Keyword Density - How Much is Too Much?

When you're evaluating keyword density, you need to decide on your keyword phrase and then write your page. Once you've chosen a keyword phrase for your Web page, you need to start using it. As you probably already know, you should use your keyword phrase in:

• the meta title
• meta keywords
• meta description
• h1, h2, and h3 headlines (and h4-h6, if you have them)
• the first paragraph of text in the HTML
• in link text
• in alternate text for images
• scattered throughout the rest of the text on the page

But if there isn't a lot of text on the page, repeating your keyword phrase that many times could end up with a page that is too keyword heavy. In other words, your keyword density is too high.

Your First Rule Must Be Readability Not Keyword Density

And not readability by search engines, but by your customers. If your customers find the text annoying to read they won't be your customers very long, no matter how dense or sparsely you've repeated your keyword phrase. So the first thing I do, especially if I think I've written a page that is too keyword dense is have someone else read the article. Once they're done I'll ask them to sum up what they thought the article was about in 2 or 3 words. I also ask them about the writing - did they find it repetitive? Most of the time, if your test audience doesn't mind the repetitions of your keyword phrase, then you probably haven't included it too often.

Strive for a Keyword Density of No More than 5%

This means that out of the entire Web page content, your keyword phrase should be no more than 5% of the total words. If it is more than that, you risk appearing like a keyword spammer to search engines or annoying your customers with hard-to-read pages.

I aim for a keyword density of 3-4% for my target phrases. I've found that this works to get the keyword phrase into the mind of my reader without screaming at them "I'm targeting ________ as my keyword phrase". I've found that if I ask my test readers what they think the keyword phrase is, if they can get it right away, it's probably too dense. But if they can come close without being 100% I'm hitting the mark.

Official Source of Keyword Density

Use Google’s Brain To Find Keywords

I like this trick and use it each time in my keyword research. I came up with it after discovering the great AutoPagerize user script for Greasemonkey. It stimulates a lot of ideas quickly. In keyword research, where creativity is still a key ingredient, this trick not only makes for a great “jump in” point but also provides a bunch of terms that have a higher probability for success.

Take one keyword or keyword phrase and enter it into Google like this: allintitle: ~coffee products where coffee products would be the term you’re looking to expand upon. By using the tilde (~), you’re asking Google to display synonyms and related terms that Google may be using in their algorithm.

The above guest tip is provided by Bill Sebald

New Google search features important for SEO and online marketing

New search features being unveiled by Google could have an impact on search engine optimisation (SEO) and internet marketing strategies.

In an official blog post, the search engine said it was launching a new package called Search Options, which lets users refine their results.

They can choose to filter out results according to time, or run a search for forums, videos or reviews only, for example.

Users can also see various views of their results, with some showing more information about each entry and others including more images.

"We think of the Search Options panel as a tool belt that gives you new ways to interact with Google Search and we plan to fill it with more innovative and useful features in the future," the post read.

Research carried out recently by Guava and Econsultancy revealed that 55 per cent of companies intend to spend more on SEO this year, while 45 per cent plan to increase their pay per click marketing budgets.

More about these Google search features .

Google Analytics and Adsense Get Married

Publishers using both Google Analytics and Google Adsense can now officially integrate their accounts.

Marrying the accounts takes just a few minutes. Publishers need to log into AdSense, select the "Integrate your Adsense account with Google Analytics" on the Reports > Overview tab and simply follow the on-screen instructions. Once complete, publishers will find an AdSense-specific menu under the "Content" section of Analytics containing reports on the top Adsense Content, top AdSense referrers and AdSense Trending. The last reports lets publishers analyze how a site generate revenue during different times of the day and different days of the week.

The Adsense overview shows you ten metrics that summarize the Adsense activity on your site. The total revenue made, revenue per CPM, total ads clicks, the Adsense CTR, the eCPM (estimate cost per thousand page impressions, or the revenue per thousand impressions), the total number of impressions (and impressions per visit).

Official Source about the article Google Analytics and Adsense Get Married

12 Simple Steps to Effective Websites

Effective websites should include the following:

1. Your website needs to focus on a specific niche.

2. You need to do keyword research and although Google no longer gives weight to Meta keywords some of the other major search engines still do.

3. Your website should have the main keyword used throughout and each page should be written around 5-10 keywords that are tightly focused on that particular page's topic.

4. Content is still King. Well written, focused content is crucial.

5. Meta titles need to include your keywords.

6. Organization of content should include headings and subtitles to make it easy for readers to scan the pages. Be sure to include your keywords in these headings as well.

