'Net Features : 53111

SEO Strategy - Keyword Density Revisited

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 31 May 2011 19:40:00 GMT

There has always been something intriguing about the concept of keyword density. Many years ago, search engine optimization professionals relied on keyword and phrase density (also called keyword prominence) as one of the core strategies behind top rankings. What made keyword density so appealing is that it was straightforward and simple. The downside is that it was misused if not outright abused. While keyword density remains a bit dated as an SEO tactic in general, there is still plenty of value in revisiting the practice as a means to improve rankings -- if you know how to use it.

There are far more accurate (better) ways for search engines to determine true relevance than keyword density, and each search engine has its own means and methods to rank sites for a particular keyword or phrase. Search engines consider usage data, anchor text of inbound links, site/domain age, and general authority (all of which have been discussed here at WM), but each one of these criteria also has its own way of relating/associating keywords and key phrases. This is called natural language processing and is something you, as someone responsible for high site rankings, have an immense amount of control over and should spend time on improving.

The issue is not that keyword density is a bad means to determine relevance; it’s just that search engine algorithms have evolved while many SEOs and the search engine optimization software tools they use, have not. Where keyword density tools fall short is their ability to provide meaningful assessment and objective insights into ranking improvements. But keyword density tools are meaningful when used in conjunction with the right tactic. The “right” tactic in this case is to reduce on-page irrelevance and to boost relevance.

The semantic algorithms of popular search engines typically look at supporting vocabulary when determining the relevancy of a page. The question to ask yourself is simple: If you removed the keyword phrase being targeted from your page, would it be very easy to rank for that term? If search engines can still determine what your page is about with the remaining/supporting text, then the answer is a definitive Yes. Let’s look at a few popular keyword density analyzer tools to see this in action.

Dave Naylor’s Keyword Density Tool provides metrics about the content and even some technical information about a website. The tool provides several data points which are useful when trying to get a big-picture view of why competitors are outranking your site. For example, you might notice that a website with which you are competing has a higher keyword density in its title or page headings than you do. Naylor’s tool provides a quick overview of this very important information.

Should you want to dig deeper into the relevancy of keywords and pages on your own site (or that of your competitors), then check out Ranks.nl’s Keyword Density and Prominence Analyzer. The tool provides a “Ranks Wizard” metric that is helpful in identifying the non-primary keywords on a page to support the search engines in their quest to relate/associate keywords and phrases and as you optimize for the long tail.

These tools and many others are useful in determining how relevant a page is to a specific keyword and in gaining the perspective of a search engine crawler, but they are also useful in finding and minimizing irrelevance. As search engines continue to evolve their algorithms, rest assured that keyword density remains a good initial measure of future performance (but only if you know how to use it). Does keyword density carry as much “weight” as it did before? Not by a long shot, but when you know how to use it correctly and to your advantage, your site’s ranking will be that much better. Instead of chasing some specific keyword density percentage, use density as a measuring stick to reassuring yourself that you are doing all you can to convey to search engines that the page you are optimizing is indeed relevant.

Google Charging for Location Extension Direction Clicks

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 31 May 2011 19:28:00 GMT

Google announced last week that advertisers using location extensions will see performance metrics for directions alongside those for clicks and phone calls. Sounds pretty good, right? Well, Google will also begin to charge for clicks on those directions in the same way as clicks on an ad headline or phone number.

Location extensions provide advertisers the ability to show their business address and other information in Adwords advertisements. Google released a report in January 2011 to help advertisers keep tabs on the “interactions” that occurred as a result of location extensions and enabled location extension ads on maps back in February, 2011. Google is moving in a very clear direction and is looking to further monetize the interaction taken by their users.

So how will the directions appear? According to Google:

“For AdWords campaigns with location extensions enabled, a “Directions” link will be eligible to appear in your ads and sponsored Google Maps info windows on desktops. On mobile search ads, a “Get directions using Google Maps?” pop-up will appear when the user clicks on the expandable map. Clicking on “OK” in the pop-up allows users to get directions to your business.”

If you’re not interested in paying for clicks on directions, you will need to remove the location extension associated with the campaign.

Information Efficiency Survey from Iron Mountain

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:54:00 GMT

According to a recent survey of 5,500 company records managers conducted by Iron Mountain, it sees that while improving core business processes make more successful organization, few understand how to improve them.

Iron Mountain's survey on business efficiency asked respondedents to weight the importance of improving processes through better information management against the current state of those processes within their organization. As you might imagine, few are happy with how their core processes run. Key findings include:

- 90 percent of respondents rank process efficiency as imperative to their business goals and to the overall success of their organization

- 93 percent of respondents are dissatisfied with their revenue-generating and business-support processes and/or are actively trying to improve them;

- More than half of respondents (58 percent) have not yet experienced a “trigger” event like an audit or lawsuit that would spur improvement of records and information management processes

- Three-quarters of respondents are managing their records and information themselves, but only 35 percent of the respondents believe their program is being used by everyone in the organization.

“Information drives businesses today and can be a real competitive advantage if managed properly and efficiently,” said Sue Trombley, director of consulting for Iron Mountain. “It plays a vital role in the revenue-generating and core operational processes that keep organizations running. And it can provide valuable insight into not just your own organization but your customers, your industry, your partners and your competitors. The right policies and procedures, implemented across the entire organization, efficiently executed and regularly enforced, can give you a tremendous opportunity to unlock this advantage.”

DaCast Video on Demand (VOD) Rolls Out

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:39:00 GMT

Self-service live streaming platform DaCast rolled out Video on Demand functionality today. Using the platform, broadcasters can create premium content from their existing media libraries or develop archives of previous live shows. This “premium content” can be streamed from anywhere – from Facebook to websites in HD.

By supporting previously created content for streaming, DaCast has also helped to position itself and its users to monetize. Through DaCast, ads can be attached to the video content stream, or broadcasters can utilize a pay-per-view subscription model. Through DaCast’s Pay-in-Play payment system, VOD content can be purchased from within the media player.

“After honing our skills in live streaming, DaCast is now aiming to offer a true all-in-one platform for streaming,” said Stephane Roulland, CEO of DaCast. “By adding support for previously created content, users can now stream any type of video and audio they want from a single account. They can leverage the easy set up to quickly start streaming and monetizing their existing media content.”

DaCast has been moving towards VOD the past few months. DaCast released its Pay-in-Play system back in March and EdgeCast Networks and Dacast expanded their partnership in early May, 2011 to enable broadcasters to deliver content through the Edgecast CDN. Is it ready for primetime?