Synonyms Related Words

synonyms related words imageWhen you are working on your key pages you should be looking to create good variations and synonyms around your main search keywords for each page.

We are doing a fair bit of this later today and we can also look at SEO keyword density at the same time. You see, when you put your main product pages together they should be great for visitors first. They should include text which describes the product and grabs the viewer with short and sharp call to action examples. This will get some people to act and take the next step very quickly; this could mean that they fill out a form, pick up the phone or download something from the page. However, for those that want to read on, you should also engage them with more ‘application driven’ keywords and think of variations to also match their original query. This is also where you can reinforce quality and any messages of credibility.

If your page was about the rich and famous, you would add synonyms like ‘wealth’ and ‘affluence’. However, as our organisation works with companies in a more industrial capacity, how about the word ‘industry.’ Here you could also use ‘industrious’ or ‘industrialist’. Another more specific example using variations of the main keyword would be on a page about flowmeters used in the processing industries. This could include words like ‘metering devices’ ‘flow meters’ ‘measuring flow’ ‘flow measurement’ ‘flowing speed’ – you get the idea. When you mix synonyms with other variations of the main keyword this produces a page that is rich in relevant content.

We could go a little bit deeper here, but to be honest, I don’t think it is worth it. I am now of the opinion that you should write web pages that are or will:

  1. Suited to your audience
  2. Written in your own unique way
  3. Include a mixture of light-hearted and serious content
  4. In some way reflect your own personality
  5. Written to give the best possible user experience!

The basic thing to also bear in mind here is If you write well structured and informative content then variations of your main keywords will probably occur naturally. This is why I would recommend that your first draft of the web page should be free flowing information – just type away! This will almost certainly be full of typos and bad grammar, but just go with it. Then, go over it again and clean up the mistakes. You can then go over it a final time and add any variations and synonyms you think will not take away from the value of the page for the visitor.

The fact is that search engines use certain parts of your web page to give them an idea of what it is about. If you have the key word in the title tag and header tag then you have made a good start. You can then include that keyword in the main body of your text but don’t add it too often. The variations of this keyword along with synonyms will also give the search engines a good idea of the subject, especially if they are well matched to the overall content of the page.

There is also a general feeling in the industry that search engines will base their indexing activities on a certain amount of historical data they have collected from other sources to confirm how good your page is as a match for the particular key word or phrase. So this explains why the use of synonyms and variations of your primary keywords would give them a helping hand here.

You will then need to add anchor text links from your other internal pages to point back into this page and get loads of good links on external sites linking to you. Piece of cake!

SEO Keyword Density

seo keyword density imageGone are the days when you could add the same keywords to your pages over and over again and get the search engines to notice you. Well actually they probably do, but just for the wrong reasons these days! Do this now and it might just be a red flag to google and other search engines.

Although the search engines don’t put a huge amount of weight on the correct density of a specific keyword in your text, it is still a decent indicator of content on the page. Of course, you should also look at it from a users perspective; find a good balance and the page will be set up nicely to please both!

You see, we are working on keyword density today and this includes a number of important product pages for a processing industry client.

They have a very important product key phrase and this is not covered that well in the text at all. So, we are adding it to the title tag, a variation of it in the description tag (with some nice call to action examples) and then a few similar keywords thrown in. We then look at how the key phrase is mentioned in terms of SEO keyword density. More importantly, it should sound great and read well.

The thing here is not to add your key phrase too many times on the page, this is called keyword stuffing and is not recommended. What you need to do is write it with the reader in mind and with the keyword or phrase in the background of your thinking. You should also open your eyes and mind to other variations and synonyms around this key phrase and mention these as a nice flowing part of text. This will add to the user experience as well as giving the search engines a selection of keyword and phrase variations so they can work out what the page is about. The title and H1 tag will also do this to a greater degree so make sure you mix it up and it looks good for your potential customers.

A lot of people (so called SEO experts) say that you should always add the keyword or phrase so it makes up around 4-6% of your text. I would not necessarily agree with this. If you are worrying about how many times you should add a keyword then your text will not flow and will probably not sound natural – and natural is good! I would write it to please the visitor first and then go over it again with the keywords in mind. If you can add it every now and again without taking away the enjoyment for the reader then go ahead – if not, leave it alone.

A lot has been said about keyword density, but there are certainly more important ranking factors to look at as far as ‘on the page’ SEO is concerned. However, it is good for the reader if you can remind them of the page topic without going over the top. This may produce a nice natural piece of text that your visitors and search engines will like.