If you talk to many SEO experts, they will tell you that with the advent of Google Panda and Penguin updates within the last year, SEO has changed dramatically. Many people have even declared the death of SEO, as we know it. While this seems partially true in some ways, on-page SEO continues to be very important and working in-conjunction with content marketing.

What is “on-page SEO” you might ask? These are the basic things you need to do on your web pages, to make it clear to Google what your content focuses on.

First, it begins with doing a little bit of keyword research. When you’re writing about a subject, you need to know what terms, within that subject, get the most searches and have less competition. You can use a tool like the Google Keyword Planner (http://adwords.google.com/keywordplanner) or Ubersuggest (http://ubersuggest.org) to figure out popular keywords to use.

Once you decide on your keywords, you can try and work them into your title, URL, and within your articles. You don’t need to go overboard, just make sure you’re including them when it makes sense. You should also work in your keywords when you do your META description, but make sure that there is always a clear value proposition to get the user to click.

Lastly, above all else, remember to put the customer first before any search engine. Don’t go crazy trying to work in your keywords if they take away from readability in any way. Content marketing is all about educating your potential customers with high quality content. Make sure to keep your standards high and, over time, Google will realize it.