Getting a top rank in Google may be your dream but you need to understand the keyword density for each of your article. The calculation for keyword density is critical. As a rule of thumb the keywords used should not be more than 5 % of your article. This to me makes perfect sense. Imagine reading an article with so many of the same words being repeated. It turns the readers off and is not good for your marketing. A naturally written article attracts more readers who would likely read to the end of the article before they decide to buy whatever it is that you are selling.

There are many tools that you can use to assist you in getting a top Google rank. Without a doubt, the most essential of all is Google Keyword Tool, a free web-based tool to help you find the right keywords and the number of searches made for that keyword in a 12 month period so that you can use the information to optimize your articles for a top rank in Google. There are also several paid keyword software tools that you can purchase but I find the free Google Keyword Tool is a great tool to start with before you progress to other multiple use software tools.

Original and informative content is what Google and the other search engines value highly. Why would they want to publish something that has already been written by someone before. The search engines are providing a service to the mass public on finding information and the more original and informative your information is with the right amount of targeted keywords, the higher is your chances of getting a top rank in Google.

Besides articles and information, your website has got to look like a normal website and not a sales page with just good copywriting. A normal website has the “about me” page, your contact details, privacy statement, categories, and pages. The more pages you have with the right keyword density, the more the search engines will love your website because they love content. The search spiders eat your content and will push you up the Google ranking if they love eating what you have to offer.

Once the spiders have crawled and you are listed by the search engines, you will need to optimize your site even further. Usually, you won’t rank on Google’s first page on the first crawl. Fine tune your articles with keyword density and build backlinks to your website. Backlinks that point back to your website are extremely valuable because it shows that your website is popular. You can build backlinks by marketing articles with your hyperlink in the resource box, joining forum sites and doing some social bookmarking on popular platforms such as Facebook, Digg and Twitter.

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How To Get A Top Google Ranking

You may have started out simply writing articles on the topic of your website–that is a great start, and you can see excellent results by consistently writing and submitting on-topic articles.

But after you get used to the basics of submitting articles, you may want to challenge yourself and see if you can improve your results. One of the ways you can advance to the next level is to integrate keywords into your article submission campaign.

Google and other search engines look for words of special importance on a web page to help them determine what a website is about.

These words are called “keywords” or “keyword phrases”, and if a website owner knows the types of words/phrases that their target customers are typing into search boxes, then he can be sure to use those keywords in his articles to capitalize on the demand for those search terms in Google.

How do you use keywords in your article submissions?

Great question–it’s actually not that complicated.

1) First, figure out the keywords for your website.

Use a keyword suggestion tool such as WordTracker to create a detailed list of keywords and long-tailed keyword phrases.

A long-tailed keyword phrase is a phrase that is anywhere from 3-5 words long that a search engine customer would use to reach a site such as yours. Usually a basic keyword term for your website is more general and is 2 words long, but there is also merit to targeting longer phrases that potential customers do searches for.

For example, your main keyword phrase may be “chocolate recipe”.

Your long tail phrase may be “chocolate birthday cake recipe”.

When you’re doing your keyword research you’ll make a list of the general 2 word phrases as well as several of the more specific 3-5 word phrases.

2) Write an article around each keyword term.

Now, each keyword term has many possibilities for articles–there isn’t just one article that could be generated off of your keyword term. Try taking each keyword term and writing several articles addressing different aspects of that keyword.

If you have a long list of keyword and long-tailed keywords, that list could keep you busy for a while!

Just go through the list, writing a different article around the keyword phrase. Pretty soon you will have a library of articles that are covering virtually every topic related to your niche all pointing readers back to your website.

All of this instruction about keywords comes with a word of caution–there is a good way and a bad way to use keywords in article marketing.

The good way would be to use the keyword phrase to guide your article topic, and use the phrase or variations of the phrase naturally in your article so that the article makes sense to your readers.

The bad way would be to haphazardly spray your article with your keyword term without thinking about how the article will sound to readers or if the article makes sense.

You may have seen articles that were obviously written with the intention of using a particular keyword where you felt like the author was writing for search engines rather than for human readers–that is not way things should be!

You can write articles that please human readers and search engines–what these two groups are looking for is not at odds with each other.

