Users enter search terms into a search engine. The terms they are searching for, from an internet marketers perspective, are called keywords.
Keyword density is an indicator of the number of times the selected keyword appears in the web page. Keywords should not appear too often on a web page or search engines will think you are an artificial or spam site.
Keyword density is expressed as a percentage of the total word content on a given web page.
Suppose you have 100 words on your webpage (not including HMTL code used for writing the web page), and you use a certain keyword for five times in the content. The keyword density on that page is got by simply dividing the total number of keywords, by the total number of words that appear on your web page. So here it is 5 divided by 100 = .05. Because keyword density is a percentage of the total word count on the page, multiply the above by 100, that is 0.05 x 100 = 5%
The accepted standard for a keyword density is between 3% and 5%, to get recognized by the search engines and you should never exceed it.
The best places to include your keywords are in your headline, the first paragraph and a text link. Depending on the length of your page, you can have a smattering of keywords wherever it makes sense, but remember, the total should not be more than 5% maximum.
Simple steps to check the density:
• Copy and paste the content from an individual web page into a word-processing software program like Word or Word Perfect.
• Go to the ‘Edit’ menu and click ‘Select All’. Now go to the ‘Tools’ menu and select ‘Word Count’. Write down the total number of words in the page.
• Now select the ‘Find’ function on the ‘Edit’ menu. Go to the ‘Replace’ tab and type in the keyword you want to find. ‘Replace’ that word with the same word, so you don’t change the text.
• When you complete the replace function, the system will provide a count of the words you replaced. That gives the number of times you have used the keyword in that page.
• Using the total word count for the page and the total number of keywords you can now calculate the keyword density.
SiteBuildIt which I use for my website, allows you to check that you have put your keywords in appropriate places so that google will fall in love you!
bye
Sharon
Showing posts with label search engine optimization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label search engine optimization. Show all posts
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
How Do Search Engines Work
I have been raving on about seo over the last few posts. I decided to do some research to find out how the search engines actually work. What follows is what I found out.
The search engines bring your website to the notice of the potential customers whey the customer initiates a search.
A ‘spider’ is an automated program that is run by the search engine system. Spiders visit a web site, read the content, read the Meta tags and also follows any links. Search engines use spiders to index websites. When you submit your website pages to a search engine by completing their required submission page, the search engine spider will index your entire site.
The spider then returns all that information back to a central depository, where the data is indexed. It will visit each link you have on your website and index those sites as well.
The spider will periodically return to the sites to check for any information that has changed. The frequency with which this happens is determined by the moderators of the search engine.
A spider is almost like a book where it contains the table of contents, the actual content and the links and references for all the websites it finds during its search, and it may index up to a million pages a day.
When you ask a search engine to locate information, it is actually searching through the index it has created. It is not actually searching the web. Different search engines produce different rankings because not every search engine uses the same algorithm to search through the index.
One of the things that a search engine algorithm scans for is the frequency and location of keywords on a web page, but it can also detect artificial keyword stuffing. Then the algorithms analyze the way that pages link to other pages on the web. By checking how pages link to each other, an engine can determine what a page is about and if the keywords of the linked pages are similar to the keywords on the original page.
Hope you found this interesting and useful.
Until the next post.
Hugs
Sharon
The search engines bring your website to the notice of the potential customers whey the customer initiates a search.
A ‘spider’ is an automated program that is run by the search engine system. Spiders visit a web site, read the content, read the Meta tags and also follows any links. Search engines use spiders to index websites. When you submit your website pages to a search engine by completing their required submission page, the search engine spider will index your entire site.
The spider then returns all that information back to a central depository, where the data is indexed. It will visit each link you have on your website and index those sites as well.
The spider will periodically return to the sites to check for any information that has changed. The frequency with which this happens is determined by the moderators of the search engine.
A spider is almost like a book where it contains the table of contents, the actual content and the links and references for all the websites it finds during its search, and it may index up to a million pages a day.
When you ask a search engine to locate information, it is actually searching through the index it has created. It is not actually searching the web. Different search engines produce different rankings because not every search engine uses the same algorithm to search through the index.
One of the things that a search engine algorithm scans for is the frequency and location of keywords on a web page, but it can also detect artificial keyword stuffing. Then the algorithms analyze the way that pages link to other pages on the web. By checking how pages link to each other, an engine can determine what a page is about and if the keywords of the linked pages are similar to the keywords on the original page.
Hope you found this interesting and useful.
Until the next post.
Hugs
Sharon
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Is PPC an alternatve to SEO?
Pay-per-click is a way of advertising on a search engine. The best known PPC is google adwords.
When a search is done on google we see websites that have been optimized for the keywords we entered into the search box and we see sponsored listings. Those sponsored listings will be charged each time someone clicks on them, but first there is a bidding process to determine who will appear at the top of the sponsored listings. The highest bidder for the price per click will get the chance to be the first listed in the search engine.
With this kind of advertising, you can still basically control your campaign as you get to create your own ad. You will also manage the target audience and still stay within the bounds of your budget. Most of the providers of PPC advertising will allow you to specify the target market, either by topic, industry or geographical location. You can also check if your ad gets to be shown at all and if it is competitive with the similar ads.
