Improving Key Word Density

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Peppergal -> Improving Key Word Density (3/24/2006 12:26:09)
This is the page I'm working on: www.karenricedesigns.com/pikewayne/ The main words I'm trying to emphasize on the site are Lake Wallenpaupack. and of course real estate, but particularly Lake Wallenpaupack. I can not bring any more of the words themselves onto the actual text of the page without it appearing spammy (as it is I am afraid I overdid it). So I was trying to eliminate other unnecessary words to bring up the density. I was wondering - some of the text is repeated over and over on the side bar (depending on the length of the page) and on the top - such as the address on the top and the CONTACT US FOR IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE on the left. I can not take these out; the owners definitely want them there. SHould I just make a graphic of those items? They really aren't search terms and they add to the word count of the page, thus decreasing the density of the keywords that are there.

Mojo -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/25/2006 23:11:02)
Personally I would be careful about having too high density - especially in the real estate market. Currently "Lake Wallenpaupack" is around 14% of all two work phrases on the page. I would Look at the current top 10. #1 - has very few words (and it's in frames), but over 250 decent backlinks. #2 - around 9% density for "Lake Wallenpaupack" - it's not the top 2 word phrase - lots of text - over 3600 backlinks #3 - 5% density - "Lake Wallenpaupack" is the top two word phrase - over 250 backlinks Site #4 has over 11,000 backlinks... What I'm getting at is don't worry about keyword density as much as more content and even more importantly - backlinks. I would also keep the repetitive address. That is actually very good for local search results. That address helps identify the location for search engines (it would be better if the address had the lake name in it... If it were me, I would decrease the occurances of "Lake Wallenpaupack" so the density is in line with the top players. You can always increase it later.

Peppergal -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/27/2006 12:10:18)
Thanks, Mojo: How did you find out the back link info? Site #1 is the chamber of commerce site - aside from the membership directory, the google toolbar "info" icon yielded that there are 13 back links. Site #2 is a huge pocono directory - I could never compete with that. Site #3 is another realtor, and the many of his backlinks appear to be other domains of his own (he has his finger in many different pies...new construction, builders, plus early on he got the jumpstart on everyone and bought up domains based on the names of most of the most popular communities here and they are his websites. But he's cleverly handled it by making them all slightly different. they used to be all pretty much identicle. But I still don't see how you came up with all these huge amounts of links...

Peppergal -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/27/2006 12:22:42)
Also. there is something screwey with the back links - I have a link to www.wallenpaupacklakefronts.com on my website, on my portfolio page. Yet, it does not show up when I search the back links from wallenpaupacklakefronts. why is that? it's been there for YEARS.

Mojo -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/27/2006 12:22:52)
First of all - never trust anything given to you from a toolbar or a search rep (GoogleGuy etc...). The tool bar throws a Red Herrings (as you can see by the 13 results given for the domain mentioned and the actualy count in the hundreds) and the Google link command is broke. Here are a few ways to check backlinks. #1 - use Yahoo. Their linkdomain command is known to return an accurate count from what Yahoo has indexed. It shouldn't be too far off the Google count. #2 - use "::www.hawleywallenpaupackcc.com" on Google. This will give you a count of "www.hawleywallenpaupackcc.com" - it's not an accurate count of actual backlinks, but it's a good indicator. #3 - try www .yoursite -site:www.yoursite - Again, it's not 100% accurate, but it shouldn't be too far off. quote: Site #2 is a huge pocono directory - I could never compete with that. Yes you can - you just need the backlinks. One thing I have noticed is that most webmasters have difficulty with backlinks. I have been working on a program for the last few months and hope to have it done today or tomorrow. It will help you with quality links. :)

Mojo -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/27/2006 12:31:42)
quote: why is that? it's been there for YEARS. It appears that the search engines have never found your portfolio page - most likely due to it being inside a frame.

