General questions regarding SEO...

[Colebra]

1 - What's the optimal size for an article?

 

2 - If my selected keywords are "banana milkshakes", how many times should the article include these words?

 

3 - I see people speaking of keyword research... I know how to get QSR and monthly searches, but should I do a sizable keyword study on my particular niche? That way, in the article in question 2, I could have not only the keyword "banana milkshakes" but other secondary ones I might rank along the way....

 

I do have some other question, but I'll bother you with only these for now

 

Thanks guy!

[retraction]

1. 500 word for a blog post. Although these days, its the longer the better. But it really depends on your niche. I don't seen anyone writing a 2000 word essay on banana milkshakes. Sometimes, the more pages your site has, the better it will rank overall. But if you want to rank a particular page, a lot of good content will help

 

2. I think the general formula is 2% keyword density.

 

3. Yes, keyword research is the most important part of building a niche site. An extra hour of keyword research could mean an extra $50 a month. 

[themonk3y]

As @retraction has already said a minimum of 500 words for a blog post. I usually try to make my blog posts around 800 words. If your post goes over a 1000 words you should try to break it down in to pages or two smaller posts.

 

I am not sure about the keyword density. I have seen articles where the exact keyword density was zero but the individual words in the keyword were present more than 40 times each. For instance the keyword that I searched for on google was wordpress plguins 2014 and I did not found the exact matched keyword on the articles that were on the top but the words "wordpress" and "plugins" and "2014" were mentioned on the page a number of times.

[Colebra]

1. 500 word for a blog post. Although these days, its the longer the better. But it really depends on your niche. I don't seen anyone writing a 2000 word essay on banana milkshakes. Sometimes, the more pages your site has, the better it will rank overall. But if you want to rank a particular page, a lot of good content will help

 

2. I think the general formula is 2% keyword density.

 

3. Yes, keyword research is the most important part of building a niche site. An extra hour of keyword research could mean an extra $50 a month. 

 

Thanks man!

 

So, 500 word article, 2% keyword density means writing "banana milkshakes" in there 10 times right?

 

f your post goes over a 1000 words you should try to break it down in to pages or two smaller posts.

 

I am not sure about the keyword density. I have seen articles where the exact keyword density was zero but the individual words in the keyword were present more than 40 times each. For instance the keyword that I searched for on google was wordpress plguins 2014 and I did not found the exact matched keyword on the articles that were on the top but the words "wordpress" and "plugins" and "2014" were mentioned on the page a number of times.

 

Thanks dude!

 

I always to break it down into "chunks of information" with individual sub-headlines.

 

Regarding keyword density, that's kind of what I meant...

 

Imagine my targetted niche is "health recipes", and I'm writing an article for the keywords "banana milkshakes"...

Should I do a very broad keyword study for my niche, so that in the article for the keywords "banana milkshakes" I can include other keywords like "digestion problems" "potassium" and other secondary ones I might rank for? You understand what I mean?

 

Or should I just target "banana milkshakes", get the keyword density right on that one, and just write the article without thinking much about other keywords?

[themonk3y]

Thanks man!

 

So, 500 word article, 2% keyword density means writing "banana milkshakes" in there 10 times right?

 

 

Thanks dude!

 

I always to break it down into "chunks of information" with individual sub-headlines.

 

Regarding keyword density, that's kind of what I meant...

 

Imagine my targetted niche is "health recipes", and I'm writing an article for the keywords "banana milkshakes"...

Should I do a very broad keyword study for my niche, so that in the article for the keywords "banana milkshakes" I can include other keywords like "digestion problems" "potassium" and other secondary ones I might rank for? You understand what I mean?

 

Or should I just target "banana milkshakes", get the keyword density right on that one, and just write the article without thinking much about other keywords?

 

Personally I have never done such extensive research. I just go to Google Keyword Planner and search for a few keywords related to topic I want to write about. Then I search for the keyword on Google to take a look at the competition there is for the keyword. Doing extra research and targeting extra keywords would definitely pay off if you can take out the time to do it but it might get a little difficult to insert the secondary keywords in the tile and as well as the URL and if you try to target a lot of keywords the article might seem keyword stuffed and you might end up losing quality. 

[Rainman]

I'll only add a little something to your question about the optimal size of articles you post. Well if I were you, I wouldn't concern myself too much with the number of words in an article. Most readers definitely prefer shorter articles but Google likes longer articles because they feel length and the quality of an article are directly related. You see for any piece of writing to be really good, only the precise number of words needed to provide the information you want to get across should be used.

 

So, right naturally. Don't count you words. Some articles will be short. Others longer. Just make sure it's crammed with useful information and no one will care about its length.

Edited July 21, 2014 by Rainman