There are some guaranteed benefits when you get to maximize the PPC strategy.
PPC lets you advertise to the whole of the online community. It is also relatively easy to set up.
At first glance, PPC advertising may seem very expensive. Could it possibly happen that someone out there will go on clicking on your ad? This will definitely give you a large bill without the expected profit on your part. If this provides a lot of worries, be rest assured that there is a protection for you. Networks are able to recognize fraudulent clicks.
You can also set a budget for a certain period. The moment your budget has been used up by the target number of clicks, your ads will no longer be displayed until the next period you want it again displayed.
You will also be able to adjust well to changes in market demands and trends.
In deciding whether SEO or PPC will work best for you, think of your goals and resources. Take the PPC route for your short-term goals and choose SEO if you have long term ones.
In my website business I'm definitely in it for the long term, so I build my website with SEO firmly at the front of my mind. However, I have affiliate products that I want to promote to start earning money immediately, so for that, I use PPC.
Before even beginning to set up a google adwords campaign I recommend you do the 5 days to success with google adwords ecourse. It's free and could save a lot of money as PPC is not cheap if you don't know what you're doing.
Please feel free to leave comments for any of my posts.
Sharon
When a search is done on google we see websites that have been optimized for the keywords we entered into the search box and we see sponsored listings. Those sponsored listings will be charged each time someone clicks on them, but first there is a bidding process to determine who will appear at the top of the sponsored listings. The highest bidder for the price per click will get the chance to be the first listed in the search engine.
With this kind of advertising, you can still basically control your campaign as you get to create your own ad. You will also manage the target audience and still stay within the bounds of your budget. Most of the providers of PPC advertising will allow you to specify the target market, either by topic, industry or geographical location. You can also check if your ad gets to be shown at all and if it is competitive with the similar ads.
There are some guaranteed benefits when you get to maximize the PPC strategy.
PPC lets you advertise to the whole of the online community. It is also relatively easy to set up.
At first glance, PPC advertising may seem very expensive. Could it possibly happen that someone out there will go on clicking on your ad? This will definitely give you a large bill without the expected profit on your part. If this provides a lot of worries, be rest assured that there is a protection for you. Networks are able to recognize fraudulent clicks.
You can also set a budget for a certain period. The moment your budget has been used up by the target number of clicks, your ads will no longer be displayed until the next period you want it again displayed.
You will also be able to adjust well to changes in market demands and trends.
In deciding whether SEO or PPC will work best for you, think of your goals and resources. Take the PPC route for your short-term goals and choose SEO if you have long term ones.
In my website business I'm definitely in it for the long term, so I build my website with SEO firmly at the front of my mind. However, I have affiliate products that I want to promote to start earning money immediately, so for that, I use PPC.
Before even beginning to set up a google adwords campaign I recommend you do the 5 days to success with google adwords ecourse. It's free and could save a lot of money as PPC is not cheap if you don't know what you're doing.
Please feel free to leave comments for any of my posts.
Sharon
Saturday, May 17, 2008
More on Search Engine Optimization
My article yesterday spoke about search engine optimization and how there is no getting around it if you want to be successful online. In fact if there is a secret to being successful online I'd say there are two components.
1. Have a product that people want/need.
2. Get that product in front of those people so they know it exists.
People use search engines to find answers to a particular problem. For example, let's say you are marketing a product called "Fuel Magic" which cuts down fuel consumption by 75% when a tablet is added to your fuel tank.
Unless the customer already knows there is such a product available it's unlikely they would ever type "fuel magic" into a search engine. What they might search for are terms such as "how to reduce fuel consumption" or "tips on saving fuel". If Fuel Magic happened to appear in those search results my guess is that people would click on the ad (afterall who wouldn't want to 75% on fuel costs?)
Would they buy the product? That depends on a couple of things.
Firstly, how much is it and will the price stop people from buying it if it works out more expensive than what the fuel would cost? That would depend on why they wanted to cut fuel consumption. If their motivation was to save money, then no they wouldn't. However, if their motivation was to reduce green house gasses they might.
Secondly, if price wasn't the issue for them they would probably want to know whether the tablet would do harm to the engine, whether the car manufacturer would honour any warranty if such an additive was used etc etc.
The above two points would have to be covered in your sales copy. The point is getting people to read your sales copy in the first place.
We already have two ideas for keywords - "how to reduce fuel consumption" and "tips on saving fuel". Now, they both sound reasonable, which one do we target?
This is where keyword research comes in. Keyword research will tell you how many searches there are for each term, the number of other sites out there competing on those keywords, and other terms that people are searching for that you may not have thought about eg "how to save on fuel". The trick is to find terms people are searching, but for which there is little competition.
Keyword research is labourious and time consuming but soooo rewarding when you see your page listed on the first page of google! Trouble is, it can take many months to see results causing many newbies to feel that it is not worth time time and effort to do the research.
With SiteBuildIt, the product I use to build my website, keyword research tools are already there and included in the total yearly cost of having an SBI site. No need to pay extra for a tool such as Wordtracker although I do recommend Wordtracker for those that don't use SBI.