Peppergal -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/27/2006 12:33:42)
Mojo, the problem around here is a lot of the other lake wallenpaupack businesses don't want to link to real estate sites - because they feel they have to say yes or no to everyone, (and some realtors, as the guy above, have multiple sites.) It's easier for them to say no than to say yes. for the links to be good links, don't they have to have something to do with lake wallenpaupack or the county/region we are in? we are listed in the local association of realtors, and I've advised them to get into the three local chambers. when I get the site redone I will be requesting listing in dmoz. i don't know where else to request links that would be relevant - there are lots of national real estate directories, but aren't they nothing more than link farms? thanks for your help; I really appreciate it!

Peppergal -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/27/2006 12:37:38)
hmm. if my portfolio page is inside a frame, I didn't know it! LOL there are no frames on that site....I'll have to check into that. None of the sites in my porfolio are showing me as a backward link![:o]

Mojo -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/27/2006 13:46:28)
Sorry, my bad about the frames issue. I was multitasking - or attempting to do so and confusted the issue. Try making your link to the portfolio page as an absolute URL. quote: for the links to be good links, don't they have to have something to do with lake wallenpaupack or the county/region we are in? Yes, but that doesn't mean they have to be from sites dedicated to Lake Wallenpaupack.... Try to write either a page or a paragraph about something to do with Wallenpaupack. Work that into your content on a seperate site and link to your target. It's called content hosting (some call it pre-selling). Your content, hosted on another site. If you work it in well the links will be good. You may want to link to another site besides yours that is related to the lake. What you're after is a natural article with links that relate to Lake Wallenpaupack. What you don't want are links to your site from link pages.

dpf -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/27/2006 13:49:52)
quote: confusted is that like being confuzzled?

womble -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/27/2006 14:05:21)
more like confused [:D] Somewhat back on-topic, not with backlinks but with the keyword density thing, is it possible to have a keyword density? The example I'm thinking of is something like an intro page, which while it has some text on it (that includes keywords), doesn't have an awful lot of text on it.

pmagas -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/29/2006 19:21:19)
Peppergal - I do the websites for our company and all of our agents and have done some 'backend' work for some realtors out of state, so I thought I might address the 'backlink' issue. I must preface this by saying that recently I have done a lousy job of keeping up on my links. :( But I get about 20 requests each week from realtors across the nation to exchange links. (And I don't think I'm special - I imagine most realtors get similar numbers of link requests.) There are many ways to go about it. You can search in each state or you can even pick a realtor who has lots of links and follow their links to send out requests. Many realtors will actually include the html within their email to make it easier for the person receiving the request. The best response will come if you put a link to them on your site first, then ask for one from them. It's time consuming, but well worth it. Depending on the relationship you have with the realtor, you might even ask him/her to do some of the 'legwork' in terms of finding and or/requesting the links of other realtors. Alternatively, you might join the realtalk list which has thousands of realtors (and many others in the field) on it. It's a very active list, so be prepared to sift through lots of emails. There are often appeals there for links. Yet another approach would be to link to realtors with similar certifications as your realtor. If s/he is an e-Pro for instance (as is our broker), you can narrow the links by only linking to other e-Pros (and there's a list of those online.) From discussions with other realtors, I find that the most successful are those that 'bite the bullet' and spend some time seeking links to other realtor's sites. And your customer might well have some opinion too. [:)] Good luck!

