by B.J. Tolentino

Created on: August 10, 2010

One of the major functions of search engines is to sort websites in their databases by the keywords they contain. It is for this very reason that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to a considerably extent, a predetermined play of relevant keywords and phrases. While the algorithms of search engines are differently, most of them evaluate the placement of keywords according to these key factors:

Keyword Density

Keyword Density (also called keyword weight) is basically the ratio between the number of keywords appearing on a web page in relation to the total number of words on it. In other words, if a web page contains 1000 total words and 10 of them are keywords, then the keyword density is 1%.   

Search engines crawlers and spiders measure keyword density throughout the whole web page and not just on the body itself. One of the most important portions of the web page where search engines look for is in the title tag. There was a time when the major part of creating SEO friendly web content was all about positioning relevant keywords in the metatags. Search engines have since then ignored these metatags and any savvy webmaster right now, sees keyword density as just a limiting factor.

There is no magic formula as to the number of keywords relative to total number words on a web page. An old black hat SEO tactic called keyword stuffing simply wouldn’t work in this day and age when search engine algorithms have incorporated human behavioural reaction parameters to gauge the importance of web pages in their search queries.

Keyword Prominence

Keyword prominence answers the question on how early on a web page (or the website itself) relevant keywords appear. You don’t have to understand HTML to know that keyword placement should start as early as the title tag (which you can view at the top of your browser). As mentioned earlier, almost all search engines ignore metatags right now. These days, title tags are the new metatags!

But keyword prominence is not just about placement of keywords and phrases on the title tag. It is also not just placing them near the top of the web page (such as the headline <H1> to <H6> HTML tags). It is about placing them evenly across the whole web page. Some search engines specifically value the placement of relevant keywords near the end of the web page (with the assumption that the last section is summary portion).

Keyword Frequency

Search engines are not smart enough to discern like human beings. How they determine what a particular web page is all about is by evaluating all relevant and related keywords and phrases in it. How often these keywords and phrases are used is called keyword frequency. Just like keyword density and prominence, keyword frequency is also just a limiting factor.

SEO is not an arm’s race on the number of keywords on a web page and the website itself. However, it is a race against competing industry players and their keywords of choice. The real value of keyword density, prominence, and frequency is in the way it is use to analyze web pages above and below your web page ranking - your competitors. All of these factors concerning keyword placement are very useful to be in the thick of the fight in the continuing race to get to the top of web page ranking.

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