Website Development – Keywords Help You Write Your Blog

Once I started seriously considering how I used keywords in our online documents, my web writing actually improved. I have a list of keywords for my site, but then I would make a list of the keywords I want to use in my post. I keep thinking, “How can I incorporate these words into the article while still attaining the goals of the article?”

I found that this helps outline and organize my thoughts, keeping me focused on the topic at hand and not on the tangents. Still, using too many of the same keywords can get you in trouble, so it’s a game of balance between getting enough and not getting too many.

Once I’ve written the article, I often run it through a keyword checker like Word Counter before pasting the content into my web page layout. I look at the keyword results to compare them to my original post keywords outline and my blog’s keyword list. Do they match? If not, I review the post content to see if there are ways I can edit it to include more keywords, and edit out the unnecessary information. This step really filters out the unnecessary words and topics, streamlining the content to really get my point across, thus better representing my topic to my audience.

Over time, this keyword writing process becomes more natural, as the keywords stay in the front of my brain as I write. I spent less time running the post through the keyword checkers since I have learned how to get the keywords I need into the document without sounding like I’m excessively using keywords. If you look closely, you will see that I’m pushing the limits of the keyword “keyword” in this paragraph, something you might was to reconsider as you edit your own keyword driven articles for your own keywords.

Researching the top keywords on related topics also gives me many ideas for related article possibilities. For instance, searching for the top searched keywords associated with how people blog has led me to consider articles about bloggers blogging about disabilities, travel, photography, television, city/metro bloggers, celebrity blogs, and many other ways people use blogs to get their message across. The ideas are now spilling out all over the place, giving me so many topics to write about, it’s getting harder to choose which one to do next.

Keyword Tips and Tricks

The following is information you need to know to help you get the most value from the keywords inside your web page:

Match Keyword Tag with Content:
List your keywords in the Meta Tag in your web page HEAD for keywords, as shown below. If the keyword list in the Meta Tag does not match the words within your content, a search engine robot or spider can detect something wrong and this could lead to your page receiving a low rating, being skipped, or ignored all together.

<meta name="keywords" content="web, web page design, layout, design, internet, web site, web site, validate, validation, keywords, search, search engine, optimize, HTML, CSS, meta tags, access, accessibility">

Not all search engines use Meta Tags, but some do. WordPress sites do not have meta tags for keywords out of the box, but you can add them manually to your template files or use a keyword plugin. They are not required today for search engine inclusion, but it also doesn’t hurt.

On average, most search engines permit up to about 900 characters or 25 words in your keyword meta tag. Some search engines permit up to 1200 characters, but many do not. They will cut off their database gathering at whatever their limit is, but if they detect you have too many characters or words in your meta tag, they might decline your site, so stay within the limits.

Count the Keywords:
With your new keywords in place, check your posts to determine how rich your keyword count and density is. Too many references? Then edit your material and use synonyms. Too few? Consider how you could change the text to increase the ratio.

While you are working hard to fill your content with as many repetitions of your keywords as possible, you can cross a line. Search engines calculate how often a word is used alongside other words. For instance, if you use the word “welcome” in a sentence such as “You are very welcome to visit our welcome page today”, the word “welcome” would be used in two out of ten words or have a keyword density of 20%. From among 100 other words, it would have a 2% density. According to experts, having a keyword density of a particular word should be less than 12%, though many recommend 3-10% to be safe. Many keyword validators provide keyword density percentages, so check with these to be sure.

Keep Keywords Distant:
Search engines can tell when they are being “spammed”, flooded with too many keywords in order to force the web page to be recognized. One of the triggers for this spamming is when a keyword is used too many times too close together. For instance, the sentence “Nature photography is the photography of nature subjects” might trigger a warning. If I change the sentence to “The art of nature photography is photographing natural subjects”, there is now enough words and changes in the words to make it appear like these words are in a sentence, part of the overall content and not an attempt to spam.

Keep Keywords on Top:
Keep the keywords in your content towards the top of your page code as most search engine robots rarely search past 25-50% of the total page. This puts your most valuable search engine keyword criteria up where they can find it.

Keywords are Everywhere:
Keywords are not limited to those found within your keyword meta tag or content. Some search engines will pick up keywords from within image alt tags, comments, headings, link title tags, and through the web page’s title and meta tag description. Look through your code carefully to see where you can add keyword references.

Mizzpell a Few Words and Use Plurals:
Not everyone can spell so think about the different ways people may spell some of your key words. For example, there is much debate about whether “web site” or “website” as the current spelling. According to Webster’s, the correct spelling is “web site”, but the overwhelming use of the term in web pages is as “website”. So include both spellings in your keywords tag to cover all your bases. Don’t use misspelled words within your content but do list them in your keywords. Also considering using plural versions of your keywords as many searchers think if they are looking for more than one result, they need to look for “websites” not “website”.

Writing Your Best With Keywords in Mind

Give it a try. Get your list of keywords for your site and topic and see how it works for you. It was frustrating at first to be limited by my keywords. As I saw my site moving up in the page ranks, it became rewarding. As my web writing style improved, it became even easier to write. And as mentioned, keywords led to other keywords which led to ideas for writing topics. It’s hard to go wrong when you write with keywords in mind.

To help you build your own keyword list, see our article on Listing the Keywords Inside.

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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network