How to Place
Your Keywords on Your Web Pages for Maximum Search Engine Results
It's a well-known fact that identifying and using keywords and
phrases on your website will help you rise in the search engine
rankings when your prospects enter those terms online.
For instance, if you sell widgets, then you want to identify
all the words and phrases associated with your product that your
prospects might enter when shopping online, and make sure to include
them within the content of your site. Words such as: widgets,
blue widgets, exotic widgets, unique widgets, customized widgets,
widget device and buy widgets online might all be good choices.
Back in the early days of the Internet, you could pretty much
put keywords anywhere on a page and your page would rank for that
term. It didn't even really matter what your page was about
– it could have been about something completely unrelated
to widgets and as long as your keywords were somewhere on that
page, you'd rank for that keyword.
Imagine how frustrating it was for web users when they went searching
for widgets, and all of these unrelated sites came up!
The goal of every search engine is relevance. If they can't
provide relevant results so web users can quickly find what they're
looking for, then people will find a new search engine. That's
why search engines have become so much savvier about how they
rank web pages – and why you must become savvy in order
to rank well.
It's been a gradual migration on the part of the search engines
to where we are today. The search engines look at content on your
page and perform a contextual analysis to make sure what you say
your page is about is really what it's about.
Along the way, they've gotten wise to a lot of "tricks"
that people have tried to fool the search engines, such as:
- Putting strings of words together to increase keyword density
(widgets, widgets, widgets).
- Listing keywords alone in bullet format, instead of putting
them in a sentence:
- Widgets
- Blue Widgets
- Unique Widgets
- Customized Widgets
- Keyword stuffing – putting your keyword within sentences
as often as you can get it in there, regardless of what it sounds
like:
- XYZ Company sells widgets. Widgets make great gifts for
the widget lover in your family. Widgets come in many sizes
and widgets also come in many colors. Widgets can be purchased
individually or widgets can be purchased as a set of widgets
in our widget pack.
The engines look at your content to determine whether it appears
"natural" – would you write like that if you were
writing an article to publish in a magazine? If not, if your
text does not appear natural – the search engines'll penalize
you and you won't rank well for your keywords as a result.
As the engines get more sophisticated, they reward sites that
provide good content, written naturally, that benefit the reader
and is relevant to what your site is about.
So how can you make sure each of your web pages contains your
keywords in such a way that you get the most benefit?
Natural web pages have the following characteristics:
- They include keywords in your Title, Description and Keyword
tags. These tell the search engines what your page should be
about. Include them once in each tag. Include only keywords
that are actually on your page – not a "Google wish
list" of every word you'd like to rank for.
- They include keywords in your Heading (h1, h2) tags.
- They include keywords in the first sentence on your page:
- At XYZ Company, we specialize in quality Widgets for Small
Business owners.
- They include your keywords no more than once per paragraph:
- We offer widgets in the following colors: red, blue and
yellow. They can be customized to meet your needs and
personalized with your company logo.
When buying widgets, you want to make sure you are getting only
the finest quality available. Notice the top-grade stainless steel
we use to create all of our products.
- They avoid having the same sentence appear in multiple paragraphs.
- They avoid using keywords back-to-back:
- Check out our widgets. Widgets come in many colors.
- They avoid having every paragraph begin with an identical
word or phrase.
While there are "experts" who will tell you to strive
for a certain percentage of keywords within your page –
known as "keyword density," it's much better to aim
for pages that are written naturally, that provide a real benefit
to your reader and are relevant to the topic of your site.
Following these guidelines should help you achieve that, resulting
in better rankings – and happier visitors to your site.
About Melberg Marketing
Melberg Marketing specializes in powerful copywriting, compelling
graphic design and professional marketing consulting that gets
you noticed - both online and off. If you'd
like to start marketing DIFFERENTLY, give us a call!
Ask us how we can help
you market YOUR business on the Internet... Today!
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Caroline Melberg • Melberg Marketing • caroline@melberg.com
• 952-473-1007 • www.melberg.com
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