Increase Keyword Relevance Scores

Posted on 08. Feb, 2010 by Pete Hollier in Keyword Research, Search Optimization

Yet again the Search Engines are modifying their Search criteria with the results being evident in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). I see increasing evidence of the importance of Keyword Relevance to a Searcher’s request in the SERPs.

While compiling a report for a client recently, the results indicated the keywords were very prominent in the Page URL, Page Title and the META Description. Although this is nothing new, what I did find interesting was the frequency of results which showed these characteristics.

Although in the past the keyword phrases have been evident in the results I have never seen such an large number of results which showed these characteristics over a range of keyword phrases. The only conclusion to make from these results and others I have identified is Keyword Relevancy has increased in importance over some of the other Ranking factors used by the Search Engines.

Improving your relevancy score

Keyword Research and Analysis

If you don’t research and understand what Internet users are entering into the Search query forms to find your products and services, it is highly unlikely you will perform well in the Search Engine Results Pages.

A couple of the primary keyword research and analysis techniques include:

1. Using a keyword research tools such as WordTracker, Keyword Discovery or Google Keyword Tool to compile a list of preliminary keywords.
2. Determine the popularity of the keywords using criteria such as number of monthly searches.
3. Select keywords for competitive analysis. There are a couple of types of competitive analysis
   1. Instance Analysis: Identifies the number of instances of the keyword in the Search Engine index for criteria such as the number of instances of the phrase, the number of time the phrase is indexed in URL’s and Page Titles.
   2. Domain Authority Analysis: Identifies the strength of the web pages currently achieving Search Engine Visibility for the selected keywords and phrases assisting you to determine what work is required on your web site to compete against the pages which are currently ranking for your desired keywords and phrases.

Keyword Integration

The importance of how selected keywords are unutilized cannot be overlooked as it is this usage that the Search Engines use to determine how relevant a particular web page is to a Searchers request in comparison to the numerous competing web pages.

It is crucial to use your keywords in a natural manner. Search Engines are very adept at identifying keywords which are only used for the purpose of improving a web page’s visibility in the SERPs and if your web page has been identified as keyword spamming, you can be assured you will not be visible in the Search Results.

Some of the primary consideration for keyword integration include:

1. Include keyword phrase prominently in the web page’s URL, Page Title and META Description Tag.
2. Include keyword phrase once only in the web page Header Tag H1.
3. Include similar keywords prominently in web page’s Header Tags H2, H3.
4. Ensure Image Alt tags include the primary and supporting keywords.
5. Use the primary keyword prominently towards the beginning of the web page’s textual content.
6. Integrate keyword synonyms and other relevant terms throughout the web page’s content.

The Last Word

From the recent analysis of the Search Results, it is evident that relevancy is becoming more important to ensuring your web page is visible in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). However, content should not be developed with only the Search Engines as the target audience. The human eyes of your visitors are the final testing ground to determine the relevancy of your content to the user’s search query.

If the content fails to capture the interest if your visitors arriving from the SERPs, they will quickly return to the SERPs looking for content which does meet their requirements. It must be clearly understood the Search Engines are very attentive to this bounce back to the SERPs and will modify the Search Results if this is a frequent occurrence.

Want to use this content on your web site?

If you would like to use this article on your web site please contact pete@seowizardry.ca for an html version. All I request is you provide Pete Hollier and Seo Wizardry with a reference to this article and provide a link back to www.seowizardry.ca