Google wants to provide the search customers with an accurate list of results that is ranked in order with the results most likely to answer the searchers question at the top. Google cares about whether an article is reader friendly–it is not just looking for random words on a page.

When you write your articles, you can use your keywords to determine your specific topic and also use the keywords themselves where they sound natural. For best results keep your keyword density to around 2%.

Staying within these guidelines will give your article submissions the best chance of being recognized for that keyword term by search engines, and it will also produce an article that brings value to your reader.

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How To Use Keywords In Your Article Submissions

While there are numerous platforms to choose from for managing a blog, few can compare with the immense flexibility offered with WordPress, and at a cost of free, the price can’t be beat either.

Google likes fresh new content, and setting up a blog on your site, assuming it is updated often with interesting and relevant material, can be one of the best things you can do to help out your search rankings. The beauty behind WordPress is that there is a wide array of totally free plug-ins you can easily install that will make your blog totally search engine friendly.

The following are some basic guidelines and essential plug-ins you should consider when you install your WordPress blog.

Template Design
The first configuration you need to do is work on customizing the design template to match your existing site. I suggest finding a template that matches as closely as possible to the look you are going for then work on tweaking its graphics, colors, and other particulars till you achieve the desired appearance.

Most of your changes will occur in the header.php, footer.php, index.php, and page.php files in the theme editor, however, the theme you install will dictate which files actually need to be updated. You will also need to make some adjustments to your CSS file. These changes all involve working with code and graphics, and are most likely left to a professional.

Once you have your design set up, the rest of the customization is considerably less technical. The following are suggestions that most people can do themselves and you probably will not need an expert to help you here.

Settings

Permalinks
The next thing you need to do is customize your URL’s. You do not want the default post URLs (”pageid=#”) as they are simply not search friendly and you want your default names to have some meaning to them. While you can customize your URL’s with various plug-ins, you may not always think to do this, so be sure to have a default you can live with.

Under the settings tab in your dashboard, click on permalinks. Here I suggest choosing one of the settings that includes the post name. Including the month and year is totally optional as it will have little to no impact on your search rankings, but you definitely do want to include the post name.

WWW or no WWW
With WordPress, there is no need to worry about the www vs no www redirects. It is handled for you, but you do need to select which variation you want, and it’s very simple to do. Under “General Settings” you will see two fields; one for “WordPress address” and the other, “Blog address”. Ensure that both these fields include the “www” (or not), whichever you prefer, and that’s it. (I always recommend using the “www” version of your URL as most people linking into your site will use it, and this will help keep a consistency among your site.

Required Plug-ins
There is an almost endless supply of free plug-ins out there that you can add to your site ranging from photo galleries and spam protection, to social media integrators for Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and others. While many of these others will benefit your blog and search rankings, the XML Sitemap, and SEO plug-ins are truly essential.

SEO Plug-in
When setting up your new installation, the first plug-in you need to install is one that will allow for totally customized title, meta description tags, and page URL’s. There are a number of tools that do this ranging from the widely popular “All in One SEO Pack” to a relative newcomer “HeadSpace2″.

While I personally have yet to try HeadSpace2, it is high on my list, as it has been recommended by many industry professionals as the best WordPress SEO plug-in. For any new blog installation I highly recommend this plug-in be installed right away.

XML Sitemap Plug-in
To the best of my knowledge, HeadSpace2 does not have an XML sitemap option, and as such I highly recommend “Google XML Sitemaps”. This plug-in will automatically generate XML sitemaps for you on the fly and submit it to Google every time you add, remove, or update a page or post. This helps ensure that Google has the latest information at all times. It’s a very simple plug-in to install and configure and once setup, you can forget about it and it will do the job for you.

A well optimized site loaded with relevant content can do very well in Google if setup correctly. The power of WordPress can make this process incredibly easy so all you have to worry about is writing those great articles and selling your customers. The plug-ins and functionality of WordPress are endless and when installed correctly can make the optimization of your blog considerably easier, increasing your chances for top rankings.

Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Web Marketing Inc.; based in Victoria, BC, Canada and founded in 1997. You can read more of Scott’s articles and those of the veteran StepForth team at http://news.stepforth.com or contact us at http://www.stepforth.com

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Blogs, WordPress and Google

Since then, things have changed markedly. These days, there are still deficiencies in evidence, but for the CMS applications that have survived the intervening 2 years, and those that have evolved since, most have addressed the basic SEO issues.

My personal favourite CMS is WordPress. Especially since version 2.5 there’s been a wealth of feature expansion in the core application, the availability of plugins that expand on the core functionality, and the advent of professionally designed Themes that have taken WordPress to new heights. All of this has allowed WordPress to blossom into a fully-matured CMS with exceptional Search Engine Optimisation features.

Lets take a closer look at the SEO functionality. As Google et al are attempting to analyse and categorise a web site, there are an estimated 200 individual elements that are calculated in the SE relevancy ranking algorithms. Every one of these you can get right improves your chances of attaining your full ranking potential. Individually, each element offers incremental albeit small gains, but collectively, they can add up to the winning difference in the ranking stakes for competitive search terms.  Duplicate content is Google’s pet hate, and its vital to every  site’s standing that every single page be accurately described and categorised. Here are 10 of the most prominent among the many opportunities to achieve this individualisation of pages are;

SEF URLS:

Search engine friendly URL’s are important, because inclusion of keywords in page URL’s are taken into account, and have a bearing on rankings – particularly on Yahoo. Being able to exercise total control over page URL’s is important, and WordPress allows this with Permalink mod_rewrite functionality, coupled with manual URL control on every page or post!

Meta-Tags:

There are several WordPress plugin tools to provide total control of title, descriptions and keywords, and these are easily installed and configured.

Titles:

Being able to control the off-page Title separately from the on-page heading is very important. The title’s 70 character limitation needs to be exploited to maximum effect, its the single most important on-site page SEO element! Page Headings are usually space-constrained, and in systems where the Heading automatically become the Title, you are deprived of a significant advantage.

Description:

The off-page Description (meta-tag) is a vital element in accurately describing the page contents. If each page has accurate, custom-written Description content, its used verbatim in the search engine results pages (SERP’s). In contrast, if you are forced to use a generic Description, then Google will helpfully do its level best to generate an ‘ad lib’ Description of the page based on content. The result of that ca neither be not so bad, or truly awful. Regardless, its essential that YOU have control of the Description, and that you use it to maximum effect!

Keywords:

Erroneously dismissed by some people as of no account these days, the Keyword (meta-tag) still has a part to play. Stuff it full of vaguely relevant garbage unrelated to page content and it will be ignored. Use it wisely, with specific / relevant long-tailed keyword search phrases and it can give you a little bit of SE traction – even on Google!

Image File Names:

Accurately name your image files, and include keywords relevant to the page. WordPress allows you to upload media and retain the original files names even when auto-generating thumbnail images etc.

Image ALT Tags:

Accurately describe your images using the Image ALT tag, and include keywords/phrases relevant to the page. WordPress Add Media tools allow you to add ALT text and captions, enabling inclusion of additional relevant text content. Used wisely, without spamming, its another useful element.

Anchor Text:

The words you use to link to other pages / sections of the site. WordPress Link Editor allows full control of anchor Text links, including the ability to specify “Hyperlink Title” which essentially work like Image ALT text – the title of the link pops up when the mouse pointer hovers over the link… Again, used wisely, its another useful SEO element.

CSS Dropdown Menus:

Many of the new, highly professional WordPress CMS Themes utilise CSS dropdown menus, which is extremely important in aiding search engines to locate and index internal pages. This also facilitates Google’s ability to pass Page Rank throughout the internal page structure!

Google SiteMaps:

Another delightful WordPress plugin is the automatic Google Sitemap Generator! Once installed and configured, every new page, post or edit of a page or post automatically updates the sitemap.xml page!

RSS Feeds: WordPress RSS feeds are easily extended by installation of an onsite Feedburner email subscription service, where your posts and pages are automatically distributed to subscribers by email. Moreover, your Feedburner account and site feed gives your site a pipeline directly into the Google index! I regularly see WordPress posts that make it into Google Alerts distribution in less than 4 hours!

