Keywords and Phrases for Search Engine Optimization

Since we are regularly asked about SEO and how it works, we thought it might help to provide a basic SEO primer for those that are challenged with the task. Keep in mind that the guidelines provided here are general principles to help get you going in the right direction. Successful SEO requires many elements including keywords, Meta tags, content, URLs and links. However, the focus of this blog post will be on the subject of keywords.

Overview of basic keyword elements

• Keywords in Title Tags – The Title tags of your web pages are among the most important elements in optimizing your website since they tell both search engines and potential visitors what your web pages are about. Make sure your Title tags use your most important keywords and total approximately 60 characters in length including spaces.
• Keywords in Meta Tags – Keywords used in Keyword and Description Meta Tags are still of importance and search engines such as Yahoo! and Bing rely on them. Also, Google specifically looks for unique Description Meta Tags on every page of your site.
• Keywords in URLs – Using keywords in your URLs can help with your SEO efforts, for example http://yourdomainname.com/seo-services.html, where “SEO Services” is the keyword phrase you want to rank well for. However, as with any SEO element, the words must also be in the content of your web page.
• Keywords in Headings – Your most important keyword phrase for each page of your site should be used as a heading on the page and within the pages content. For example, your “SEO Services” page should contain a heading on the page of “SEO Services” and the content of the page should also contain these words. If you have another page about “Website Design”, then you should be targeting the words “Website Design” on that page.
• Keywords Upfront – The first sentence of your page content should start off with your most important keyword phrase and this phrase should be tactfully woven though the rest of the web page content without being redundant.
• Keyword Density – Keyword density refers to the percentage of times your keywords or keyword phrase is used on a web page. As a rule, keywords should be woven into your content in a natural manner as you would use in conversation. You should aim for a keyword density of approximately 3 to 7 percent. Once your keyword density goes over 10 percent, your web page may be considered by the search engines as Spam and your page may receive a ranking penalty, or even be removed from the search engines index.

Applying keywords as suggested above will help your website to achieve higher rankings in the search engines. Remember, the search engines do not understand what your web pages are about unless you make it clear to them.

Check back next week to learn about applying Meta tags to your website.