web hosting

Search Engine Optimization: Keywords vs. Content

Most are familiar with the phrase “content is king.” However this cliche is not entirely true. There are many sites online that are packed with very informative content, yet they have very low page rankings. The truth is, without proper keyword placement and usage, even the most interesting and informative content will not receive the press it deserves. In order to reach the world with your content, you’ll need to understand balance between keyword density and informative content.

The Importance of Keywords

Keywords are the main focus in search engine optimization. When users type in a search query in their favorite search engine, they are actually typing in a keyword or phrase. The search engine then combs it’s database to find the most popular/useful site centered around that keyword. The search engines use a number of algorithms to calculate the usefulness and popularity of a website. It should be noted that popularity alone will not raise your page rankings, instead your site must be full of content that is useful and contains the proper keyword density.

Keyword Density

Keyword density is the percentage of words out of the total content that contain the keyword. An optimal keyword density would be about 3%-5%. To put this into perspective, you’ll want to include the targeted keyword about 3-5 times in a 500-1000 word article. The placement of the keyword is also very important as well. SEO experts note that your chances of success are greater if you include the keyword within the first 25 words of the article, and within the last 25 words of the article. You’ll also want to include the keyword at least once in the middle of the article. Keywords should also be placed in title tags,  and meta tags wherever possible.

Keyword Placement

Instead of mindlessly placing the keywords in a useless articles, it is optimal to include keywords in the same sentence as other key phrases. For this reason you may want to consider creating pages that focus on several keywords, with one main keyword being the primary focus. For example, if the main keyword is: “ keyword optimization,” then you might want to place that keyword in the same sentence with the keyword: “keyword density.” This way when a user searches for “keyword optimization and keyword density,” your site has a chance of appearing in the top results. Although this may not work 100% of the time, experimenting with practices like this are the best way to target specific search queries.

Conclusion

While keywords are important, there has to be substance within the content as well, and any clerical errors are indexed and will deduct from your total page ranking. For the best results, you’ll want your content to be useful to the reader. This will improve the overall popularity of your website, which will ultimately increase your page ranking as mentioned. Before uploading any content to your website, make sure it has been proofread and edited. It is also important to be consistent with your practices. It often takes weeks to see the results of your labor. If you give up on a specific method too soon, or if you change your methods regularly, then it will be difficult to find out what brings success.

Search Engine Optimization – The Basics Explained

As the internet grows exponentially each day, it becomes harder to gain recognition as a small business owner. Having to compete with large corporations that possess seemingly infinite advertising funds is a difficult task to say the least. In fact, it would be literally impossible without a thorough knowledge in search engine optimization. Search engines are responsible for more than 80 percent of the traffic distributed on the internet. If your site does not rank highly in the search engines, then there is simply no way you can become a formidable presence in your niche. There are many secrets to be learned before you can master the art of search engine optimization, however learning the basics will give you the head start needed to compete with experts in the field.

Quality Content

When web surfers search for a phrase in a search engine, they are looking for an answer. The website that best solves this question, according to the search engine, will appear at the top of the search results. A search engine judges the usefulness of a website based on numerous factors. One of the ways search engines judge your site’s usefulness is the amount of time each visitor spends on each page. If your visitors only spend 30 seconds at your site before leaving, then the search engines will view your website’s content as relatively useless. Another way search engine’s judge the usefulness of your site is by calculating the number of links containing your website’s URL that exist on the internet. These links are called backlinks. The more backlinks in existence, the more useful your site appears to be. In order to boost your site’s search engine ranking, you’ll need to provide engaging content updated on a regular basis.

Keyword Optimization

Simply having useful content is not enough. You want your content to be based on keywords that will attract attention for your niche. Try to remember that you are targeting search engine queries, so you’ll want to include key phrases within the content of your website. Before you begin writing or buying content for your site, you’ll want to do some keyword research. Find out what the most popular current search phrases are in your niche. You’ll also want to choose a keyword that is not over-saturated with competition. You can find out all of this information by using keyword research tools provided by Google. You can even find out what the hottest keywords of the day are by using Google Hot Trends. Once you have decided upon your keyword, it is important to use the proper keyword density. Search engines frown upon spam content that is littered with over-used keywords. You want your content to have a keyword density of about 1-3%.  Make sure you place the keyword in the beginning, middle and end of each article on your website. It is also important to include keywords in the design of your website, within title tags, meta tags, and even anchor text.

Getting Indexed

Once you have created your website and filled it with useful content, you’ll need to get the attention of the search engine crawlers. To do this you can submit your sitemap to Google and a few other popular search engines. You can also submit your site to a few popular online directories and social bookmarking sites. As your popularity increases the search engine crawlers will begin to notice your site, and eventually your site will be fully indexed. It is best to have a site that is heavy in basic text, as search engine crawlers index this kind of information more efficiently.

Simple Tips for Effective Search Engine Optimization

Obtaining a high search engine ranking is on the top of most webmasters’ priority list, however this task can be a daunting one, especially without the proper education. Proper search engine optimization requires much more than simple keyword density and good content. The following tips will help you obtain a high search engine ranking, and more importantly, keep it.

Visitors Before Crawlers

Most people become so engrossed with trying to please the search engine crawlers that they forget their primary focus is to build a large visitor base. Many webmasters do not realize that one of the factors search engines consider is viewer satisfaction. Every time a visitor accesses your site through a search engine, the search engine records how long each visitor stays at your site. If the visitors stay for a longer period of time, then your site is viewed as being more useful and therefore the rank rises. The best way to build a reputable site is to provide useful and engaging content, and to update the site daily with new information. Another way to promote a healthy visitor base is by providing simple site navigation.

