Matt McGee (who I owe a link to for winning the SEO group NCAA tournament bracket back in March...damn you, Florida) wrote a fantastic post over at Small Business SEM called "I Have My Keywords...Now What?" It's concise, it's to the point, it's magical.

His post is a classic "Duh" post, where once I read it I thought, "Duh, I wonder if our clients know this?" (I'm sure they do. You may not know this, but Rand is a pretty good SEO.) When I first started working at SEOmoz, I'd generate lots of keyword research reports for clients, email them to Rand, and not think anything further about it. My mentality was not unlike that "set it and forget it" rotisserie. (Yes, my mom bought one, and yes, it was awesome. We had pork roast every weekend for like a month straight.)

Recently, however, I've gotten keen on shaking that "set it and forget it" (or, perhaps more appropriately, "generate the keyword list and forget it," though that doesn't have quite the same snappy ring to it) mentality. Earlier this week Rand and I sat down to do a site review for one of our clients. The big thing we noticed was that they weren't utilizing any major, relevant keywords throughout their site and in their title or meta description tags (in fact, there were no meta description tags). A distinct lack of keywords, despite the fact that we had previously supplied them with an extensive keyword research report.

I wonder, therefore, what our clients do with our keyword research reports. I've done countless site reviews and jotted down the ever-repetitive "Utilize your keywords in _______" note, knowing full well that they already have a fatty list of keywords provided by yours truly. It wouldn't surprise me if, upon receiving a keyword research report, our client goes, "Ah, cool. These all seem relevant. Ooh, look at all these search counts! These are accurate for sure!" and then sticks it under the wobbly leg of their desk. As that old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it incorporate keywords in its title tags (or something like that). Not that it's their fault--obviously these companies hire us to help them with their sites. If they knew to target keywords in their site, they'd be doing it already.

Nonetheless, Matt's post made me feel guilty about setting and forgetting it. I know I'm not Rand and that our clients pay the big bucks to talk to him, not me, but that doesn't mean I should be ignorant to the work I do for our clients. The next time I turn in a keyword research report, I could attach it to a document highlighting the importance of targeting proper, relevant keywords throughout the site, and provide a couple examples of some of the keywords in action. Then, if they want to ignore my awesome hard work, that's their prerogative (Bobby Brown style, yo!).

What experience do any of you have with this sort of situation? When consulting or when providing a keyword research report, how do you hammer home the importance of keyword incorporation and placement in your client's site? At one point do you wipe your hands and say, "Screw it, I tried"?