Content writing for natural flow or keywords, which is better?

[mikepcservice]

I am being told my one writer that writing content for natural flow works better for ranking on Google than using kw's. I have seen other articles on the net saying the same thing, just write the article or page for the user and not focus on keywords.

However most if not all of the SEO tutorials I have seen advise to "sprinkle each of your researched keywords a few times in the content", the amount of times a keyword should be used depends on the length of the article but each keyword should be used a few times.

So which method works better for google ranking please?

 

[Tim Kahlert]

I am being told my one writer that writing content for natural flow works better for ranking on Google than using kw's. I have seen other articles on the net saying the same thing, just write the article or page for the user and not focus on keywords.

However most if not all of the SEO tutorials I have seen advise to "sprinkle each of your researched keywords a few times in the content", the amount of times a keyword should be used depends on the length of the article but each keyword should be used a few times.

So which method works better for google ranking please?

I think it's like explaining something to a child. If you can't address the problem precisely, the child won't understand what you mean. Some topics require a very accurate explanation to be understood. That includes naming the necessary words that are needed to make the content as easy to understand as possible.

Some articles will do just fine without many keywords added, some won't. I would always make sure that the body copy reflects what the title announces. And because the title should include your main keyword, you should make sure that the same keyword appears on relevant spots on the page (content).

I'd recommend writing the texts for users in the first place but adding enough keywords to make it crystal clear what the content is about.

 

[mikepcservice]

THAT is my thinking too. I am not a fan of having content for ranking purposes if there are no kw's in it to rank for? So this I am thinking should be the core question, will google rank an article with no kw's higher and/or faster than one which is kw optimized?

 

[cfazio]

THAT is my thinking too. I am not a fan of having content for ranking purposes if there are no kw's in it to rank for? So this I am thinking should be the core question, will google rank an article with no kw's higher and/or faster than one which is kw optimized?

No... if you don't have the keyword you are wanting to rank for in title tag, h1, image file name, image alt text, and have the correct supporting topical entities covered you are not going to rank for what you want the page to rank for.

Don't have to write like a robot spitting out keywords to match what Google wants to see for intent around a keyword. Google rewards pages that provide the most in depth complete answers to the query a user is searching. Satisfy intent (in terms of what Google thinks the user is looking for) + add your own unique yet relevant information - written with the right tone to match your audience is what you need to be doing.

I have ranked pages with stiff competition that have 0 backlinks, low site DA simply from creating topical relevance that satisfy the users intent behind a query better than the competition.

And yes you will need to have onpage and technical SEO elements in great shape to support the stront content.