You don’t have to be an SEO expert to know that much of the strategy surrounding website optimization for search engines relies on keywords and phrases. But how do we use keywords to appease the Google gods (and achieve better search engine rankings for our business)? Let’s start with the fundamentals: strategizing keywords that represent your business, and boosting your indexibility around those keyphrases (read: search terms) with relevant, informative web page content.

Here are a few do’s and don’ts to follow in order to get the exposure you’re after and avoid any disapproval or penalties from Google:

Do: Choose target keyphrases based on your existing branding (brand name, associated brand nicknames, or brand-specific terms), as well as the products and services that you offer. You want to show up in search results for terms that are relevant to your business, right? Think like the user and select keywords that a potential customer may enter into Google to find your business or a competitor’s.

Don’t: Be too generic! If you’re a local lawn care business, don’t spend time trying to rank for generic terms like ‘lawn’ or ‘maintenance’. These words are much too broad and too competitive to gain rankings for in search engine results pages (SERPS). Instead, choose words that more specifically relate to your business and industry, like ‘lawn care services’, ‘landscaping’, and ‘lawn mowing’, for example, along with your brand name. Check out the Google Keyword Planner for more insight into the variations of keywords and their monthly search volumes.

Do: Structure your information architecture (your site’s foundational page map) based on the keywords you want to rank for. Once you’ve established a core list of target keywords, it’s time to create new pages (or rework existing pages) on your website to accommodate these keywords.

Organize your website into channels so that you’re able to provide pages of information on your company, products, and services that share informative content about these topics (AKA your keywords). In our lawn care example, you’d want to include a page that details all of your lawn services, OR individual pages for each sub service that falls under ‘lawn care’, such as ‘lawn mowing’, ‘lawn fertilizing’, and ‘irrigation.’ By providing your visitors (and Google!) with content for these service keyphrases, you create an indexable site page and convenient user experience.

Don’t: Forsake user experience (the way a visitor flows through your website) in the name of keyphrase oriented content or pages. SEO and usability should work together! Strive to organize your site content with the user in mind. Ask yourself, “If I were visiting this website, where would I expect to find ‘lawn mowing’?” If the visitor got to your website by searching one of your target keyphrases, why not reward them with an easy path to the information they’re seeking?