The trick to optimizing your copy is using the most important keywords frequently and in the right places, without compromising readability. But how do you define “frequently?” And what are the right places? What if you want to target a few different keywords?And for that matter, what should the wordcount of your pages be? Below are a few tips that will help you out.
What should be the word-count of a page?
You’ll hear a lot about the importance of a lot of content. While I definitely agree that ‘content is king’, there’s no need to write volumes for every page. I recommend approx:
- 100-150 words for your homepage - usability studies show that you should never make your reader scroll down on the Homepage.
- 250-400 words for pages lower in your hierarchy - increase word count as you increase your level of detail.
- 300-1000 words for blog posts
Search engines don’t count your number of words and strike you off the list if you’re too high or too low. They’re only interested in your word count insofar as it’s an indication of the helpfulness of your website. Typically a helpful website will have a lot of words. Note that they consider a lot of other factors as well, not just word count.
How many times should I use a keyword?
You don’t want to fill every page up with your keyword.That’s called ‘keyword stuffing’ – a form of search engine spam. More importantly, it reduces readability, so your visitors won’t stay for long. A good rule of thumb is to try to use your keyword phrase once in every 30 words. This measure is referred to as ‘keyword density’, and it’s expressed as a percentage. A keyword density of around 3% is what you should be aiming for. I’m talking just the copy here. This doesn’t include your menus, footers, sidebars, image captions, etc. e.g. If your page has 200 words, and your keyword phrase appears 6 times, its density is 3% (6/200 x 100). Some SEO practitioners recommend a higher density than this some as high as 10%, but in my experience, this usually results in trashy copy.
Increasing keyword density without undermining readability
When you actually sit down and try to write some SEO copy, you’ll see that a keyword density of 3% isn’t easy to achieve. At least to begin with. The easiest way to do it is to be specific. As you write every sentence, ask yourself, “Could I be more specific?” For example, if you sell cheap second hand computers, don’t just say “our computers” or “our products”; ask yourself if you can get away with saying “our cheap second hand computers”.
Similarly, don’t say things like “with our help” instead, say “with the help of our cheap second hand computers”. Once you get the hang of it,you’ll find there are many opportunities to replace generic wording with your keyword phrase. Obviously, there’s a bit of an art to it; sometimes it ends up sounding like you’re repeating your keyword phrase over and over again. If this happens, you may just need to restructure the sentence or paragraph. Always remember: your site reflects the quality of your product or service. If your site is hard to read, people will infer a lot about your offering. Readability is all-important to visitors. And after all, it’s the visitors who buy your product or service, not the search engines.
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