Keyword Density

It's All about Keyword Density

What is keyword density? It's a percentage, calculated this way:

Number of times keyword appears on a page / Total word count on page = Keyword Density

Keyword density is usually displayed as a percentage. So, if you have a page that has 100 words on it, and you have a keyword appear 5 times on the page, your page would have a keyword density of 5%.

(5 / 100 = 5%)

In a real life example, the search term "personalized URL" has an overall keyword density on this page of 3.05%:

(15 instances of the keywords /981 total words on the site = 3.05%)

However, not all keywords on a page are treated the same. Keywords in the title tags, page name and section headings are often given higher weight than keywords that appear in the regular content area of the page.

Here's how the keywords break down in the different areas of the site:

Title Tag: 1 Keyword, 8 total times, Keyword Density: 25.00%

Page Name: 1 Keyword, 3 total words, Keyword Density: 66.00%

Linked Text: 1 Keywords, 61 total words, Keyword Density: 3.27%

URLs in Links: 2 Keywords, 237 total words, Keyword Density: 1.68%

Visible Text: 7 Keywords, 627 total words, Keyword Density: 2.23%

Total: 15 Keywords, 981 total words, Keyword Density: 3.05%

This keyword term currently has a ranking of #2 in Google: 

So, how much keyword density is too much? It depends on which study you read, but it's generally best to keep your keyword density between 3-6%.

Anything more, and you'll be penalized for trying to spam the search engines.

As a general rule of thumb, if the copy of the site makes sense to a human reading it, you should be fine. But if you repeat the same keyword five times in a row (Personalized URL, Personalized URL, etc), then you can be banned from search engines or penalized.

Title Tags for SEO

Title Tags and Why They Matter

When you search in Google, the search results on the next page each start with a blue underlined link.

What displays in this blue link is usually what is contained in the title tag of a web page. The keywords you placed in the search box are usually boldfaced in the search results.

So, just what is a title tag, and why does it matter for search engine positioning?

According to the World Wide Web Consortium, the Title tag was designed to help people "identify the contents of a document." When people view individual web pages out of context (often via search), context-rich page titles help tell the visitor a summary of the page.

Instead of a title like "Introduction", which doesn't provide much contextual background, web designers should supply a title such as "Introduction to Medieval Bee-Keeping" instead.

Google and other search engines use these rich contextual clues as a way to hone its search results. On a web page, the title tag is part of the HTML code. Here's what the code looks like on Customer Paradigm's site:

<title>Customer Paradigm: Website Design, Development, Email Marketing, Content Management, PHP programming</title>

Most end users won't see the title tag. But if you remember back to my email tip about subject lines, the title tag is what a subject line is to an email campaign: It entices the end user to pay attention and open the page to read more.

Top Five Most Common Mistakes for Title Tags:

1. Untitled: When many of the popular programs create a new HTML page, it puts 'Untitled' into the title tag. It's up to the Web designer to change this... and since most users don't see it, sometimes they forget to change it.

2. No Title Tag: Like the "Untitled" tag, another key mistake is simply leaving out the title tag. If you do a view source (Internet Explorer: View —> Source), and the title tag appears like:

<title></title>

 ... then you don't have a title tag.

3. “About” Tag: Another common mistake for title tags is to have the title tag refer to a section of your website. But a title tag that reads, "About" doesn't tell me much about what the company or website is "About." Instead, have it read:

<title>Customer Paradigm - About the Company: Website Development & Marketing, Email Deployment, and PHP programming</title>

This is sure to get more keywords into the title tag, and if you're searching for a company, you instantly know what they do. 

4. No Company Name In Title Tag: We recommend putting your company name at the beginning of the title tag, so that people can quickly see your company's name when they search.

5. Same Title Tag on Multiple Pages: You should have a unique title tag for each page of the site. Why? As each page is unique, you should have a title tag that describes it's unique content. If your messaging is not relevant, however, you’re quickly going to find that your messages are filed in the "I’ll get to these

later" pile.

Domain SEO

Ultimate Tips to Domain SEO

First things first, a lot of beginners in online marketing would ask what is a domain? Some business owners who are planning on having their own website may ask why do I need a good domain name. A domain is the address that you type in the address bar of your browser. For examples www.google.com, www.youtube.com, www.facebook.com and www.hotmail.com etc.

Brand recognition

A good domain name gives your website brand recognition and Search Engine recognition. Brand recognition is important if you want your customers to remember what you website stands for and Search Engine recognition is important it you want search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others to give preference your competitors in the Search Engine Results Page or SERP.

Before you buy your first domain name it is important to "Do Keyword research first then buy a domain". Keyword Research is important because you want to find out first if the domain name that you will buy has some commercial viability to it and if people are really searching for it.

Rich Domains

When choosing domain names it is important to choose keyword rich domains because search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and others see keywords as an important factor in ranking your website in their Search Engine Results Page. Choosing keyword rich domain names saves you a lot time, money and effort in ranking your websites compared to not choosing keyword rich domains.

I cannot reiterate how important it is to choose keyword rich domains if you want to rank faster and higher in the Search Engine Results Page or SERP with less effort and time. To help you out, here is Domain SEO which lists the different keyword matches, domain extensions and other important points to consider when choosing your own domain name that will last through the years.

Keywords Matches

I have point out some important examples of  Keywords Matches:

1. Exact Match     --    carhire.com : "Rank Highest"

2. Phrase Match   --    mycarhire.com

3. Board Match    --    hiremycar.com

4. No Match          --    johmcarrentals.com

Domain Extensions or Categorization

1- gTLD (Generic Top Level Domain) - .com, .net, .org

2- ccTLD (Country Code Top Level Domain) - .com.au, .co.us, .co.uk, .ph, .ca, .pk, .in - country specific

Points to consider:

1- .com's hold the greatest resale value and brand recognition compared to .net or .org

2- Some SEO Experts claim that  .com hold's and SEO advantage over other domain extensions.

3- Between .net and .org - some SEO experts experience better ranking with .org's