Keywords & Keyword Density? Let the Writing do the Talkin’

Keywords are the ‘foundation on which the house is built.’ So please read through this post carefully before moving on.

Many of you may have already read our introductory post about internet marketing for small businesses. Keywords are the one and only basis for making each additional part of a successful campaign work.

So what exactly is a keyword?  A keyword is the word or phrase someone types into Google or any search engine in search for information on any particular topic.  A search-engine-friendly website should always contain quality keywords related to the site’s theme and the context of the business or organization it represents.   A ‘quality keyword’ is one with high search volumes and the least competition possible.  We’ll discuss more on finding quality keywords later in the post but the point to understand here is that we want to optimize our site’s placement in the search engine listings for the highest quality keywords – keywords that are most often searched and ideally the easiest to compete for.

Let me give you an example. If you run a local tennis pro shop that sells both tennis shoes and tennis bags, you’ll obviously feature both on your site. However as far as keywords are concerned, you discover that both terms have high search volumes but that tennis shoes is a much easier term to place highly in the search engine listings for. Assuming you’re happy to sell either product, then you should make darn sure you consider tennis shoes first before concerning yourself with tennis bags when it comes to optimizing your content.

It’s important to include keywords whenever and wherever appropriate however let’s not be rigid about the number of times you should do so. Inline with the typical nebulous nature of Google’s overall SEO algorithm, the details surround the metric of “keyword density,” better known as ‘the percentage or number of times a specific keyword appears on a page,’ is quite a mystery.

Nevertheless, it’s common knowledge that choosing and including relevant quality keywords should be your number one priority for increasing your site’s SEO and marketability online – it is the bedrock of your online success and should be given ample consideration on the front end of your marketing campaign.

For example, if you’re a chiropractor, your services page should include the keyword terms “spinal decompression” and “chiropractic adjustments.”  A keyword density enthusiast may perform his or her analysis using a number of of free keyword density tools like the one found in the sidebar of our blog. However most tools do a poor job accounting for ‘multi-word’ key phrases like “chiropractic adjustment.” This means that if you insist on holding yourself to a certain keyword density metric you’ll be doing the word counting and percentage calculations manually should you decide to get serious about keyword density – sounds like a ton of fun, right ?

Given the ambiguous nature keyword density metrics I will, once again, simply instruct you to include keywords when you can in a fashion that sounds natural and/or adds value to your contact. Just for kicks, let’s look at the inconsistencies within statements made by reputable internet marketing gurus regarding keyword density just to make sure you’re finally over it ….

If you overdo it, Google will punish you for “keyword spamming.”
You should never include any word more than 7 times on each page.
Shoot for 8% density on your most important words.
Your goal is a density of no more than 10%
Don’t exceed 5%
Keyword density is unimportant. Keyword-rich anchor text, page titles,   header tags, and URL’s, along with the presence of long tail keyword variations (multi-word keyphrases) and lengthy content (500+ words) are more important.

In my opinion, we should not obsess over the exact keyword density, but should make it our first priority to include keywords in our content as much as we can without affecting the quality and flow of our content.  The most common theme resonating amongst all the gurus as that your content should sound natural, interesting, and consistent with the theme of your site.  I completely agree!  Take note of the following “K.I.S.S” guidelines for developing keyword-rich and reader friendly content.   By following my instructions your content will end up sounding interesting and will ultimately include a nice mix of keywords.

Golden Rule: Let your writing do the talking. The best approach is to write interesting and valuable content for your readers. They and the web-crawlers also will reward you for this.

It all starts with brainstorming and keyword research….

Step 1: Review your current content and  jot down any words, phrases, or short sentences that best describe the products and services you offer.  Obviously you can read through your current website content for ideas.

Step 2: Using both keyword tools described below, do keyword research  on your market space, starting with the basic one-word keywords from your brainstorming list then expanding to compound words or phrases based on the output of your keyword tools which will show related keyword suggestions and search volumes.  Remember, you can always hire us to produce a high-quality keyword report for you however I feel that if you’re willing to invest some time into using my two favorite keyword tools you can take this on yourself. Learning to do it yourself isn’t that difficult and allows you to re-vamp in the future if your business changes or expands without having to pay an outside company like ours. It just takes some time on your part to assemble the list.

The ultimate goal through brainstorming and using the keyword tools is to have a list of 10 primary keywords for each page on your site and then a much larger list as secondary keywords for secondary usage in page content.

Below are the two keyword tools I’m Referring to – TO DO THE JOB RIGHT AND WITHOUT SPENDING AN ETERNITY DOING SO, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND USING THEM BOTH. I will discuss the use of these in greater detail in the Free Mini Course (see menu bar up top) so if you get confused here, the course is available to you at no charge.

The Google Adwords Keyword Tool is an excellent free tool for finding keyword volume and a general listing of how competitive each search term is on a global basis.  It allows you to export the list of keywords you find to an Excel spreadsheet.