So, on that basis I’m happy to accord WordPress 10 out of 10 for SEO functionality. Couple that with more than 3000 available plugins to extend the core functionality, the thousands of available design templates or themes, the ease-of-use factor, robust software, ease of installation etc, and I think we’ve got a winning CMS formula.

About The Author: Ben Kemp has more than 20 years of experience in the IT industry, including 15 years as a free-lance IT consultant. He is one of Australasia’s longest serving website seo practitioners, with clients throughout NZ, Australia, Thailand, UK & USA. He specialises in implementing CMS websites

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Content Management Systems & SEO Revisited

If you want a more technical definition, Alexa explains it like this:

“The traffic rank is based on three months of aggregated historical traffic data from millions of Alexa Toolbar users and data obtained from other, diverse traffic data sources, and is a combined measure of page views and users (reach). As a first step, Alexa computes the reach and number of page views for all sites on the Web on a daily basis. The main Alexa traffic rank is based on a value derived from these two quantities averaged over time (so that the rank of a site reflects both the number of users who visit that site as well as the number of pages on the site viewed by those users).”

(http://www.alexa.com/site/help/traffic_learn_more)

In April 2008 Alexa revised its methodology so as to “aggregate data from multiple sources to give you a better indication of website popularity among the entire population of Internet users”. (http://awis.blogspot.com/2008_04_01_archive.html)

How accurately this method reflects the actual surfing patterns of all Internet users is open to question. However, if you bear in mind that by the end of 2005 the toolbar has been downloaded well over 10 million times you will realize why many people still think that Alexa offers one of the best approximations that we have of website ranking, especially for the top 100,000 or so websites.

That is why Alexa remains an important measure of a website’s status and is used as a quick way to assess the popularity of a website by advertisers looking for the maximum exposure for the their money. Websites with a higher Alexa ranking also tend to be trusted more than those with a low ranking, so it is in the interest of website owners to get their sites ranked as highly as possible with Alexa.

Here are some quick and easy tips to help you do that without spending a single dollar!

1. Install the Alexa toolbar and set your website as your homepage.

2. Copy and paste an Alexa rank widget onto your website. You can get the widget code at http://www.alexa.com/site/site_stats/signup. As well as informing your visitors about your Alexa rank, it will also keep Alexa updated about the number of unique visitors surfing your site.

3. Create a customized version of the Alexa tool bar, Then place a link on your site to the download page and invite your visitors to download it. You will also earn Amazon commissions every time a user shops on Amazon via the toolbar link.

4. If you have a WordPress blog there is a plug-in for Alexa Ranking (wp-Alexa-redirect-0.3plug-in) that you can use.

5. Submit your site to web directories. Although a lot of directories charge a registration fee, you can still find many that are willing to list your site free of charge or in exchange for a reciprocal link. A lot of the webmasters who browse web directories have the Alexa bar installed, so if they click your link it will help your Alexa traffic rank.

6. Become an active participant on Internet marketing and SEO forums. Again, a lot of those forum participants are already webmasters and a high percentage will use the Alexa toolbar when they surf. Place a link to your site in your signature and your rank will improve when any of those people click through.

7. A lot of Asian and Australian websites feature in the Alexa top 100,000 and you can bet that a lot of website owners will have the Alexa toolbar installed, so it makes sense to join social networking sites that are popular in those regions, such as:

* http://www.orkut.com – Orkut is owned by Google and is the second most visited site in India.

* http://hi5.com – Hi5 has an Alexa ranking of 17 at the time of writing this article.

8. Become an Alexa expert and post articles that discuss Alexa ranking and SEO tips. This will attract people to your site who may be interested in downloading your toolbar, or people who have already done so. Either way, it will be good for your Alexa ranking. You could even build a whole category of articles on your website devoted to this theme.

9. Set up a freebie page on your website and post a list of useful tools to attract other website owners to your site. Include another link to your Alexa toolbar download page.

10. Get into the habit of using Stumbleupon and other bookmarking sites to spread the word whenever you post a new article on your website or blog. Set up a group of fellow website owners so that you can have run reciprocal stumbling campaigns for better results.

If you apply these ten quick and easy methods you will definitely see an improvement in your Alexa rank and you should also start to attract more traffic to your site!

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10 Free and Easy Ways to Improve Your Alexa Ranking