Optimizing Content to Improve Search Engine Positioning - Getting Started: Keywords
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So, where do we start? What is the most important change a Webmaster can make to a page in order to improve search engine positioning? To find the answer, we simply go back to the very first article in this series where we discussed effective keyword research (see the link at the end of this article). When researching your industry, your competitors, and most requested search terms, you identified the keywords that are the most regularly used by your target audience. You've used them in your title and Meta tags, but their most important use is on the actual page content, the text you display on the pages you are trying to get positioned.
Include your Targeted Search Terms
So many times, I have seen websites that fail to mention any of the search terms they are trying to achieve rankings for. They'll have lots of graphics and may also have good levels of text on the page, yet the company still fails to include the exact phrase that is important to them. For example, if you're trying to achieve rankings for the term "desktop computer supplies," make sure your content has that exact phrase present in it. It is of little benefit to say something along the lines of, "The best selection of accessories for your home computer" when trying to target "desktop computer supplies." While you may pick up points for having text that is on the same theme, you won't achieve your best search engine rankings unless you include liberal occurrences of the exact phrase you are trying to target.
Checking Keyword Density
Your next question is likely to be "How often should I mention each search term?" A well-optimized page should include at least 250 words of text. Within that text, aim to achieve between 5-15% frequency for the term you are trying to target. Not sure how to calculate search term frequency? Check out www.searchengineworld.com/cgi-bin/kwda.cgi, a great little tool that will show you the keyword density of each of the one-, two- and three-word phrases on any page within your web site. Make sure that you place your most important search terms in text located towards the top of your page and also try not to target more than 5 phrases within any block of text (the more phrases you try to target, the more text you need to achieve a high frequency).
Also look for opportunities to make links out of search terms located within your page text. In the example of "desktop computer supplies," consider making one of the occurrences of this phrase a hyperlink to the most relevant page within your website; it will give you a little push in your ranking efforts.
The Impact of Keyword Proximity
If you're unable to include the exact phrase within your page text, which can often happen when the targeted search term is not used in the course of normal syntax, try at least to keep the words within close proximity. For example, you could use "Discounted supplies for desktop computers." While it is not as valuable as including the exact phrase, it at least contains the targeted words, albeit in a different order. The search engines, while preferring to display pages that match search terms exactly, have shown propensity to display web pages that have the targeted words within close proximity, if not the exact order they were searched.
Next: Search Terms Should be Pervasive >>
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