pageoneresults -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/29/2006 19:43:44)
quote: There are many ways to go about it. You can search in each state or you can even pick a realtor who has lots of links and follow their links to send out requests. Many realtors will actually include the html within their email to make it easier for the person receiving the request. I'd be very careful about participating in the above type link exchange, especially in the real estate industry. Please, think twice about following that advice. Sorry, this can actually cause more harm than good. You'll end up getting involved in link exchanges just for the purpose of trying to influence your search engine postions and it's going to backfire in many instances. quote: The best response will come if you put a link to them on your site first, then ask for one from them. It's time consuming, but well worth it. Depending on the relationship you have with the realtor, you might even ask him/her to do some of the 'legwork' in terms of finding and or/requesting the links of other realtors. Sure, go right ahead and do that. And, make sure you tell them in your email that you will remove the link from your site if they don't provide one back to you in 7 days. More information here at a new area of the SEO Consultants Directory... The Clueless SEO This is in no way an implication that anyone here is Clueless. But, when it comes to this part of search engine marketing, there is much more to it than what is stated above. Actually, you'll want to do the exact opposite of the above and be very, very selective in who you link to. Don't worry about who is linking back to you and don't even bother with soliciting those links. They will come naturally. It sounds like you are in a very regionally specific target market. It should be fairly easy to get your client into the top positions using best practices and not having to get yourself involved in real estate market link networks, most are poisoned anyway and not worth the space they occupy on the Internet. Really.

pageoneresults -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/29/2006 19:50:28)
quote: So I was trying to eliminate other unnecessary words to bring up the density. You'll want to be careful here. Those "unnecessary words" are sometimes necessary to make things "whole". If it reads naturally now, don't try to trim too much because it may begin to read unnaturally and look forced. This will turn off a visitor real quick. Read it out loud to yourself. Does it sound right? Or does it sound a little overkill? Not enough? Etc. Just follow the general guidelines for basic SEO and you'll have a good starting point. Titles, meta descriptions, headings, body, lists, definitions, link text (internal), etc. Balance the words from top to bottom and try to put a little more focus on that first one or two paragraphs of content. That is where the meat and potatoes should be. Also look at how much code the spider needs to traverse before it gets to that meat and potatoes. ;)

pmagas -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/29/2006 20:00:11)
Clearly, I wasn't sufficiently specific. I do not suggest that you randomly link to other realtors just because they request it. And this is not simply a 'link farm.' We realtors often get requests from our customers who are moving from state to state, so we build relationships with other realtors so as to be able to refer our customers to other realtors who can - and will - provide a valuable service to our customers and treat them as we do. We also develop relationships nationally in response to trends in the economy and the field and in order to share ideas and resources - in many ways like the community here at OutFront. When I link to a site - and when I request a link to a site - I first visit that site and spend time there. I have several criteria that I use - and of course, they're my choice. I will only link to other Realtors (that is, members of NAR); I have to feel comfortable with the quality of the site - both in terms of content and layout; I want to be sure that the name of the agent and the broker is apparent and easy for the visitor to see - and the list goes on. While I respect your opinion - quote: I'd be very careful about participating in the above type link exchange, especially in the real estate industry. Please, think twice about following that advice. Sorry, this can actually cause more harm than good. You'll end up getting involved in link exchanges just for the purpose of trying to influence your search engine positions and it's going to backfire in many instances. I don't agree. I believe that if it's done with care and consideration, quality link exchanges can be beneficial for the agents as well as for their customers. But each person has to make his/her own decision.

pageoneresults -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/29/2006 20:05:17)
quote: I don't agree. I believe that if it's done with care and consideration, quality link exchanges can be beneficial for the agents as well as for their customers. Well, I wouldn't have written the above if you stated it that way to begin with. ;) Still, link exchange in the real estate industry is risky. You have to know what you are looking for and you need to make sure that you do it because it is of benefit to your visitor. Not because you think it is going to increase your ranking or whatever. And if your link partners are sitting on a page with a hundred others, there is no value there for the visitor. None whatsoever. <added> Hmmm, after reviewing one of your links pages, I'd have to go with my original advice and say stay away from this type of link exchange. There are some fundamental flaws with one of the links pages I looked at and a sure flag for a devalue filter.

pmagas -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/29/2006 20:40:37)
Thank you for your honest opinion (seriously, not at all sarcastically.) You have certainly given me food for thought. It seems as though it's time for me to re-assess my approach. And I do apologize to you, Peppergal, for my apparently erroneous advice. That's one of the things I love most about this forum - there are a multitude of approaches and opinions, but there's always a sense of helpfulness and kindness mixed in.

