Do you lack keyword discipline? Do you lack focus? Do you think I’m taking this very loose Karate Kid reference too far already?
Though keyword density seems to be losing more and more strength in the SEO game, maintaining a solid focus with a specific, core keyword on a page still carries weight, can streamline your keyword hunt, and can make the puzzle-solving process of fitting multiple keywords into copy that much simpler. Since I’m still relatively unable to hit the bike trails here in Kansas City, thanks to our nasty weather, allow me to entertain myself by pretending we’re a bike seller pushing the very winter-friendly Surly Pugsley… a bike I wish I had in the garage at the moment.
As usual, I recommend hitting our free friend: Google’s Keyword Tool. We’ll toss in “surly pugsley” and see what we’re workin’ with.
No big surprise, “surly pugsley” is the winner… well, along with “pugsley surly”. Crap!
What do we do in case of a tie then? How about breaking this stalemate with the help of another free friend: the Wordstream Keyword Tool.
I'm having difficulty believing Kansas City is drawing more searches than the rest of the globe. Ah well...
Wordstream seems to have given us a pretty clear cut answer, so we’ll stick with our Surly Pugsley keyword and go from there.
Well, that solves that.
Now, here’s where we need to pay close attention, you don’t want to begin and end every sentence with your keyword. Your copy needs to read fluidly; if the keyword sticks out to the reader as though an excited child wrote the product summary for his or her favorite toy, then you’ve gone too far. Also, back to the original point of this article: you don’t want to have keywords spread all over the place, and by that I mean do not sacrifice a focus on your main product by watering it down with handlebars, wheelsets, tires, saddles… you get the idea. I’m obviously not advising you to ignore your peripherals, just focus those on their own pages. This focus (if anyone searches the term “focus” I may rank) on your individual product pages will strengthen their punch and make the search engines take notice… like Ali Mills on Daniel LaRusso!
OK, that was the last one, I swear.
