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E-Marketing Engine Articles
Improve Search Engine Ranking with
Correct Keyword Density
Copyright 2003 Herman Drost
If you are serious about improving search engine rankings, you need to check the
keyword density of your web site. In order to do this you must integrate proper
keyword phrases within your meta tags and web copy.
What is keyword density?
This is the ratio of a keyword or keyphrase to the total words (depth) on a
page. It is one of the most critical aspects of search engine optimization. To
improve search engine ranking, your keyword density must not be too high or too
low.
Try to aim for a keyword density of 1% to 7%. To achieve 1% you would need to
insert your keyword or keyword phrase once for every hundred words. If you only
used your keyword once in one thousand words, this would result in diluting your
keyword density.
Don't try to stuff all your keywords together, separated by commas. Search
engines may see this as spam, penalizing your rankings.
How to improve search engine ranking
The best way to achieve good rankings, is to research the appropriate keywords
or keyword phrases related to your web copy before you even begin building your
site.
If your site is already built and it's on the Internet, you may want to consider
reviewing the keywords and make the necessary changes to your meta tags and web
copy. It makes no sense to have a site that is not targeted to the right
audience and expect high search engine rankings.
If your site has a lot of graphics or flash and is short on content, you should
consider redesigning it. Search engines love content rich pages, so use images
and flash sparingly.
1. Use the Wordtracker or the overture suggestion tool to research your
keywords. These tools will show you how many times a particular keyword was
searched for each month. It's no point including keywords in your web pages that
nobody searches on.
2. The best keywords you SHOULD include on your site, are those that are very
popular (high number of searches when using the tools above), but have a low
number of competing web sites.
3. Select two or three of your most important keywords related to your business
and try to use them 3-7 times for every 100 words in your web copy. 4.
Incorporate these keywords or keyword phrases in your title, description meta
tag, keyword meta tag, alt tags (words that describe your images) comment tags,
heading tags and main text of your web copy.
Search engines will spider the heading tags in your web copy first (H1, H2, H3)
because these stand out from your main text. Subscribe FREE to Marketing Tips
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5. Write your web copy so that it not only satisfies the search engines but also
is compelling enough for your web site visitors to read (don't make it sound
weird to read or obvious you are just writing for the search engines). Repeat
your keyword phrase or combinations of them every few sentences.
6. Write at least 250 words (or longer) for each of your web pages. Search
engines will spider the text near the top of the page, rather than at the
bottom. Therefore include your keywords in the first 250 words on your page.
7. To avoid making your text hard to read, split your paragraphs into 2 or 3
sentences or make use of bullets.
8. Avoid using words that may be popular, but are not related to your site (i.e.
sex). This will not improve your search engine ranking and will only frustrate
your visitors who are searching for relevant content.
9. Keyword density analysis - use a keyword density analyzer to check the
keyword density of your web pages. This will tell you if you have used too many
or too few words in your web copy.
http://www.keyworddensity.com
10. Realize that not all search engines treat keyword density the same. Some
will only place significance on keywords in your title, meta tags and web copy.
Google (the most important search engine), places the most significance on
keywords in your web page text.
Conclusion: Achieving optimal keyword density throughout your web pages, will
dramatically improve search engine rankings, therefore boosting your web site
traffic. Try it..you will be pleasantly surprised!
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Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com
Affordable Web Site Design and Low
Cost Web Hosting
Subscribe to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter for more original
articles. subscribe@isitebuild.com.
You can read more
of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles
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Article reproduced with Kind permission from Herman Drost
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