SEO and Keyword Density

Every web designer knows that there are two essential qualities in every good website - appearance and how it performs in the search engines. There is no doubt it is critically important for pages to look good so they keep visitors on the page. But visitors will never arrive at the site to appreciate even the best design without search engine optimization (SEO). Integrating these fundamentals of effective website design can be complex, and compromises are almost always required.

While Yahoo! and Google and also take other factors into account, no aspect of your web pages is more important to their ranking than keyword density. What is keyword density It’s a simple percentage of the total words on a page that are keywords. Keyword density that produces high page rankings is generated by a small selection of highly searched keywords that do not have high competition. For the most frequently searched keywords, as many as 100,000 sites will be vying for position. Frequently searched keywords can bring you high page rankings, but they demand longer-term commitments and more resources.

A successful site has to have enough content to allow for appropriately low keyword density. Unlike the ranking standards of the late 1990s, search algorithms in 2009 penalize sites, and sometimes penalize them very severely, for cramming too many search terms into too little text. Content must long enough to dilute keyword density, but concise enough to hold visitor attention. It is also not possible to make use of every screen shot or image you might happen to have, no matter how attractive and beautiful they are, on every page, or even on every site. The search algorithms have not yet designed means of indexing images. Words, and not images, are what drive SEO. That is the reason every designer has to provide every site multiple pages with text that can be optimized.

The next step in integrating web design and SEO is to tag all each image on the site with the “alt” tag in HTML. Every image has to have this tag. The “alt” tag enables to instruct the web browser as to which text will pop up when visitors run their mouse over your image. Every image also requires an SEO-friendly title. For instance if your site is about sunning on the beach in Aruba, and you want to use a photo of a beach on your page, a name like aruba.beach.wow.jpg isfar more effective than an name like 477876arub9wow.jpg. Keywords in your tags become keywords for your pages. Just take care not make your pages too keyword-dense with image names, either.

Another important consideration in placing keywords on your pages for purposes of SEO is where you place the keywords. Search engines give you more credit for keywords in titles and headers than within paragraphs. That is why it is important that you get put as many of your keywords in these prominent positions as possible.

How many keywords can you include your homepage Your list range anywhere from 3 to 10 or even 20, as long as you have enough content to keep the percentage keywords acceptably low. The most competitive niches almost always require a narrow focus to ensure that your content is what your visitors are searching for. On the other hand, an excessively narrow focus can eliminate certain visitors before they have a chance to search for your site, so be on the lookout for ways to place additional keywords on your page without triggering spam filters.

Always take care that the search engines do not mistake your content for spam. Beyond keeping within the 7% limit, your respect for your readers and your providing genuinely content will make all the difference in how well your site will perform.