Number of keywords?

[harborsales]

I was wondering what is the maximum # of keywords you should put in? Depending on what site or artical you read they tell you 20 is maximum then another tells you 20 is to few. So what is the maximum you should put in?

[scottiecl]

Hi Mike-

Put your keywords in the title, description, keywords, a heading or two and in the copy where it makes sense.

Don't try and force them in X number of times, but do use them as often as you can without sounding stiff and forced.

[Blue]

Hi Mike,

What Scottie said, and,

Think of it this way:

You have more than one page - each page has the ability to be optimized for different keyphrases -

Therefore, there's no need to stuff 20 keyphrases on each page, or even 10 or 5.

Why not research what your most important keyphrases are, then divide them up into unique "sets" of two or three keyphrases per set, and use different sets on different unique pages?

Since you have many different products, each with it's own page, you have the opportunity to optimize each page with a unique set of two or three keyphrases.

And notice that I differentiate between keywords and keyphrases. In most instances, searchers will search for a phrase rather than a singular word - something like "Womens leather jacket".

[dvjduck]

Hi,
I'm new here so please forgive if I'm too "elementary". I need to know more about how to format key words and phrases. Do I set them off with any special punctuation or simply let them be included in the normal flow of the text?
Thanks,
DVJ

[scottiecl]

Hi dvjduck :hi:

Welcome to the forum!

You definitely want to work your keyphrases into the copy of your page as naturally as possible. Don't set them off with special punctuation or anything like that.

If you can work them into headings and alt tags where it makes sense to the user, that is a good idea. Repetitition is good, but make sure it still sounds logical when reading it aloud. That's a good test- if you feel stupid reading it out loud, it probably needs a little more work.

Using keyphrases as links to other pages is also a good thing to do. Think about that when creating your site architecture and it should help the user as well as the SE spiders.

[Kim]

Does it matter what order keywords are in? And should they be differant for every page in the site?

[Copywriter]

Hi All,

General rules for keywords are as follows:

While a good rule of thumb is to have a 3%-4% ratio of words to keywords it IS JUST a rule of thumb. As Scottie and others have said, use them in your page title, description, keyword tag, table or column headings, headlines, body copy, etc. Don't worry too much about counting words.

The keywords/phrases should be exact for the most benefit. For example, if you want to target the phrase "piano moving" you should use that phrase "as-is" because that's what people are actually searching under.

When possible, try to create links that use your keyphrases. If you have a rates page (and the optimum keyphrase for that page is piano moving rates), link to that page within your text with something like:

You'll find our piano moving rates to be very reasonable.

You can also add keyphrases to various other tags on your page when applicable. Your ALT tags (or image tags) can contain keywords, for example.

As for order and different keywords per page, I'm not sure what you mean by "order." As in... if your keyphrase were "piano moving" - can it also be "moving piano"? Again... the actual search term will get you better results.

I like to use different keywords for each page because it gives greater "exposure" to the engines.

Hope it helps!

Karon

[ihelpyou]

Yes, good post!

Also, while the keyphrase in it's 'exact' mode will give higher relevance to that phrase, ... any of the words in the phrase that are in any form in the copy, all have relevance. So if the targeted phrase is:

piano moving

words together like this:

moving piano OR

piano and or storage moving OR

moving or and storage piano....

still hold some wait as 'both' words that make up the targeted phrase are still in the content.

[Ajeet]

Hi,
As the keywords/phrases get more competitive, you will notice that not just does the sequence of keywords matter, but even the exact representation. So, the following could all return different results:

blue widget
blue widgets
Blue Widget
BLUE WIDGET

Thanks
Ajeet

[Webmaster T]

I don't think much about %. I concentrate more on location then %. I like to concetrate a higher density and "exact matches" in the Heading and first couple of paragraphs. Sprinkle exact matches and partial matches through the middle and concentrate a higher % in the last couple of paragraphs and navigation. I'm also a big beleiver in longer pages are better optimization candidates then shorter ones. Likely because they just suit my style better.

[Webmaster T]

Originally posted by Ajeet
Hi,
As the keywords/phrases get more competitive, you will notice that not just does the sequence of keywords matter, but even the exact representation. So, the following could all return different results:

blue widget
blue widgets
Blue Widget
BLUE WIDGET

Thanks
Ajeet Someone correct me if I'm wrong but only AV is case sesitive If I remember correctly. I can't think of any that **are not** plural sensitive.

[Copywriter]

You are right... practically nobody looks at case as far as I know.

[firecrackerqp]

AAARRRGGGHHH!! :eek:

I thought that you were "always" supposed to list your keywords as plurals because they would still show up in searches for the singular case. Contrast that with a singular keyword will NOT show up in a search for the plural version.

Did I get it wrong from the beginning, or have things changed since I started (and I just didn't know about it)? :confused:

[ihelpyou]

No, plurals and singulars are different. Use www.wordtracker.com to see the difference.

No, altavista is like all the rest....

[firecrackerqp]

Just thought of another "rule" that I may have misunderstood (or gotten completely wrong to begin with).

Instead of using commas to separate my keyword phrases, I use NO commas. That allows them to be seen as single words AS WELL AS the phrases.


I'll try to give a short example of what I did...

Two keyword phrases are:
"birth announcements" and "photo birth announcements"

By using this:
photo birth announcements

I actually get all three words considered PLUS both phrases.

Someone PLEASE straighten me out on this before I cause too much trouble!

Thanks,
Kyle :notworthy

[ihelpyou]

Well Kyle, the keywords tag is ignored by most engines, but how you are doing your tag is Exactly how I do all of mine, so to me, that's just dandy. LOL