7. Most people on the web are looking for information. If you don't give them anything of value or entertain them, they will be gone, probably for good.

8. Use keywords in links whereever possible.

9. Include a call to action and, if possible, provide a Free trial. You have to build trust before you can make a sale.

10. Check your website in various browsers (FireFox, Internet Explorer, etc.) to make sure it displays equally well in all.

11. Your personality is what attracts people to you so why would you create a generic website with all of the excitement of a flat glass of pop. Keep the content fresh so it has Fizz!

12. Most importantly, have realistic expectations of what you want to achieve with your website. With all the hype about overnight successes on the internet it's difficult to put your results into perspective. If you expect instant success and it isn't happening, it's easy to become demoralized and quit before you reach your goal.

More info about 12 simple steps to effective websites

Top five Mistakes in Web Site Optimization

Web site optimization is the practice of making your site search-friendly both to search engines and searchers. There are five common mistakes that people tend to make when beginning to optimize their sites for search engines.

1) Web Site Optimization Mistake #1: Lack of Targeted Keywords and Phrases

A lack of targeted keywords and phrases can make or break your site. When a searcher goes to a search engine or directory and types in a keyword or keyword phrase that you would like to be found for - but you don't have these particular keywords and phrases on your site - then that searcher will most likely not be able to find you.

2) Web Site Optimization Mistake #2: Poorly Written Content

Site content is the absolute number one draw for both search engine spiders and search engine/directory users. If your content is badly written, is never updated, or is not relevant to what you want to be found for, than your site is neither search engine friendly or user-friendly. In addition, your content absolutely must have targeted keywords and phrases (see mistake number 1). Well-written content is what search engine spiders feed on, and content is the key to high rankings.

3) Web Site Optimization Mistake #3: Black Hat SEO Techniques

Black Hat web site optimization includes techniques that are unethical and frowned upon by search engine spiders. These techniques include keyword stuffing, doorway pages, invisible text, and more. These practices actually do raise your site ranking. However, search engine spiders have become very aware of Black Hat seo techniques and can spot them pretty easily (and ban your site). Don't go for the quick fix; learn how to optimize your site for the long haul.

4) Web Site Optimization Mistake #4: Using Meta Tags Improperly or Not At All

Meta tags include title tags, keyword tags, and description tags. While not the absolute most important component in Web site optimization (that spot is reserved for keywords and content), they do have an important part to play. Make sure to include all these tags in every page of your site, and target them for each individual page.

5) Web Site Optimization Mistake #5: A Badly Designed Site

Ineffective site design includes lack of clear navigation, poorly designed frames, and large,load-intensive graphics. Search engine spiders can actually be blocked from crawling sites that are not well-designed, so it's a major part of Web site optimization; plus, if users can't find what they want on your site quickly, they'll find another site.

Read More About the Mistakes in Web Site Optimization

Four things that you should know about Link Building

1. Inbound links are very important

The more websites link to your site, the easier it will be to get high rankings on Google. Google considers links to your site as votes for your site. The more votes your website has, the better your rankings will be. If more pages link to the website of your competitor, then it is likely that your competitor will get better rankings than you on Google.

2. It is important to get the right links

In addition to the number of links to your website, Google also considers the quality of the links. Links from unrelated websites won't help your search engine rankings as much as links from related websites that deal with a similar topic as your website. A link from a trusted website that itself has many links pointing to it will help your search engine rankings more than a link from a website with few inbound links.

3. It is important to keep on link building

Many of your competitors will continue to work on their links. If you don't keep on working on your links, your competitors will pass you in the search engine results sooner or later.

4. Google doesn't like paid links

Google considers links to your site as editorial votes for its quality. A paid link is not editorial. Google's anti-spam team has asked webmasters to report paid links. If your competitors report your paid links, Google might penalize your website.

Google Gets Generic on Local Web Search Queries

The Google blog announced that Google is now showing more local results in web search for more generic queries. This is something that was noticed before the announcement but now it is officially confirmed by Google.

This means that searches for local-like keywords no longer need to have a location in the query. For example, a search on web design automatically shows me a local box in the middle of the Google web search results, without me specifically specifying web design, suffern, ny, which then shows the local box at the top of the results. Here is a picture of Google detecting that I am near the city of Monsey, in New York and it even ranks my company in the number two spot.

For More Details about Google Local Web Search Queries .