Let’s Talk about Keyword Density Graywolf's SEO Blog |
| Let’s Talk about Keyword Density Posted: 23 Feb 2011 07:44 AM PST
Recently, I received an email question wanting to know about keyword density, asking questions like how do I deal with it, is it still a factor, and how important is it. As with most things in SEO, the answer is … it depends… Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to the Interwebz circa 2001 … Page rank was the big magilla in the ranking algorithm. It didn’t matter how crappy your website was–with enough links from anywhere, you could get a page to rank. Trust and authority where unknown concepts in SEO. If you had a moderate to low competition KWD, you could rank without the word being on the page. If your KWD was moderate or harder you did need some on page SEO, and keyword density WAS a factor. At the peak of this zaniness I remember reading posts about the optimal keyword density being between 4.9% and 12.2%. The word had to be in the first sentence, had to be in italics once on the page, in bold once on the page, and in bold and italics once on the page. While not entirely true, there was a kernel of truth to be had somewhere in there. That said, you shouldn't stuff the words on your page to the point where it becomes awkward to read … Then in the fall of 2003 the shoe dropped. Google pushed out the Florida Update on a Saturday morning, and all hell broke loose. Trust and authority became leading indicators, and all those crazy keyword density formulas became the stuff talked about on the porch at the SEO old folks home. In short, the right anchor text from a trusted source could make a page rank even if the word wasn’t on the page. Copywriters who loved superfluous wordy adjectives reveled around the bonfire with high value link sellers. Of course things changed over the next few years, but people cling to old ideas, especially if they love them or if they make their lives easier or more enjoyable. Back to the question: does keyword density matter … kinda. If you want to rank for the phrase [fuzzy blue widgets], you had better have the phrase [fuzzy blue widgets] on your page. In fact, it should probably be the keyword on your page with the highest density (excluding stop words).That said, you shouldn’t stuff the words [fuzzy blue widgets] on your page to the point where it becomes awkward to read. While I hesitate to give a number, if you have a keyword density that approaches or goes over 10% you should probably give it to a non SEO to make sure it reads like natural language. That’s not to say you should never do it but, if you do, have a damn good reason and make sure it passes the sniff test. How do I check keyword density? I use the Scribe SEO plugin (see Scribe SEO Review). Scribe SEO is paid tool that does a few things, and one of them is checking keyword density right from the WordPress post panel. It’s incredibly easy to use. Before I publish a post, I run Scribe and check that the word/terms that I want to optimize for are the ones that have the highest density. I’ve been using it for several months now and am very happy with it. Here’s a screen shot of what it thinks of this post:  Keyword density via scribe seo No discussion of keyword density would be complete without touching on LSI (latent semantic indexing). You can read about LSI in lots of places on the web but, simply put, it’s Google ability to understand synonyms–i.e., that [cars] and [automobiles] are the same thing. While Google says they aren’t using LSI and I agree, I do have to say that something similar to LSI is definitely at work. My proof? Do a keyword search for [mike gray]. The word [mike] never appears on my website, but Google ranks me for the term and highlights the word [michael], so they have some some idea the words are connected. However, in actual practice, I don’t see this all that often in the wild. “]”] So what are the takeaways from this post:  LSI or something else ... [mike gray
 Related posts:
Advertisers:
This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review. |
| Posted: 22 Feb 2011 03:44 PM PST
Late last year, the solution I was using to post and (more importantly) to schedule tweets was having problems. Specifically, it did not post at the times specified, bunched up, and duplicated tweets. After trying a few different tools, I settled on Hootsuite as being the best match for my needs. I’m going to post some screen shots. I apologize for the redacted blocks, but there are some accounts that aren’t public and need to be kept confidential. Hootsuite has two levels: a free level and a paid level at $5.99 a month. The paid level gives you unlimited account connections, unlimited stat history, Google Analytics integration, Facebook Insights integration, and removes the advertising. I’m all for free tools but at $5.99 Hootsuite is extremely affordable and price shouldn’t be an issue at all. When you log in to Hootsuite, it asks you to connect your social networks in Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare. It will create a tab for each account along the top, and place icons for the accounts on the top right. While I do keep the tabs for each account, I found it helpful to create custom tabs for all of my “@” responses and all of my Scheduled tweets.  Hootsuite Dashboard You can create tweets for any account using the entry form along the top of the nav. You can push them out to multiple accounts (be careful) and schedule them. They have also recently added the ability to submit scheduled tweets in bulk format, which is pretty handy. The ability to schedule tweets for multiple accounts is a mission critical item for me. In addition to being able to do it from the dashboard, you can do it from any page you are reading using the Hootlet Bookmarklet. The bookmarklet adds a little icon to your browser. Click when you want to post something and a window pops up. You can edit the tweet, Facebook post, Foursquare post, tell it which account(s) to post to, and schedule or post live. That’s all there is to it. It creates a shortened URL automagically for you.  Hootlet The custom shortened URL is one of Hootsuite’s cool features: it gives you much better stats on who clicks your tweets or Facebook posts,  Hootsuite Stats stats on popular tweets you made,  Popular Tweets and insight into influential users who have tweeted with you or retweeted you.  Influencers Tweets You also have access to Google Analaytics and Facebook Insights from Hootsuite. Hootsuite also has mobile apps, meaning you can access Hootsuite natively on your Android, Blackberry, iPhone, and iPad.  iPad Hootsuite One thing that’s lacking is the ability to save your tab configurations on these mobile devices. For some reason, Hootsuite did an update and I lost all my tabs. The problem didn’t effect everyone, but it did effect enough other people that I got some sympathy tweets, so… Hey, Hootsuite, how bout adding it? The other feature I’d really like to see added is RSS reader capabilities. It would just make my workflow of posting and scheduling items a lot easier. So far, Hootsuite is opposed to the idea even though it has some support. The one aspect I didn’t mention because I don’t use it is the ability to add other people into your account. So if you are running as an agency with multiple users, this feature is pretty handy. It does cost $15.99 to add each additional user. The things that I really like about Hootsuite are first, its ability to add/schedule tweets reliably directly from the browser; second, its ability to see the Twitter activity for multiple accounts all in one place; and finally, its ability to show you states that measure how well your social interactions are doing. If this sounds like something you are doing, Hootsuite might be a good fit for you. To be clear, I am a current paying customer of Hootsuite. If you sign up from my link I will get a commission. This is a product I have been using for a few months and have been happy with and I am comfortable recommending Hootsuite as a social media management tool. Related posts:
Advertisers:
This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Graywolf's SEO Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Postări
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu