Tag Archive 'keyword placement'

SEO Keywords: Keyword Density vs. Keyword Placement

The importance of keyword usage in search engine optimization definitely cannot be ignored, however many people don’t realize the proper way to use keywords, and therefore place unnecessary efforts on frivolous attempts that often prove to be unsuccessful. Failing at an SEO attempt is a very frustrating experience, because many times there is a lot of hard work and invested money involved. By the time you realize your plan is not working, all of the time of the money is gone and you are left wondering what went wrong.

Simply finding the right keywords and then loading your site with them is not going to get you anywhere. In order for your site to flourish, you’ll need the perfect balance between keyword density and keyword placement. But ultimately, which one is more important, density or placement?

Keyword Density

Search engines use web bots called crawlers to index your website’s information. In the process all of the keywords on your site are also indexed. The amount of keywords per the amount of content on your website is called keyword density. Keyword density is calculated in terms of percentage, for example:  5 keywords in a 500 word article would be a keyword density of 1%. While there is no exact standard for the amount of keyword density that should be used, there is a general frame that helps many people reach success. Most people find that using a total site keyword density of about 1%-5% is a great way to boost organic search engine listings.

So how do you do you decide how how high or how low the keyword density should be? The answer to this is directly related to the niche your site specializes in, and which keywords you are targeting. If your keyword is a very popular one, then you may want to go for a keyword density closer to the 4%-5% range. If you have a less popular keyword, then you may want to aim lower. Overall the best way to use keyword density is to start high, at around the 5% range, and then gradually go lower until you find a peak area. It should be noted however that optimal keyword density without proper placement is useless.

Keyword Placement

Keyword placement refers to the placement of the keywords throughout your site, both within the content and design of the website. Placing keywords in the right places plays a crucial role in proper search engine optimization. Search engine optimization experts recommend placing keywords within the first and last 25 words of each piece of content. Keywords should also be placed in the middle of the content as well, with at least one instance being used per article. It also helps to surround the keyword in other sub-keywords. This will help bring more targeted search to your site. Many people search for products or services and then add more information to the search query that contains another sub-keyword. It is also important to include keywords in the title tags of every page, as well as within meta tags and anchor text.

Conclusion

In regards to which is more important, keyword density or keyword placement; many would agree that keyword placement is essential. The reason why placement is more important than density is because packing a site with keywords is easy, and search engines see this as spamming in some instances. However, packing the site with properly placed keywords is not viewed as spamming by the search engines, and instead is seen as useful content.

Category: SEO / SEM
Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted on Monday, Feb 15, 2010
Trackback URI   Comments RSS

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.

Category: SEO / SEM
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted on Tuesday, Jan 26, 2010
Trackback URI   Comments RSS

Sponsored Links