Use Keywords Liberally

Keywords are probably the single most influential factor of search engine optimization. A single properly placed keyword can cause your sit ranking to boost by hundreds of page ranks.  However, using keywords does not mean simply using them in the content. In order for keywords to be used most effectively, you’ll want to use them within the actual design of your website. A good example would be using keywords in meta tags and title tags, or on the title of the main web page. Make sure each page on your site has a title that is relevant to the keyword you are targeting for that page.

Quality Content Over Quantity

Good content is what will ultimately will keep your visitors returning. However having a site full of useless content is not going to do you any good. Although search engines index your site based on the content you provide, it is important to note that the content has to be worded properly, and grammatical errors are taken in to context when the search engines index your site. A good way to make your site rank high is by keeping your readers engaged for longer periods of time by using what is called “sticky content.” Sticky content is content that engages the reader for long periods of time. If your site is littered with erroneous articles that are simply not interesting, it doesn’t matter how many articles you have, the users are not going to be interested in them. Focusing too much on keyword density can cause your content to appear “spammish”, which will be detrimental to both your search engine ranking and your visitor base.

Link Exchanging and Backlinks

One of the ways the search engines judge the popularity of your website is via backlinks. Backlinks are links on other websites that contain the URL of one of your site’s web pages. The more sites that have your link featured, the more popular your site appears to be. Backlinks are an excellent way to boost search engine ranking quickly. The best way to get a large number of backlinks is by link exchanging. Contact other webmasters by using the “contact us” section of their site, and let them know that you will feature their link on your site if they will do the same for you. It is important to get quality backlinks however, by having your link featured on sites that are authoritative in your niche.

The Importance of SEO Article Writing

The web is littered with articles that are not worth the word processor they were written on.  After a second glance, you will notice that they are horribly composed and stuffed with keywords, immediately recognizing that they were written for the sole purpose of trying to boost the ranking of a particular web page.  This is not a bad thing, just the wrong approach.  When incorporating articles into your SEO campaign, there are three things you need to focus on:

1. Providing valuable information.

2. Increasing link popularity.

3. Increasing search engine rankings.

All of this is difficult accomplish when your articles are badly written and stuffed with keywords.

The Power of Articles

So why would you want to consider articles for enhancing your SEO efforts?  Well, although having optimized content on your site is very effective in the eyes of the search engine, you must also make sure that content serves a purpose for your visitors as well.  Many of the successful search engine marketing gurus agree with this and stress the importance of delivering useful information.  If the content on your website is not helpful or useful in any way, visitors will have little motivation in reading it to learn more about what you have to offer.  Sure, you may be able to get a higher ranking in Google and possibly even bring in considerably more traffic.  Unfortunately, if visitors simply take one look at your articles and then leave, those high rankings you achieved in the search engines would mean noting at all.

Articles also make a great way to establish link popularity.  However, if you plan to distribute them across the web and have not taken the time to make sure they have an acceptable level of quality, it is very unlikely that someone else will want to publish your article on their site.   Point blank – if your articles are poorly written and do not give useful information to the reader, they will be very ineffective at helping your build good links.

Writing Articles for Search Engines

Once you have a handle on writing good content that makes sense and delivers solid information, you can then embark on producing articles for SEO.  Keep in mind that writing for the search engines calls for a good balance so there are a few things you want to avoid.

- Never sacrifice the reader experience just to achieve higher rankings.

- Never repeat the same words and phrases to the point of extreme.

- Never overstuff keywords into text because it is more likely to backfire.

The Keys to Success

You will have a much better chance of succeeding with SEO article writing by establishing some discipline within yourself.  This can be as simple as studying your niche and coming to understand your target audience.  Once you have done this, keep your articles specifically focused on their needs or interest.  Also pay attention to your content and make sure it contains concrete knowledge that is useful to the reader.  If you can accept that your audience should come before the search engines, you will be become a better article writer and everything else will fall in place from there.

Seven Innovative Approaches to Link Building

Establishing link popularity can be very time consuming, especially when it comes to sending out requests.  However, this is a critically important aspect of SEO and something that must be done if you truly want to maximize your potential.  While you never want to just sit back and do nothing, asking people to link up with you is not always the best idea.  Instead of spending time asking for links, sometimes it pays to think outside the box and use more innovative approaches to reach your goals.  Here are a few tips that will make your link building campaign much easier:

1. Get Active - You can learn a lot by playing an active role in the online forums and groups relative to your niche.  If you become popular in these communities, people will seek your advice and want to link to you.

2. Article Submission – One of the most effective ways to create quality links is publishing articles on a large variety of websites.  This could be information sites, social media sites, ezines or even article directories.  Try to focus on sites that service your market, make yourself familiar with the type of content that is published, and modify the style of your articles accordingly.

3. Publish a Newsletter – You can also use a newsletter to build good links to your website.  You can encourage readers to link by letting them know if they enjoyed the newsletter, they can link to the permanent version of the content located on your site.  Do forget to include the URL.

4. Publish Great Content – This is not necessarily new, however it works just as well as any of them.  By publishing great content on your website, people will be more likely to want to link to you.  Great content is well written and most importantly, delivers excellent value to your visitors.

5. Award Sites - An innovative way to get yourself some quality links is to submit your website to award sites. You would be delighted at the number of people who have had success with this method.

6. Get in Good with Online Directories - There are several online directories that accept volunteer editors.  This will allow you to submit your own personalized reviews of many sites, as well as your own. This also gives you the chance to better understand your market.