How do you use keywords? Do you use as many as you can and repeat them over and over in every single piece of content? If you do these things then it could be why your site and your business are not doing as well as they could be.All too often on the freelancing boards you see requests for ‘keyword rich’ content. Keywords are a critical aspect of any website.

If you want to get found by the search engines and start ranking with Google, then you need the right keywords. It is unfortunate that so many people think that the more keywords they have in a document the better it is for the search engines, never mind the quality! Using keywords properly is a skill that takes time and effort to learn. You need the right
keywords, which are not necessarily the most obvious ones. If you want your business to do well, and you want to find the right keywords, then you need some understanding of the people that you are selling to.

Using too many keywords in your site metadata is not a good idea and using keywords and keyword phrases so many times in a document that it is virtually unreadable, is worse than a bad idea, you could upset Google. Then where would your rankings be?

In a recent edition of Vanessa Fox’s new webmaster radio show “Office Hours” she remarked on the fact that whenever you see lists of frequently asked questions about search engine optimisation, the answers often start with ‘it depends on’. This can be quite frustrating for anyone who wants a simple and specific answer, and there are simple and specific answers to be had. So below are seven commonly asked questions followed by their simple answers.

1. How long does it take for Google to index pages after they’ve been seo’d?
Answer: 1-6 weeks

2.What do you do if rankings drop 10 pages in the serps?
Answer:Nothing, just give it a few weeks to see if your ranking comes back, because it usually does.

3.To what extent is seo effective?
Answer:Seo can be very effective in getting and increasing traffic to your website if done by a knowledgable person, but not so effective when done by someone who lacks seo skills.

4. Should the title tag exactly match my page’s main headline?
Answer: Generally they should be different because they serve different puposes, however, if they are the same, it’s not a big seo deal.

5.Should urls be changed to contain keywords?
Answer:Doing this is a major structural change to your site, however, if you are redesigning your site or changing your CMS, then keywords in the url look good in the search engine results.

6. How many keyword phrases should I target?
Answer:You can target anywhere from 2-5 keyword phrases on any one page of your website; if you multiply that by the number of optimised pages that gives an estimate of the number of keyword phrases to target.

7.Should I put my blog in a sub-directory, sub-domain or its own domain?
Answer: It doesn’t really matter, but if it’s in a sub-domain there’s more chance it will show up in search results at the same time as your main domain, than if it’s in a sub-directory. More importantly, searchers are more likely to remember something if is mydomain.com/blog than the other way around. It doesn’t really matter in seo terms.