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Wednesday, 16. August 2006

SEO Keyword Placement Strategies
By homepage-wizard, 07:10

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SEO Keyword Placement Strategies
by Ivana Giardi

Have you ever questioned why some highly relevant websites show very poor ranking in the search results? The answer might as well lie in bad keyword placement decisions. See, there are many places on your website where you can place your keywords - and they differ in the effectiveness with which they help you achieve higher ranking positions.

The major keyword placement locations usually are:

1. Title Tag

Search engines usually give the most weight to the page's title, because it tells them what the web page is about. Therefore you should place your most important keywords between the <TITLE> tags. For best results, it is advised that you keep it within 5 - 10 keywords and to-the-point. If you make the title too long, you risk that part of the title will be cut out by some search engines and won't get displayed. Also, since search engines return the title as the search results, your HTML title should be both descriptive and attractive because that's what makes visitors click through your website.

For example, the following title describes well the web site, and therefore is a good choice:

<TITLE>Web Submission - search engine optimization SEO and submission software</TITLE>

2. Meta Tags

Meta tags are special HTML tags, usually within the <HEAD>...</HEAD> portion of the web page. Unlike normal HTML tags, Meta tags do not affect how the page is displayed. Meta tags allow you to control how search engines catalog your web site. Not all search engines make use of these tags, but using them will definitely improve your position in those that do. The most commonly used Meta tags are Description and Keywords tags.

Meta Description Tag:

The <META> description tag lets you specify a short summary about your web site. Most search engines use the Description Tag for their summary description when they display your website in the search results. This is also very important from the visitor point of view as it tells the searcher whether your website is relevant to his search and worth the visit. Therefore this tag should clearly describe what one can find on your web site.

Here's an example:

The actual size used is not as important as the message it conveys, but do not exceed the limit - the recommended summary size is between 200 - 250 characters maximum.

Meta keyword tag:

The keywords tag is used by search engines to help them in indexing your website. This is important because search engines use this information to determine what queries your website will come up under.

The basic HTML format of the Meta keyword tag is:

Sample: <meta name="keywords" content="dog food,dogs,pet food,pets,dry,wet,canned dog food,pet supplies"> (Notice that it includes both words and phrases)

Note that inclusion of commas is not necessary so they can be removed if you are hovering around the limit. Including them however, makes the tag much more readable.

The common abuse of the Meta keyword tag was -- and still is -- the repetition of words in the tag, which is called spamming. Never insert the same word twice in a row in this tag, even if you're using different variations. You can use the same word in different phrases, but avoid repeating keywords in this tag. The recommended length limit is between 10 to 20 keywords.

3. Body Text

When creating your keyword-rich web page copy keep in mind following 2 concepts: Keyword Prominence and Keyword Proximity.

Keyword Prominence:

Keyword prominence refers to how keywords are close to the "beginning" of the web page. The closer the keywords are the better. The reason behind this is that Google for example, usually picks up description from the first 2 paragraphs. If the first paragraph is keyword-rich, your web page has a good chance to rank well for these terms.

Keyword Proximity:

Keyword proximity refers to the closeness between your keywords on the page. In general, the closer the keywords are to each other, the better.

The following is a good sample of a well optimized phrase for the keyword London flower shop:

Red Rose Ltd is the leading London flower shop.

As oppose to:

Red Rose Ltd is the leading flower shop for the London area.

Note: Keyword Density

Keyword Density used to get (or may be still gets) lots of undeserved attention. It tells you many times a keyword is used on a web page in relation to the rest of words on the same page.

There should not be such a fuss around keyword density as it does not really help to optimize your web page. And that's because is simply does not take in account both concepts above: it does not tell you where the keywords are located and what the distance is between them.

When creating your webpage copy writing don't forget who you wish to impress - search engines or your potential customers? Keep in mind that it does not matter how well your web page is optimized or how well your website ranks. If you fail to impress your visitor, you lose the sale and you make no profit. And profit is what matters on the Net.

Ivana Giardi is Marketing Director for Apex Reach division of Apex Pacific , a complete Internet marketing solutions provider.

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