tinaalice -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/29/2006 20:50:58)
A couple of things that might help... your homepage does not validate http://1url.org/go/1karenrice Search engines like validated pages ...which needs a doctype. These articles might help. This is for code snippets http://mvp.wiserways.com/tutorials/codesnippets/index.html This is for doctype http://mvp.wiserways.com/tutorials/doctype/index.html You have duplicated content on every page either side of the logo.. the alt attribute is also repeated content and other alt attributes on repeated logos throughout and some other text. http://www.karenricedesigns.com/pikewayne/sitemap.htm Your site map could have explanations about what each link is about, EACH page needs content and it should be at least 1,000 words. You have two H1 tags for the homepage it's rare to use more than one. Search engines don't see underscores and they don't see a scrunched word as a keyword so they see your underscored file names as scrunched words http://www.karenricedesigns.com/pikewayne/wallenpaupack_area_links.htm is really wallenpaupackarealinks.htm no keywords no phrases use dashes .. search engines see them however don't change your file names if your pages are indexed., unless it has a space in it %20 for instance. One thing I see about your site as far as seo is concerned is that you need to think outside the box and provide information to visitors to the search engines that are going to catch their eye. I think this article explains what I mean. http://www.website-development-training.com/viewpoint/ The rest is really a site critique so read no further if you don't want to see:) In testing your form Norton gave me a warning which seemed to do with stat counter of sorts .. it told me c13.statcounter.com (216.127.94.110) attacked port (80) That would be a turn off to potential buyers ... is this a cookie of some type? It also comes up on http://www.karenricedesigns.com/pikewayne/communities.htm Absolutely essential is a privacy policy but I can't find one on your site. http://www.karenricedesigns.com/pikewayne/agents.htm Only one of the women is dressed professionally Karoline Gumble and one of the men isn't Scott Mosher A well dressed TEAM ....with same size pictures all with the same backgrounds would make your set up look a lot more professional and less individual with more emphasis on team. Perhaps it's because I'm in the UK but the bible quotes at the bottom would make me think you guys are a bit over the top and weird ... not something that would done in the UK on a professional Estate Agent's site. (Realtors) That's something I'd expect to see on a mom site or a homepage. Your not maintaining a common size for your fonts throughout ... some pages are too small and I've got to make them larger to read properly won't your home buyers be older with money? Likely to be wearing glasses? something to think about. One thing visually lets it down the bright blue of the hyperlinks which does not fit the rest of the colour scheme. I'd put the code on to stop the image bar coming up it's very annoying. Hope this helps Tina

Peppergal -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/30/2006 21:10:20)
Tina thanks for the critique. the site is still being fine tuned. they were in a hurry to get the new thing up. I have been working on fixing the fonts so that they are all uniform. am I supposed to give the logo a different alt tag on every page? and I have gone back and changed the titles and descriptions on all the pages. I didn't know underscores were not good, I thought hyphens/dashes were not good. sigh. as for the bible verse I addressed that in the web critique forum - it's something they requested, they want, and it works well for them. it has not only generated several leads but it has also resulted in the addition of one or two agents to the agency. other christians do like to know about each other. :-) Their business is good, the website generates a lot of leads to them. so, contrary to popular opinion here, the scripture verse has been beneficial. (nobody else here approved of the bible verses either, but hey.) Actually, I didn't want to put it on there in the first place; I thought it was inappropriate, but I've been proven wrong. the pictures - well, I can't control that either. I can only work with what's given me. hee hee. I tried to size them all equally but I can not change the backgrounds. thanks for the help everyone.

