the right ways to adjust, align or even lead the necessary changes.