(It's also worth noting that hosting, development tools and autoresponders are also included in the price of SBI.)
Ignoring SEO guarantees online failure! Ignore it at your peril.
Hope this article was of some benefit to you.
hugs
Sharon
1. Have a product that people want/need.
2. Get that product in front of those people so they know it exists.
People use search engines to find answers to a particular problem. For example, let's say you are marketing a product called "Fuel Magic" which cuts down fuel consumption by 75% when a tablet is added to your fuel tank.
Unless the customer already knows there is such a product available it's unlikely they would ever type "fuel magic" into a search engine. What they might search for are terms such as "how to reduce fuel consumption" or "tips on saving fuel". If Fuel Magic happened to appear in those search results my guess is that people would click on the ad (afterall who wouldn't want to 75% on fuel costs?)
Would they buy the product? That depends on a couple of things.
Firstly, how much is it and will the price stop people from buying it if it works out more expensive than what the fuel would cost? That would depend on why they wanted to cut fuel consumption. If their motivation was to save money, then no they wouldn't. However, if their motivation was to reduce green house gasses they might.
Secondly, if price wasn't the issue for them they would probably want to know whether the tablet would do harm to the engine, whether the car manufacturer would honour any warranty if such an additive was used etc etc.
The above two points would have to be covered in your sales copy. The point is getting people to read your sales copy in the first place.
We already have two ideas for keywords - "how to reduce fuel consumption" and "tips on saving fuel". Now, they both sound reasonable, which one do we target?
This is where keyword research comes in. Keyword research will tell you how many searches there are for each term, the number of other sites out there competing on those keywords, and other terms that people are searching for that you may not have thought about eg "how to save on fuel". The trick is to find terms people are searching, but for which there is little competition.
Keyword research is labourious and time consuming but soooo rewarding when you see your page listed on the first page of google! Trouble is, it can take many months to see results causing many newbies to feel that it is not worth time time and effort to do the research.
With SiteBuildIt, the product I use to build my website, keyword research tools are already there and included in the total yearly cost of having an SBI site. No need to pay extra for a tool such as Wordtracker although I do recommend Wordtracker for those that don't use SBI.
(It's also worth noting that hosting, development tools and autoresponders are also included in the price of SBI.)
Ignoring SEO guarantees online failure! Ignore it at your peril.
Hope this article was of some benefit to you.
hugs
Sharon
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Search Engine Optimization And Why There's No Skipping It!
Setting up a website to do business on the internet is all well and good, but people have to be able to find it. Many people use search engines when looking on the internet and most will never look past the first one or two pages of search results.
Therefore, it is highly desirable to have your website appear on the first two pages of results and preferably the first simply because you have a high probability in being clicked when you rank that high. Then, if your website contains excellent content full of useful information on the search term the more business you will rake in. Remember people will not usually buy the first time they come across your business therefore it is important you capture their contact information.
Then, of course, after struggling to the first page of search results you want to stay there, and that takes work too.
So just what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be ranked highly so that people find you. Search engine optimization is organizing your web pages in such a way that search engines list your pages when users enter a search.
Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add as well to get search engine optimization. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your sites niche or theme.
You may also need to rewrite your sites contents so that you could get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your site’s content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization.
You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you could get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffics generated by sites among others are one of the components search engines uses to rank sites.
If you can part with some money, there are many sites in the internet that can help you in search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases that can help your site. There are also some content writers that have lots of experience in making good keyword laden content for your sites that have good quality.
Act now and see the benefits garner with search engine optimization. All of these will result to better traffic and more business for your site and company.
In my next posting I will describe specifically what I am doing to get my sites ranked highly.
At the very least, what I want you to take away from this article is that there is no way out of search engine optimization - and it is hard work. But it is worth it, afterall you won't survive in this cutthroat business if people can't find you.
cheers
Sharon
Therefore, it is highly desirable to have your website appear on the first two pages of results and preferably the first simply because you have a high probability in being clicked when you rank that high. Then, if your website contains excellent content full of useful information on the search term the more business you will rake in. Remember people will not usually buy the first time they come across your business therefore it is important you capture their contact information.
Then, of course, after struggling to the first page of search results you want to stay there, and that takes work too.
So just what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be ranked highly so that people find you. Search engine optimization is organizing your web pages in such a way that search engines list your pages when users enter a search.
Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add as well to get search engine optimization. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your sites niche or theme.
You may also need to rewrite your sites contents so that you could get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your site’s content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization.
You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you could get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffics generated by sites among others are one of the components search engines uses to rank sites.
If you can part with some money, there are many sites in the internet that can help you in search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases that can help your site. There are also some content writers that have lots of experience in making good keyword laden content for your sites that have good quality.
Act now and see the benefits garner with search engine optimization. All of these will result to better traffic and more business for your site and company.
In my next posting I will describe specifically what I am doing to get my sites ranked highly.
At the very least, what I want you to take away from this article is that there is no way out of search engine optimization - and it is hard work. But it is worth it, afterall you won't survive in this cutthroat business if people can't find you.
cheers
Sharon
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