The answer to this question is simple: one. A single web page should not be optimized for more than one keyword. Of course, that keyword can consist of several words, for example “buy inexpensive golf shoes”.

If you have optimized one of your web pages for that keyword (it’s actually a key phrase) then you should not optimize the same page for other keywords.

It’s much better if a web page is highly relevant to one keyword than somewhat relevant to many search terms. If you concentrate on one keyword per page then it is much more likely that your web page will get a top listing on Google and SEO friendly for that keyword.

If you also want to get high rankings for your other keywords such as “brown golf shoes”, “golf shop” or “golf equipment” then you should optimize other pages of your website for these keywords.

You will get the best possible results if you optimize different pages of your website for different but related keywords.

Read the rest of this entry »

Many people who start a website think that it is possible to get high rankings on Google within a few days. Unfortunately, this is not possible. Competition on the Internet is fierce and there are several factors that influence how long it takes until Google lists your website.

1. How old is your website?

If you have a brand new website then you have to wait. You can submit your website to Google but Google will only index your website if other websites link to your site.

In addition, you have to prove that your website is not spammy. Google has several filters for new websites and you have to earn Google’s trust before your website can get lasting high rankings. A new website can get good rankings for less competitive keywords but it usually takes about 6 months to gain the minimum level of trust that is necessary to get high rankings.

2. How optimized was your website before?

If you have an old and established website that was blocking search engine robots due to a broken robots.txt file or a bad website navigation then it can be relatively easy to show up in search engines.

If you remove the factors that keep search engine robots from your web pages then search engines will list your website relatively quickly. Of course, this doesn’t work if you have a new site.

Read the rest of this entry »

Targeting several keywords on your website is crucial if you want to get high rankings on Google. The more keywords that are related to a special topic can be found on your website, the more likely it is that Google will find your website relevant to that topic.

There are good ways and bad ways to target multiple keywords. If you choose the wrong way, search engines will think that you are a spammer. If you choose the right way, your website will get higher rankings. The following three steps will help you to get high rankings for as many keywords as possible.

Step 1: Remove stuffed keywords from your web pages

Some webmasters think that the best way to optimize a website for multiple keywords is to add them on every web page and separate them with a comma.

These websites usually have extremely long meta tags with dozens if not hundreds of keywords. You won’t get high rankings on Google with that method. Add dozens of keywords on a web page is called keyword stuffing and all search engines consider this spam. You actually risk your search engine rankings if you use this method on your web pages.

Read the rest of this entry »

Should you use your keywords in the URLs of your web pages? Do search engines look at the keywords that are included in the addresses of your web pages and do these keywords have an effect on the rankings of your website?

Google’s statement about keywords in URLs

Google’s Matt Cutts recently posted a video about the position of keywords in the URL of a web page. He said that keywords in the URL do help a little bit.

He also said that one should not obsess with the order of the words and that you should not use too many keywords in the same URL.

Yahoo’s statement about keywords in URLs

Yahoo filed a patent application with the name “Techniques for Tokenizing URLs” that has been published on March 26th. The patent application contains information on how search engines might extract keywords from the URLs of pages.

Read the rest of this entry »