Reflect -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/31/2006 9:37:17)
quote: I have gone back and changed the titles and descriptions on all the pages. I didn't know underscores were not good, I thought hyphens/dashes were not good. sigh. Dashes are considered a "delimiter". The SE will see that as separating the words. However do not go overboard on how many are used. I try to stick to one per page name, maximum. If you do switch over to using them on pre-existing pages I would do a 301 redirect from the old page name to the new page name. <edit> The Clueless SEO Ed, thanks for that one, I needed a good uplift this morning. I am rolling out the serp meta on all my pages [:D]. Here comes first page on all my keywords [;)]. </edit> Take care, Brian

tinaalice -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/31/2006 11:27:55)
"am I supposed to give the logo a different alt tag on every page? " To my mind this is impossible, how do you describe the logo in correct terms in the way it's meant to be used, and not repeat the text? You can't, also using a screen reader do you want to hear the same text first on each and every page? So the simplest solution is to tick the radio button (in fp03) in picture properties or insert alt="" in html/code view. Exactly like that, this lets the screen reader know there is a graphic there but it's either part of the design like a spacer or bullet or it's a repeated graphic like a logo, the placement will let one figure that out... and your not using repeated content. "and I have gone back and changed the titles and descriptions on all the pages." I think this is where confusion is setting in on the post from Reflect, he/she is presuming your changing them based on the comment I made about your FILE NAMES. You still have them wrong .. they should be matching your h1 tag as closely as possible, they should be using a main phrase (about what that particular PAGE is about (each and every page is a selling page in one's site) and then if necessary a clarifying phrase which contains most of the main phrase. " I didn't know underscores were not good, I thought hyphens/dashes were not good. sigh. " As far as file names are concerned dashes are good, spaces and underscores are not good. Best thing to do is to read the Google guidelines and follow those. "as for the bible verse I addressed that in the web critique forum " I understand about the bible verses I even thought they would work - in the place they are being used. Here in the UK it would be a no no, they would not be taken seriously.. but I understand that's how small towns do business in the states... discriminatory (their visitors not them) and again half the reason no one would do it here.... I followed this thread from the RSS... I usually follow threads from the newsletter and don't read the rest of the forum, I prefer lists for the most part, so that's why I've not seen anything else on this. :) "the pictures - well, I can't control that either. I can only work with what's given me. hee hee. I tried to size them all equally but I can not change the backgrounds." I think there is a technique to do that I've seen it done .. probably cutting out the person and putting the backgrounds on each of them. It was as I sent the post that I realised it was not your site ... otherwise I'd have said things in a slightly different way...but you know how it is when your looking at a site and noticing stuff.. you just want to write it down before you forget:) Sadly clients will be clients will be clients :) The design is very nice, apart from the blue on the hyperlinks which clashes ... perhaps something softer... and you need to work on the seo... but your doing that in a haphazard way...it's best to find one seo resource if your learning, if seo is not something you like to do. If it is, then it's best to run your own tests and see what works for yourself. I can't stand it myself, working out titles and heading tags and keyword density makes my head ache...there is stuff that you can do as a matter of course though. I follow http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SEO_Techniques/ I see other members in there constantly report success, there is also a mini class for FrontPage seo (implementing methods using FrontPage as regards seo). Sadly as a designer you have to incorporate basic seo, the fun part is the designing:) Tina