For all you local businesses out there, Google provides a column that best estimates ‘local search volume’ in your area versus the worldwide searches.  This is nice to know, but I’ll address the concept of “local searches” later in this post.

Warning:  Like most, this tool takes each keyword you plug in and spits out a list of many (up to hundreds of) related keyword suggestions for you to consider.  Resist the temptation to consider keywords that don’t best represent the services or products you offer simply because they  have extraordinarily high search volumes.  Again, my recommendation is that you whittle your list down to 10 primary keywords per page in total based on how well they represent your business and the level of search volume each yields.

For the best results possible,  I highly recommend Traffic Travis, my absolute favorite time-saving, easy-to-use  keyword & SEO tool which aids tremendously in the keyword searching process and will save you hours of SEO research time on the back end.  The inexpensive pro edition is the only way to go…it actually allows you to quickly generate valuable Keyword and SEO data and save your work, providing value well beyond its price.  For starters, as a supplement to the Google keyword list, you’re able to produce a list of up to 2,000 quality keywords per search by using a daily search-volume algorithm across Google, Yahoo, and Bing/MSN, plus it saves you 10-20 or more hours of time by showing exactly how competitive each keyword is amongst your competition.  These competitive analysis highlight the most important elements of SEO showing you precisely what you need to do to compete.  Consider this software your trusted “SEO in box.”  It’s like having a high-paid SEO professional working right alongside you.

Since both Traffic Travis Pro and Google allow you to export to spreadsheets you should copy and paste your favorite keyword choices from both tools into a combined spreadsheet for consideration and subsequent SEO analysis through Traffic Travis.

Let me demonstrate what I’m talking about in this short slide show (opens in separate window)

Notice how I append each keyword with a “local city modifier” when working in the Traffic Travis SEO module. This is key for local businesses looking to evaluate only local competition.  The output displays an easy-to-read list of your top local competitor’s websites for each keyword along with a useful keyword ”difficulty rating” indicator based on a number of different metrics which are conveniently highlighted for you within each report’s snapshot.  Finding keywords with relatively high search volumes and a difficulty rating of “relatively easy” is a big plus.

I recommend you visit your high-ranking competitor’s websites for and content ideas.  As any savvy business person knows, understanding your competition can be extremely valuable.  No other software or subscription service out there makes it this easy.

Reminder: Imitating your competition is smart, but copying content is not – this will get you punished.

Bar none, of the dozens of free and paid tools I’ve tried Traffic Travis is the best keyword and SEO tool available.  It’s direct competitors offer less value and often cost significantly more based on the monthly fees – this product typically runs only 2 payments of $47.   I only ask people to spend money when it’s worth spending…this is one of those times.  If you’re serious about doing your own marketing this software will do 75-90% of the work for you while saving you hours and hours of time.  Check it out by clicking the image below….

Up to 2,000 keywords with full analysis of how your competitors rank – best of all you can save all your work and hours of time with Traffic Travis.

Step 3: Consider the top 10 keywords you chose during your research as possible changes to page titles (ie/ “Pedicures | ABC Salon | Earl, MS”) for each page, category headings, and topics to write about in your website content.  Again it’s ideal to find ten top keywords that have a difficulty rating in Traffic Travis of “Relatively Easy.”  But the first order of business is to choose keywords that truly represent the forte of your business, then consider search volumes and competition secondarily.  The remaining keywords can be used freely in re-writing your site’s content at your discretion.  Obviously you’ll want to use the stronger keywords as much as possible, but not at the expense of straying away from the theme of your site or disturbing the natural flow of your content.  If  a keyword of “medium difficulty” or “difficult” sounds good in a particular spot, then use it.

FYI – Reviewing the websites of competitors Traffic Travis uncovers can be very helpful gathering ideas for fine-tuning your site’s design and content.  This is one of the reasons I save each of those SEO reports generated by Traffic Travis.

Lastly, please don’t feel tentative about overusing a strong term.  For example, if you’re working on the home page for a chiropractic office, then don’t be bashful about including the word “chiropractic” in the content 5, 10, or even 15 times. Working on the services page you’ll take a different approach with terms like “chiropractic adjustment.”   I’m a firm believer that there are no hard and fast rules on keyword density but I do feel you should let your strongest keywords shine.

Remember to include your top keywords in your first paragraphs, site URL’s, anchor text, page titles, header tags, as well as in the meta description.  The search engine crawlers look at all these areas first to determine the theme and relevance of your site.

For more valuable advice on this subject of titles, headers, page content, etc., please go on to read our SEO Friendy Design post. Also, it may pay to read through the keywords post a few times to really get the hang of it. If you decide you’d like our assistance in producing a list of quality keywords, this would be inclusive in the reasonably priced “marketing report” option described in our services page.