Keyword optimization is the process of matching website content to what people are searching for by including appropriate keywords. This helps sites rank higher in search engine results and gain more traffic. Keyword databases can assist in identifying popular and valuable keywords, and measures such as keyword density and proximity can be used to optimize content. Different search engines define keywords differently, making optimization more complex.
Keyword is a term used to refer to different types of online content. First, it’s a short word or phrase that people search to find content. Second, it is a short word or phrase that is repeated in the content – either naturally as you write, or deliberately with the intent to salt the content with the keyword – that is taken as an indication of the focus of the content. Keyword optimization is the aspect of search engine optimization which aims to match the material on websites to the material people are searching for by including content with appropriate keywords and spreading the keywords across the content appropriately.
The reason keyword optimization is important is that it is one of the elements search engines use to rank sites and present them to users in search results. The better you rank in search engines, the more traffic you will get to your site. But to do keyword optimization, you need to know what keywords people are searching for.
A keyword database helps site owners and webmasters gain insight into the popularity and value of each keyword. Some keyword databases are free, and some must be purchased or registered. Based on the information in the keyword database and the focus of the website they are working on, site owners or webmasters may decide to include content using certain keywords. In this case, they may write or specify an article that by its nature incorporates the keyword prominently. They may also follow or promulgate writing guidelines that aim to ensure sufficient use of the keyword.
To make sure that the number of times a keyword appears is sufficient, a measure called keyword density can be applied. Some experts believe that keyword density is a crucial element in search engine optimization. Keyword density is determined by dividing the number of keywords in your content by the total number of words in your content. Other measures that can be used in keyword optimization are keyword prominence, or how obvious they are, and keyword proximity, or how close the keywords are to each other.
Keyword optimization is made more complicated, however, because different search engines define keywords in different ways. The way Google defines a keyword is different from the way Yahoo!® does it, making it a little more difficult to optimize for both search engines. Google treats the word or phrase itself and nothing else as a keyword. Yahoo!® counts both inflections of the word or phrase, such as plurals, and synonyms.
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