pageoneresults -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/31/2006 11:46:37)
quote: So the simplest solution is to tick the radio button (in fp03) in picture properties or insert alt="" in html/code view. Exactly like that, this lets the screen reader know there is a graphic there but it's either part of the design like a spacer or bullet or it's a repeated graphic like a logo, the placement will let one figure that out... and your not using repeated content. Okay, where do I start? The above is not correct. You'll want to assign alternative text for that image as it is required by law in some instances. And in this case, it's your Logo! Why would you not want to use alternative text for your logo? That doesn't make sense to me. quote: You still have them wrong .. they should be matching your h1 tag as closely as possible, they should be using a main phrase (about what that particular PAGE is about (each and every page is a selling page in one's site) and then if necessary a clarifying phrase which contains most of the main phrase. Where is that advice coming from? Go right ahead and follow it so you end up with URIs that look like this... www.example.com/keyword-keyword/keyword-keyword-keyword-keyword-keyword.htm Is that what you may be suggesting? If so, that is a quick way to raise flags and provide a look that just isn't acceptable in today's marketplace. Sorry, you'll want to keep those URIs as short as possible. Yes, using a keyword phrase in the file path is acceptable, even two or three. But not like the above example and surely not a duplicate of your <h1>. What happens if that <h1> is 7, 8 or even 10 words long? That makes for an extremely ugly and very spammy looking URI and I don't use that term spam often (typically only in instances of UCE). But, in this case, I think that is the best way for me to describe it so the point is received.

tinaalice -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/31/2006 11:48:17)
quote: Dashes are considered a "delimiter". The SE will see that as separating the words. However do not go overboard on how many are used. I try to stick to one per page name, maximum. If you do switch over to using them on pre-existing pages I would do a 301 redirect from the old page name to the new page name. You seem to mixing titles and heading tags with page file names in your post which is going to be confusing to peppergal. Talking about the 301 in the same breath would have confused me if I'd not known to what you were referring to. 301's are something I forgot to include in my post, (peppergal always use this redirect method when changing a FILE name do NOT consider changing already indexed pages file names, you do do this each and every time with spaces %20 however and you use the 301 redirect) Where Reflect is talking about dashes in titles and heading tags he means that your separating out the keywords into phrases which you have done wrong anyway.... usually there should be one main phrase and a clarifying phrase. Red Widgets - Big Red Widgets the title should be reflected in the heading 1 tag and to a lesser degree in the h2 and h3 tags .. they should all reflect what the page is about, the whole lot should read like a mini road map to what the content is about at a glance. that's enough seo from me .... just thinking about it makes my head hurt:) Tina

tinaalice -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/31/2006 12:10:14)
Your interpretation is far off the mark as to what I said.... you in fact say the same thing as I do at http://www.seoconsultants.com/articles/1007/perfect-page.asp I never said add all those keywords in the url.... sigh but FrontPage is my thing not seo as I've already said so I'll say to peppergirl the best thing she can do is to follow google guidelines if she is unsure about any advice - anywhere. Your post had not come in when I saw Reflect's post and did not understand his edit .. now I do .... since his own post was totally misleading one rather thinks that is the pot calling the kettle so to speak! However since my own words have been mistrepretated I shall leave him/her the benefit of the doubt. I've no wish to get into argument about this (now if it was about how to use FrontPage that would be a different matter ;) and your both moderators of this forum so I shall quit while I'm ahead and remind myself not to write posts in the middle of the night! Tina

pageoneresults -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/31/2006 12:19:13)
quote: and your both moderators of this forum so I shall quit while I'm ahead and remind myself not to write posts in the middle of the night! Don't let that stop you! Just because we are Moderators doesn't mean we know everything, or even close to everything. When I read what you wrote above, I could see where it would be misinterpreted and someone might implement those suggestions which I know from experience will most likely do more harm than good. I'm on a rampage lately and you'll have to excuse me. I'm just tired of seeing some of the information out there that is blatantly incorrect. I'd like to stop things before they get too far out there in the field. Basic SEO has come a long way since the mid and late 90s. It would be best if we adhere to what the current trends are and that is building sites that follow the guidelines whenever possible. Using markup in its proper form, from both a semantic and visual standpoint. Writing naturally for the visitor and not even worrying about basic SEO. You see, the main problem is, many focus too much on this whole keyword density thing when in fact it really isn't all that you think it may be. If you were to take a sampling of the results and compare keyword densities, you won't find any consistency in those results. In fact, they are very inconsistent. Heck, one site might have a KWD of 5% while another has 35%. There goes the whole KWD theory. If you write naturally for your visitors and make sure that the primary content is at the beginning of your pages, you'll do just fine. And, balancing keywords and phrases between all the elements and attributes you have available to you is key in making the page whole. There is more to it than just stuffing a bunch of keyword phrases in a few paragraphs. That's the old way.

