Keyword Brush-Up for 2010

It’s time for the end of the year little pep talk about keywords. Keywords? You say. I’m sick to death of keywords!! Well, maybe you are, but the fight for internet superiority marches on with or without you, and to stay in the game you have to do keyword research. Buck up and get on with it.

Why? You whine. Because I said so – OK, not really, but seriously- you have to get in the groove with keyword targeting because lets face it-  depending on sheer luck to grab traffic isn’t going to work out too well most times.

Keywords are the base, the foundation, the starting point for SEO. Knowing what a keyword is and sticking it in your article is a step in the right direction, but there is so much more! What really counts (and what far too many SEO gurus really don’t get) is that density matters… just not in the way some of them think.

Writing SEO friendly content that doesn’t read like ad copy is not only possible, it’s really pretty easy if you start from the right place and head towards the right place. It’s the folks who blindly follow ‘gurus’ in circles that get in trouble.

The first mistake many people make is choosing the wrong keywords to target. The second mistake is saturating their content with that keyword. 2 % will often do you just fine, with maybe a plus one in the first sentence to reinforce the title. 3-4% should be the max, and you should be counting all your key phrases, not just the primary – and don’t forget to deduct for the % of word count the phrases take up.

A nice little system that works well is to grab four phrases – one primary, one secondary, and two alternates. Use the primary in the title and first sentence, somewhere in the middle and once in the last sentence (for a 500 word article).

Follow up with the secondary in the subtitle, first paragraph, near the middle and again in the last paragraph. Use your alternates twice each, sprinkled in naturally. That’s 10 usages, or just over 2% in a 500 word article. This should rank well if you mix your high and low search keyword phrases.

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