How Keyword Density, Frequency, Prominence And Proximity Affects Search Engine Rankings

In this article, I explain the difference between keyword density, frequency, prominence and proximity, and how they affect search engine rankings.

Keyword Density

Keyword density refers to the ratio (percentage) of keywords contained within the total number of indexable words within a web page.

The preferred keyword density ratio varies from search engine to search engine. In general, I recommend using a keyword density ratio in the range of 2-8%.

You may like to use this real-time keyword analysis tool to help you optimize a web page's keyword density ratio.

Keyword Frequency

Keyword frequency refers to the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase appears within a web page.

The theory is that the more times a keyword or keyword phrase appears within a web page, the more relevance a search engine is likely to give the page for a search with those keywords.

In general, I recommend that you ensure that the most important keyword or keyword phrase is the most frequently use keywords in a web page.

But be careful not to abuse the system by repeating the same keyword or keyword phrases over and over again.
Now that you all know the importance of keywords, its time to know what “keyword frequency” does to the benefit or rather in most cases, to the detriment of a particular site. Sad, but rather painfully, its true. Most of us lose out on this account & end-up getting no-where. So, I will just explain it in detail for your benefit.

One of the methods that search engines use to determine relevance for a keyword is by counting keyword frequency. This is not like keyword density where a ratio is taken but rather an absolute count of the number of occurrences of your primary keyword or phrase. There are a couple of rules to remember about counting keyword frequency.

First, since keyword frequency is an absolute count it does not matter how many words are on the page, the total number of occurrences will remain the same. So if the term occurs seven times this number will be the same if you have 100 or 1000 words on your page.

Second, counting keyword frequency helps determine relevance as well as Spam. What this means is that if your keyword occurs 70 times in 100 words your page will most likely be considered Spam. If your keyword occurs only once in 100 words more than likely your page will not be considered relevant and thus will rank lower in the search results or not at all.

If your content is well written and targeted toward a specific theme your page will most likely contain the correct number of occurrences of a term. With well thought out content this is natural. In most cases, appropriate content will not require counting keyword frequency to ensure correct distribution.

Keyword Prominence

Keyword prominence refers to how prominent keywords are within a web page.

The general recommendation is to place important keywords at, or near, the start of a web page, sentence, TITLE or META tag.

After going through various aspects of the “keywords”, I would like to finally touch upon the significant role of the “keyword prominence”. This is crucial for the ranking of the web page. Now, it totally depends on you whether it is ranked in the upper tier or the lower one. So, just read on for the better ranking of your sites.

One of the main factors affecting keyword ranking in SEO is keyword prominence. This refers to the location of your chosen keyword in Meta tags and body copy. Any Webmaster or SEO cannot underestimate the importance of keyword prominence. Along with selection and density this is one of the primary considerations for SEO.

Location of keywords in tags and body copy affects the importance of keyword prominence. If the keyword or key phrase occurs at the beginning of a sentence, paragraph, or body copy then more importance is placed on that keyword.

For Meta tags more weight is placed on the first word or term. The importance of keyword prominence in Meta tags cannot be underestimated. The primary term should come in the beginning of the title, description, and keyword tag.

The importance of keyword prominence in body copy is just as significant. When placing keywords in the body of a page they should occur in the beginning, middle, and end of the body copy. These are especially important areas. The search engines will place more weight on the beginning and end, and the keyword should be supported in the middle of the copy.

After you have gone through all these little facts about the keywords, I’m sure that you’re going to benefit a lot. So, just keep visiting this site for more such useful tips on a range of topics.
Keyword Proximity

Keyword proximity refers to the closeness between two or more keywords. In general, the closer the keywords are, the better.

For example:

How Keyword Density Affects Search Engine Rankings

How Keyword Density Affects Rankings In Search Engine

Using the example above, if someone searched for "search engine rankings," a web page containing the first sentence is more likely to rank higher than the second.

The reason is because the keywords are placed closer together. This is assuming that everything else is equal, of course.

Importance of Keywords
November 13th, 2007

If you want to promote your business online, it’s not enough to increase traffic – you would also need to attract site visitors who are likely to become customers. The use of appropriate keywords is one way to achieve that aim. You could achieve this in numerous ways.

Firstly, you can purchase keywords & then you should try to monitor it. Essentially, the major search engines allow you to bid on terms relevant to your business. When a user searches one of these terms, your link will appear higher or lower on the sponsored list, depending upon whether you’re the highest bidder. Each time a user clicks on your sponsored link, you pay the amount that you have bid.

Of course, the more generic the keyword, the more expensive it will be. But don’t fret – as it turns out, more specific (and less expensive) keywords can be the most valuable for local businesses.

However, this is obviously going to cost you a little. Henceforth, i will add another way so that you can maximize your profits without actually investing a single penny! You can regularly check various searches - engines for priorities, which they give to different words. This helps in a way that you would know which kind of topics are “in demand”.

A well-known saying among online marketers is that “content is king.” There’s a reason for that. As online search becomes a bigger and more lucrative business, the algorithms used to determine rankings have grown more complicated, and the extent to which content relevance is analyzed has grown. To complicate matters further, each search engine uses its own formula.

So, with the second method you will be able to maximize amount of traffic to your site by filling it with well-crafted, keyword-rich content. As you might expect, the best overall online marketing strategy includes keyword efforts both paid for and organic. You should invest in the promotion of your site through “pay-per-click” management, while also improving the organic ranking of your site by way of keyword-rich content. It takes a little work, but the payoff can be tremendous.