by jesse dacosta
10/24/2008 7:30:00 AM
When I left you last, we were talking about the places where keywords can and should be used on your web page. A question that always comes up after this discussion is "now that we know where to put our keyword phrases, how many times should we be using them?" I'm only going to talk about using keywords in the visible body copy of page today, but the answer is very simple - it depends.
Now I know that isn't a simple answer whatsoever but that's the best answer. Forget about keyword density and all of that other mumbo jumbo you have probably heard. You don't need some crazy keyword density analyzer to tell you how many times you should be using your targeted keyword phrases within your page copy. First, you should write your page copy for your user audience. They are who will be reading your page copy and hopefully buying products and services from your business. It is when people write solely with the search engines in mind that they end up with page copy like this:
"From designer baby clothes to new baby clothes and unique baby clothes, Jesse's baby clothes depot offers the best selection of high quality baby clothes in fun baby clothes colors both you and your child will love! In addition to designer baby clothes and unique baby clothes, we also have funky baby clothes......"
Gag......talk about overkill. This is called keyword stuffing, or spamming, and not only does your user audience gag at the sight of it, but the search engines may even penalize you for this muck. You of course want to use your targeted keyword phrases within your page copy but do it naturally by writing with your user audience in mind first, and being sure to sprinkle in your keyword phrases as you go. Heck, you may be writing your copy so naturally that you include your targeted keyword phrases without even knowing!
Say what you need to say to persuade your audience to take a desired action on your site and do it in as many words that are necessary for your audience. Don’t let the searchengine dictate this to you. Next time I’ll go into this a bit more and explain why I think that overanalyzing keyword density analysis is a big waste of time.