Mojo -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/31/2006 12:34:42)
quote: best thing she can do is to follow google guidelines I don't buy into this philosophy. What about all the other search engine guidelines? What if there is a conflict? Why should any business dictate how I run my business? Not to mention -- there is no evidence that obeying the guidlines will make your site rise in the SERPs (unless the guideline is a sound promotional technique). No thanks. Actually, if everyone obeyed Google it would make things much easier for anyone with a knack for pushing the envelope a bit...

Peppergal -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/31/2006 13:43:53)
As to the dashes thing...the only names would be like this: wallenpaupack-lake-estates.htm tanglwood-lakes.htm (which are the actual names of the communities....) or wallenpaupack-properties1.htm wallenpaupack-properties2.htm so I presume these would be okay for file names? ?? So the basic consensus is to not worry about keyword density so much?

pageoneresults -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/31/2006 14:00:45)
quote: wallenpaupack-lake-estates.htm tanglwood-lakes.htm I'd be looking at a little more than file names in this instance. I'd be looking at sub-directory names but first I have to look at the architecture of the site. Are the above pages at the root? For example, do they reside at an address like this? www.example.com/wallenpaupack-lake-estates.htm In your case, you have a very definitive audience and the site is targeting only that audience. So, If the domain in itself contains the wallenpaupack then there is no need to duplicate it in file names. This is where the ugly creeps in. You are now duplicating keywords in the string with your primary being duplicated and I wouldn't do that. I'd do something more like this... www.example.com/estates/ www.example.com/tanglewood/ www.example.com/etc/ I would put all the primary entrance pages for each area in its own sub-directory and name it index.htm (or whatever the underlying technology is for your website, e.g. .asp, .htm, .jsp, .php, etc.). That way you can now link to your primary areas with a direct URI path of... www.example.com/estates/ Notice I did not include the index.htm. You don't want to absolutely link to root level pages, it is not required and it actually creates some problems in the long run. Think inbound links. Think technology change. You will most likely end up building the site sideways and ending up in this type of URI structure... www.example.com/estates/classifieds/ www.example.com/estates/kids/ www.example.com/estates/nightlife/ www.example.com/estates/schools/ www.example.com/estates/shopping/ Get my drift? ;) So, look at the architecture of your site first. Think of it this way, if you had to type in the direct path to each and every page of your site, what would be the easiest and most user friendly path? The shorter the better. Plan for both vertical and horizontal growth within the site. Plan for all of those supporting pages that your visitors are going to find when searching for properties in your area. ;) P.S. Always include the trailing forward slash for root level pages. Instead of doing this... www.example.com/estates Do... www.example.com/estates/ That is one less request to the server and it is best practice in URI structuring. You'll also want to promote this to your link parnters (I hate using that term), how about your friends or favorites? ;)

pageoneresults -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/31/2006 14:08:26)
quote: I don't buy into this philosophy. What about all the other search engine guidelines? What if there is a conflict? Hmmm, if you view the guidelines for the major search engines, they are pretty much in tune with each other. There's nothing there that isn't covered in the guidelines for writing html/xhtml/css. Well, wait, there is. They do offer some suggestions on what not to do. We've set up a page that provides links to all the major search engine and directory guidelines here... Search Engine Quality Guidelines They do a good job of covering the basics across the board. Nothing there that might be conflicting.

Peppergal -> RE: Improving Key Word Density (3/31/2006 14:08:58)
Yes, I understand what you're saying. These pages are only one page; they will not be entrances to "subsites" - each community will have only one page, with a link to the community's own website. So the wallenpaupack_properties.htm shoudl just be properties.htm? the site only went live yesterday so I think it's okay to change them.

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