Keyword Density

We can't emphasize enough the importance of including keyword-rich content on your site to increase your ranking potential. Simply put, keywords are the words and/or word phrases people use when searching for information on the search engine. It is commonly known that search engine spiders love content. Therefore, the more keyword-rich content you have, the better. When a search engine spider crawls your site, it won't recognize pictures, images or fanciful elements such as Flash. So, if you have limited amounts of text (or none at all) and you've got a bunch of beautiful pictures or Flash animation, the spider may deem your site unworthy or insignificant of listing.

What Is Keyword Density?

Keyword density is the ratio of a keyword or keyword phrases compared to the total number of words on the same page. It is one of the most critical aspects of successful search engine optimization. To improve your search engine ranking potential, your keyword density must be just right. To calculate your keyword density, divide the total number of words on your page by the number of times your primary keyword or key phrase appears. Keyword density is critical when outlining the keyword portion of your search engine optimization strategy.

Naturally, there is a fine line between strategically scattering these keywords throughout your content versus grouping them all together, separated by commas. The latter is known as spamming and you will get penalized for doing it. Another common spamming technique is to change the text of the keywords to the same colour as the page's background, which is known as hidden or invisible text. Don't think you can fool the search engines - they already have the technology to figure out these little tricks long time ago.

Improve Your Search Engine Ranking with Keyword Density

The best way to improve your search engine ranking is to develop your keyword strategy by identifying the most relevant (and most searched for) keywords or keyword phrases for your site.

No matter how nice or impressive your site looks, you won't get high search engine rankings without the right keywords. And remember, if your site has a lot of graphics or Flash animation with little content, we encourage you to consider a redesign. Most site owners who fit into this category have spent a lot of money for these beautiful sites, but what is the purpose if you are not getting any visitors to your site?

Recognizing the importance of keywords, here are a few tips on using correct keyword density to maximize your search engine ranking:

1. Use keyword research tools such as WordTracker to research your keywords. This powerful tool will direct you to the most popular keywords for your specific business based on how many times that keyword or keyword phrase is searched for on the most popular search engines. You can then take that information and develop your keyword strategy based on those results.

2. Incorporate these keywords or keyword phrases in your meta tags as well as your site content. Remember not to repeat each keyword more than twice in each meta tag to avoid spamming.

3. Write keyword-rich content that not only satisfies the search engine algorithms but is equally informative for customers visiting your site. This is the most difficult part of writing your content - but also the most critical.

4. Try to write at least 300 words for each page on your site. Again, the more content you have the better chance you will have to include those all-important keywords you diligently researched and selected.

5. Web sites should be updated on a regular basis -- don't let them go stale. Add new products/services, update users with new information and tools, do what you can to change your content (keyword-rich content, that is!) and keep users coming back for more.