What is Keyword Rich?!?

My primary inspiration to develop this quick little tutorial is to aid the members of the College in creating content for the website that is keyword rich. However, this should be useful to anyone that is just beginning with Search Engine Optimization and keyword research. I’ve chosen to use the FAQ format with this tutorial as it is the quickest way to be sure I’ve answered questions that I’ve received regarding writing content for search engine optimization.

What is keyword rich?

Keyword rich refers to content on a web page that is optimized for various keywords. SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) will show results based on a seemingly infinite number of factors [the number of factors of course is finite, but if you’ve ever studied SEO, you understand my slight exaggeration]; one of those factors being the relevancy of a web page to a specific keyword. For example, if someone was to search for the term ‘keyword rich’, the SERP would list pages that had that term embedded in the textual content of that page, as a page title, or in the meta-data.
How do I decide what keywords to use to optimize?

This is a question answered by thinking as a consumer of the content. If you were a user searching for information that may be found on the web page in question, what search terms would you use? Of course, you’re writing the content, so you know exactly what is available on the page. The consumer doesn’t. You’ll need to think in more generic terms for this section. For example, if your page is specifically about what steps a prospective graduate student would need to take in order to apply for the program, then you wouldn’t want to optimize the keyword ’steps that a prospective graduate student needs to take in order to apply to the EDAH program in the College of Education’. Instead, use three or so keyword phrases such as: ‘graduate student’, ‘application procedures’, and ‘EDAH program’.
I have a spreadsheet with all the keywords to use on my page. How do I get started?

Well, first, get started by dragging that spreadsheet to the recycle bin on your computer screen. There is an enormous amount of competition out there for search results. If you plan to rank highly in the search engines, you need to optimize a page for just a few specific terms. For example, this page you’re reading right now is only optimized for the terms ‘keyword rich’ and ’search engine optimization’. I could have added a number of other terms, however, the content would be less readable and the SERPs would regard this page less relevant to the terms that I really want to use.
OK, I’ve deleted the spreadsheet, so exactly how many terms should I use?

I don’t know. The number of terms you use depends on a couple of factors. First, what is the page about? If it is very specific, then optimizing for just one or two terms would be sufficient (this page is an example). If it is a bit more general, then 3, 4 or even more terms would be OK. I couldn’t see myself optimizing for more than 4 terms on a single page, but it could be a possibility.
I’ve written my content and added the keyword at the beginning of every sentence. Show me the money!!!

Well, not only have you just scared off all of your users, you’ve just been banned from the search engines. You see, SEO has become a science. Each time someone thinks they’ve figured out a way to ‘fool’ the search engines, the search engines update their algorithms, even banning whole sites that have tried to ‘fool’ them. It’s better to use the keyword in the natural flow of the text. If it is difficult to use the keyword a number of times in the text, then break up the text with headings and put the keyword within the heading text. For example, in this page I’ve included my optimized keyword ‘keyword rich‘ a total of 5 times in the text of this page. However, I’ve also used ‘keyword’ (a portion of my optimized keyword) a number of times within the text of this page. The keyword shows up:
- in the title of the page,
- in headings on the page,
- in bolded text on the page,
- in italicized text on the page,
- in underlined text on the page, and
- in regular text on the page.
If I add keywords throughout the page, will it sound natural?

Read it aloud. Good content (and keyword rich content) will sound conversational when read aloud. If the content is meant to be persuasive, it should read persuasive; the keywords should just flow with the meaning and intent of the message. Again, if you feel it doesn’t read well, then break up the text with headings. If that doesn’t seem right either, then you’re probably optimizing for the wrong keyword. Go through your content again and choose another one.
What are meta-data?

Meta-data are components of a web page that aren’t seen by the user, but are seen by the search engines and used to give relevance to a specific keyword. There is the title of the page (the most important factor), the meta keyword tag and the meta description tag. Each of these tags are used by various search engines in seemingly different ways. However, they are important components in optimization. We’ll discuss how to use these in later posts.
Great, so now my page will be #1 in the search engines! Thanks!

If only it were that easy. No, like I said before, this is just one component of a seemingly infinite number of components related to higher search engine ranking. What we’ve discussed in this post is what’s known as ‘On-Page’ optimization. All of the changes we’ve made have to do with actual content on the web page. There’s another, much larger, component involved in SEO called ‘Off-Page’ optimization. This deals with anything else that influences a page’s search engine ranking. We’ll discuss this in a later post more in detail. Just know that as on-page optimization will help your search engine rankings, it is not the end-all to SEO.