Can anyone help me with optimising keywords.

1. how important are keywords in SE optimisation?;
2. Is there a recommended number of keywords?;
3. is it ok to use keywords and key phrases even though there may be some "words" that are repeated?;
3. if you use too many keywords can it have any negative effect.

Cheers

Yes IMO keywords are important to any site that wants to rank for such words.

Different search engines will handle the number of keywords on a page differently, starting with Google who really don't count the keywords on the page and going on up from there.


Sure its OK to repeat keywords a few times so long as your text reads well.

There are some search engines who may penalize you if you have too many keywords on your page, but the top 90+% of all searches are done on search engines which are not going to do this.

Hi there!!!




VERY. In a perfect world our business planning phase includes the SEO teams research on KW competitiveness and initial targets. Starting with the domain name choice this information figures into the decision making process





YES. Unlimited all the way up to infinity. Seriously. Once you get a strong position with one target, you move onto another. The guy with the most #1’s in his market segment wins. Start with lesser competitive terms and work your way up.





Need and example. Think further than KWs and move further towards phrases. Think in 2 ways. Keyword/Phrase targeting and Organic or Natural Phrasing targets. Search Engines are getting better at understanding relevance, correlations and processing phrasings
[url=http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220060031195%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20060031195&RS=DN/20060031195]Phrase-based searching in an information retrieval system
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It will also create a better sales/conversion progression by writing copy for Humans as well as the SEs.



YES. It is called KeyWord stuffing. If that is what you mean. If you mean going overboard in research and general targeting, then it can also hurt by time/money wasted chasing KWs with a Poor ROI on them. Spending tome and money on a term with 2 referrers/month and 1 sale per year, is counter productive…

Ok? Any help there?

Yes, thanks David. That does make alot of sense.

WRT my 3rd question, i meant that in the meta keyword description there would be some single key words, but also some two and three keyword phrases. Some words would be common accross both - is that OK? Not spamming?

Cheers

Sure that's fine.

If we have a target of ' Business Development' or 'Internet Business Development' we would work it with a variety of 'extensions' for natural search phrasing such as;

Affordable Internet Business Development Services (full)

Business Development Services
Affordable Business Development
Affordable Development Services
Affordable Internet Business
Internet Business Development
Internet Business Development Services

You get the idea. With a few CORE terms and some 'extensions' I can reach quite a few targets.


I would tihnk of the Meta Description as PART keyword/phrasings and Part sales in that it should also be written for HUMANs not SEs.

Use a keyword rich phrasing that is as natural as possible

I agree with theGypsy regarding the Meta Description being written for Humans. Ultimately this is likely to be what makes them choose your site from the other 9 listed on the page - it has to grab them and entice them to click through.
To me this has to be written mostly for humans and if this can be done in a way that works for Ses then it's a bonus.

Hey Gang... I decided to pull this in with another thread I am on into one big picture

http://www.webworkshop.net/seoforum/vie ... hp?t=13859

Thanks guys. Thats really usefull advice. Thanks too david, will check out your thread.