Are your Search Results Accurate?

Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 at 8:12 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

I was surfing the Internet the other night when I ran across one of my affiliate marketing sites in the Google natural results page. To say that I was horrified would be an understatement!

I thought that I had covered all of my bases when putting my sites together, but this one had a title of _HOME. That’s not going to help my search results much. I’m most likely losing out on a lot of affiliate sales.

Fortunately, I did have the description area filled in, so I felt like I had done one thing right at least.

I use Xsite Pro to build my sites. There is a little box on the Website Information tab where you are supposed to enter your Title information.

That’s good to know!

If you have not searched for your web site(s) by doing a Google or MSN search to see how your tags are being displayed, you might want to do so. You could be missing out on a lot of natural search results if your tags are not displaying correctly.

Here are a few general guidelines to make sure your site’s search results show what you intend:

Each page should target only three keywords.
Your Title Tag should include a combination of those keywords.
Use Header 1 and 2 tags (H1 should consist of only one keyword, H2 should be a combination of your three chosen keywords).
Make sure to add your keywords to the Alt Image Tags.
Make sure your content includes your keywords (I find 10-20% keyword density to be the best, but there is a lot of difference of opinion among SEO experts). Just don’t put them in so often that it’s obvious or unreadable).

These things may sound simple, but a change in just one of them could mean more traffic for your site. And that means more sales!

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4 Comments

Puuuh, 10 - 20 % keyword density? 20 % would mean every fifth word would be the keyword. Sounds like spam in my opinion.

Comment by Karsten | November 9th, 2006 8:08 am | Permalink

Interesting…I’ve heard that 3-5% is the best to stick around….

Anik

Comment by Anik SIngal | November 9th, 2006 11:44 pm | Permalink

Evelyn… I have also been working with XSite-Pro for more than 15 months now and I think you have made an unintentional error in your Keyword Density suggestion.

I know how you came to this incorrect assumption — you simply went to the SEO tab in XSP and looked at the “Keyword” density figure (3rd line from the top of the menu). However, that figure is NOT indicative of the Keyword density for the complete page!

In order to determine the Keyword Density for the entire page (including H1 - H6 headlines and sub-heads as well as all body copy), you need to scroll down to the bottom of the SEO menu. There you will see the true percentages you need to work with.

Personally, I average around 2% - 3% and have at least 500 words per page (which, believe me, ain’t easy sometimes!!!).

Hope that helps:)

Bruce

Comment by Bruce Smeaton | November 10th, 2006 11:30 pm | Permalink

Hi Bruce (and Anik, and all),

Actually, I read the 20% denisty from a report written by a “guru.” However, it seems like every guru has a different rule. I like you and Anik’s suggestion of 2-3% better, and since Google is always rearranging things, I think that might just be a safer bet.

Thank you for the XSite Pro hint. I did not notice that extra percentage area at the bottom before.

Evelyn

Comment by evelyn | November 11th, 2006 3:23 am | Permalink