SEO Tips to Avoid Critical Mistakes - Tip 2: Keyword Density
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As briefly mentioned above, careful placement of keywords relating to the text or sub-text is required for a search engine optimized site. Look at the theme of the site and choose popular keywords that are used by people to find the site information on search engines. As content is written for the site, be very conscious of the amount of keywords used in the text. This is known as keyword density; it is calculated by dividing the number of number of instances of the word by the total number of words in the text, and multiplying by 100. That percentage should be around the 15 - 20% mark for the top three keywords. It will be too repetitive if it rises above that.
On the subject of the use of keywords, it is time for the next all important task: writing content. If writing content is something that consumes too much time, and more time needs to be spent marketing the business, there are free sites where you can obtain content. A recommended site is http://constant-content.com. Articles are available for free and also for just a few dollars an article.
When writing, plan the content carefully against the keywords and write the phrases carefully, taking account of the frequency for SEO purposes. Ensure that page titles, headings and sub-headings contain those keywords. Don't go overboard though. Do not overload the title with keyword repetition. The search engines will only read part of the title, approximately 50 or 60 characters, so there is no need to write a title like "Computers at low computer prices and best PC deals on all PC brands at low budget PC prices." This is the page title in the <title> tags and it should be treated with care. Save the long phrases for the meta tags, which will be covered shortly.
Do not fall into the encumbered keyword trap by writing titles like "Cheap PCs, Low budget PCs and Macs, affordable PCs and Macs, Best PCs and hardware, PC computer deals......" On many sites, that just goes on and on. Anyhow, this is known as keyword stuffing and Yahoo and Google will show their wrath by possibly banning the site from their search engines. It will be a horrifyingly repetitive article if the word computer or phone appears every 4 or 5 words. Just stay within that recommended percentage, be mindful of the frequency applied to the keywords, and ensure that they are distributed evenly through the text.
Great places to insert relevant keywords are:
The first paragraph of the site content; it should contain a relatively high number of keywords.
Page titles and hyperlinks.
Inside <meta> tags e.g. <meta name="description" content="The best PC and MAC computer low budget deals on the web. Visit <URL> for a range of great computer prices and helpful advice from our friendly PC and MAC advisers" >
Inside H1 and H2 tags that are placed close to the content.
Next: Tip 3: Redirecting Old Links to New Pages >>
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