SEO- Keyword Basics

Proper Use of Keywords is an Important Part of a Successful Website

Keywords are what search engines are based on and how web surfers are led to web sites that contain the information that they are looking for. In order for your web page or site to be found in search engines, it much be optimized for keyword density and relevancy.

Keyword density is the rate or measurement of how many times a keyword or keyword phrase appears or is repeated within the website content. This measurement is based upon each page, not the complete site. Some pages will naturally rank higher in the search engines than others.

Keyword relevancy  is a measurement of how well your keywords relate to the rest of your content. It is a measurement that search engines use to make certain that your keywords have not been just thrown into a mixture of other words that are not associated with the main keyword.

The proper use of keywords and keyword phrases is typically thought to be around 3-5%.To arrive at a keyword density percentage, divide the number of times the keyword is used by the number of words in the article. For example, if a keyword is used 5 times in a 100 word article, the keyword density rate would be 5%. To follow the above keyword density rules, a 100 word article would have to use the targeted keyword 3-5 times within the article.

Web masters are now having to take several other factors into effect when trying to optimize their web sites. Google for one uses algorithms that seem to be forever changing with each update. The “Google Bots” seem to be looking for different web site characteristics each time they scour the pages of your web site. One month it seems that they will be concentrating on keywords and their usage and the next month it will seem to lean towards incoming links and the pages that your site is associated with.