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Keyword Density Reference Guide for SEO Work

This guide lists the most important areas to place keywords on a web page for optimal search engine ranking, and describes how to use keywords in each area. (They're key phrases, really, but everyone in the business calls them keywords.)

Background Points:

Be aware that search engines index pages, not sites. Depending on the nature of the links at your site, some of your pages might not get indexed. Internal and external linking strategies are topics to be covered in a separate article next month.

What you want to do for now is focus on two or three main keyword phrases for each page, starting with the Home page (always do this one first). Create a page title tag at the top of the page and repeat those keywords in the HTML elements listed below. Use WordTracker and Overture to find popular keywords, especially for the visible text on the pages. I think of this as a waterfall process. I focus on getting the right top-level keywords in the page title tag, then I flow those down into the other elements on the web page.

A very good tool for doing this work and tracking your results is from www.signposter.com. I use it on every project. (Note: I do not use Doorway tools or create doorway pages in SignPoster.) I do use the project tools inside signposter.com to build all the meta tags correctly and keep track of them in a project file.

Visit the SEOCONSULTANTS site for more specific details on the use of meta tags for search engine optimization: http://www.seoconsultants.com/meta-tags/.

A free online tool for tracking your keyword ranking results in Google is at http://www.gorank.com.

There are other free SEO tools listed at http://4webresults.com/tipsandtools.html

1. META TITLE Tag

For the home page, focus on two or three keyword phrases. The page title should be between 6 and 12 words. Typically, 65 characters is all you see in a search engine. However, you can run up to about 110 characters and still have all the words evaluated.

2. META Description Tag

The meta description should be between 12 and 24 words, or 180-240 characters. It is essential to put the page's most important keywords in the first sentence, toward the beginning of the tag. Note: Often you can simply use the same meta description for every page in the site. Where the content is significantly different, though, it helps to adapt your meta description to match the content of each page.

3. META Keyword Tag

The meta keyword tag is a place to collect all the relevant keywords in a comma-separated list. Five or more of each page's keywords should also be in its Meta Description. The page keyword count should be between 1 and 48.

Note: Search engines do not look at this tag anymore. However, for documentation purposes it helps to use them. They keep you consistent and provide a good reference for the next person who works on the page.

4. Headings

Page Heading tags should appear in sequence (h1, h2, h3...). Where possible, use heading tags in order; meaning, your first use of a heading tag on the page would be h1. However, this isn't critical. Don't lose sleep over it.

The total word count of all headings on a page should be no more than 84. Don't try to cheat by putting normal text in a heading and going on and on with it. You can be penalized.

5. COMMENT Information

A Page Comment is optional. If you choose to use one, it should be between 15 and 105 words. Don't overdo use of the comment tag. A good reference is http://www.harold.com/web/comment.html.

6. ALT IMG Information

The ALT IMG tag labels an image so that search engines, and computers equipped to read web pages aloud to the blind, can tell what the image is about. The word count in an ALT IMG tag should be no more than 67. ALWAYS write Alt Image tags from the perspective of a blind person. Sure, include a healthy mix of keywords for the particular page, but form complete sentences and have the tags make sense. Don't just stuff a lot of keywords in there. It looks weird and could cause some penalty in your rankings if you raise a red flag by overdoing it.

7. Link Information

The visible text of your hyperlinks should be between 12 and 268 words and should include keywords also. For example, instead of saying "Visit 4webresults for more information," write "For more information on search engine visibility, visit 4webresults."

8. Body Text - Web Copy

Keywords that you use in your Meta Title, Description, and Keywords MUST be used in the visible Body Text. The Body Text word count should be between 75 and 20,000. Repeat the keywords from your page Title tag in the web copy and with variations of the phrases.

If you're using a keyword research tool such as WordTracker, you'll be given about a dozen variations that people have used in searches. Print the list and highlight the keywords you think you can incorporate AS IS into the web copy, so that your text is both search engine-friendly and people-friendly. Pick the ones with the highest traffic potential.

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4WebResults is an Austin SEO company that provides proven content-rich search engine marketing strategies, safe search engine optimization techniques and Internet web site promotion using business blogs. We focus on search engine marketing that promotes business growth for your company with steady, logical steps. Call us at 512-340-4001 for assistance.