Several years back if you asked an guru to distinguish between “optimized text” and ordinary text (for ordinary human readers) the guru would normally have told you about something known as “keyword density”.

The general assumption only several years back was that the keyword phrase you were trying to target should show up quite often in the body of the copy. Some optimization guides from back then advised that your main search term should be as much as 4, 5 or 6% of the total words in a specific section of wording.

Going by to the prevailing theory, when the SEs scanned your wording they would have no confusion on the topic of the content. The result was frequently what is known as “keyword stuffing”, and eventually this was seen by the search engines as a negative thing.

>>> Concentrate on search terms but don’t “stuff” them

Today not many SEO experts focus on keyword density. Instead they emphasize that your first objective ought to be to produce useful content that is helpful to your actual readers. They almost advise you forget about the SEs altogether.

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But it’s not quite that simple. Unfortunately there remains the major issue of the inability of search engines to comprehend rhetorical devices, get sarcasm or irony, comprehend jokes, or pick up on implications.

At the end of the day search engines are just machines, and not particularly intelligent ones at that. They can only read words and in contrast to humans they can only draw conclusions about context or subtle meaning based on the presence of other words.

What this means is that you have to include the words – the search phrases – you want to emphasize in a particular site or article. And since SEs are rather dumb machines it is best to include these focal keyword phrases in particular, strategic ways on your sites to make sure the SEs know precisely what your page is about.

>>> The golden rule of optimization – Come right out and say it

As it happens, optimizing your pages is probably simpler than you might expect. In fact, the golden SEO “rule”, if you will, is all about simplicity and directness in your . The first rule is,

Give the search engines what they want. Make certain to include the precise keyword phrases you are targeting.

This may seem like common sense, but it is surprising how often people who write things do not explicitly state their topic in the body of their content.

>>> Incorporate your emphasized search term

For example, if you are writing a review of a new gadget – say, the 4 – and you want Google to notice, it is important to make it obvious that you are writing about the iPhone 4.

The simplest way to do this is to just include the search term several times. It is even more effective to include the whole phrase “Apple iPhone 4″ in your content a couple of times.

>>> Include related phrases

It is also effective to include other related terms in your copy – terms that emphasize that your topic relates to “smartphones”, from “Apple”, “cellular phones” or “mobile phones” that are in direct competition with “Research In Motion” who make the popular “Blackberry”, and so on.

The more of these relevant terms you include within your copy, the more associations Google will find with other similar content, and the greater relevance your article will have in their eyes to the searchers you are targeting.

Just make sure not to overuse any of these “supporting” terms otherwise it can dilute the focus on your target search term.

>>> The most important spots to include your search terms

The SEs don’t simply look at the frequency or “density” of keywords. They additionally look at the location of particular keyword phrases. By “location” we mean where the keyword phrases show up in the article or site.

Some places are quite reasonably assumed to be more important than others as identifiers of what a page or article is about. Spots such as the title or main headline, as examples, are special spots you want to put your target search terms for that page if you can.

These locations are not set in stone, but there is no question that your article title, headline, and site description are important. These places all help the SEs in determining that the page, or article in question is mainly information relating to the targeted search phrases found in those specific spots.

In other words, SEO is not particularly difficult, but it does require some effort and thought. If you remember these few easy rules and put them to work on a consistent basis your pages should perform surprisingly well for you.

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