[pmanstis]

I have recently started writing a blog relating to internet based home business. Almost all my posts are optimized for different specific keywords as I submit most of them to ezine articles. Currently I am using links from ezine and other places to drive traffic to my blog but it barely ranks in Google. Should I also try and focus on keywords for the blog itself and if so how should I do this. I have considered placing the keywords as titles in various places in the blog, down the right hand column etc or would I need to place them in posts for Google to pick them up?

[daiarian]

I really believe that article directories are giving very little benefit at the moment, as the theme on this forum suggests you should keep your best articles for your own site.

[2busy]

daiarian is right, article marketing as a way of ranking better has been largely discredited by the major search engines in general and they are looking more at article content that is on your site. While article marketing is not dead, it is not what it was.

In the past it was a super way to move ahead but over time and with so many abusing the principles and with article spinning machines all over, it has fallen by the wayside like so many other "SEO techniques". Search criteria change all the time and at some point article marketing may again be what it was, but for now it has fallen from favor compared to page and site content.

[pmanstis]

Thanks Daiarian,
As there is a Wordpress widget to submit articles to ezine I was under the impression it was possible to have articles on your blog and an article directory without articles getting rejected for duplicate content and ezine ranks way better than my blog

[pmanstis]

hmmm...my main method of driving prospects to my landing page is with article marketing so it looks like I will have to focus more on getting my blog to rank better...so the question about keyword density becomes even more important

[Bill]

Your coaches at IMMACC should know that. It's been news all over the Internet since late February. Are they a reputable outfit?

[pmanstis]

Yes it is reputable Bill and I'm sure they do know but the question only arose after I did some video training a couple of hours ago and I figured the fastest way to get an answer would be to go to a forum on the internet.

[MichaelColey]

I would just focus on providing a truly useful and interesting blog rather than focusing on keyword density.

[writerguy]

Originally Posted by pmanstis

Thanks Daiarian,
As there is a Wordpress widget to submit articles to ezine I was under the impression it was possible to have articles on your blog and an article directory without articles getting rejected for duplicate content and ezine ranks way better than my blog

I don't have a precise link to the ezinearticles.com blog entry on the matter, but I believe they have phased out -- or are in the process of phasing out -- their ezinearticles.com WordPress plugin. That's all part of the tougher article guidelines they've instituted since they got smacked pretty hard by Google's Panda update in February (or was that March? I don't recall) -- including longer minimum article word counts.

Gary

[pmanstis]

Thanks for all that guys, the net seems pretty divided on the ezine plugin. I think in the futue I will write a blog post using keywords then rewrite it without saving and submit using same keywords that way I can take advantage of the usefulness of the plugin without getting picked up for duplicate content by google.
But back to original question, to improve the rank of my blog should I try and use a keyword for the blog itself (as opposed to the posts) and how should I insert it into the blog e.g. using permalinks, sidebar text, page headings etc?

[2busy]

A very similar discussion is over here: Can you Optimize Different Keywords for Each Page on a Domain? - ABestWeb Affiliate Marketing Forum
about optimizing each page for different keywords. Your keywords should be in the content primarily, but it is always a good thing to have titles, anchor text, headings, permalinks using the target word/phrase as long as it makes sense to visitors.

[writerguy]

Just revisited this thread. I Googled "EzineArticles WP plugin" and found a ton of stuff about using the plugin -- and nothing about changes to their guidelines and not using the WP plugin.

So I then Googled "EzineArticles new guidelines" and found this article and lengthy discussion in the EzineArticles blog:

Quality Matters

I think that blog post is probably what I had read that led to my post above. Very lengthy questions and replies by Chris Knight. As to whether they're using the plugin and accepting articles that way now, I dunno. Their blog post was in February and some of Chris's discussion in that post/comment thread indicated it was "for now," which I suppose could mean they'd be allowing the plugin now. Haven't seen anything more recent than that Feb. blog post.

Gary

[Vinny O'Hare]

I think they got rid of the plugin submission. It was also one of the dumbest things Ezinearticles ever did by having it in the first place. Why they would want others content to be duplicate on their site is beyond me.

[Rozanne]

Well, when it comes to keyword density, you will get different opinions from webmasters According to my experience, the keyword density of a blog or article post should not be more than 2-3%. Basically, the content should appear normal and natural to readers as well as search engines which will give you better rankings.

[bestweblover08]

key word density is a very important factor and if you don't care about it you may be punished for key word staffing. i think the main key word must be present in the header. and the sub key words must be present in the sub header. key word density must not exceed 5%.
2-3% is best.
thanks

[pmanstis]

thanks for that besteweblover08
still don't think I'm being clear enough with what I'm asking....looking at it from a URL point of view "myblog.com" is not optimized for any particular keywords however myblog.com/mypost1 and myblog.com/mypost2 are each optimized for their keywords.
My question was about myblog.com, should I choose a particular keyword and try and optimize them but on the other hand the more posts I add to my blog the more difficult it would be to maintain any kind of good density for any particular keyword phrase as google would look at myblog.com and all its subfolders.

[mistymani]

Yes should use keywords, as u use more and more keywords your blog or site will come up in search engines and u get lots of traffic...

[StoneWilson]

Originally Posted by MichaelColey

I would just focus on providing a truly useful and interesting blog rather than focusing on keyword density.

Right. Since your blog is related to home business, just make sure your topics are around it, as long as you provide high quality contents and add keyword in your contents naturally, you needn't to worry about keyword density.

[Jash]

I recently came across a WordPress Plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/searchreviews/ which helps in increasing SEO of your site. The plugin is free and it is easy to install. The plugin reads the content of your page and pulls out relevant reviews of products. Users reads reviews while staying on your website and their time on site increases. This decreases your bounce rate and increases SEO. When the user clicks through the affiliate link and makes a purchase, you get 75% of the revenue. If you do not have a WordPress site, you can get the widget in your site.

[bazookagirl]

Originally Posted by pmanstis

I have recently started writing a blog relating to internet based home business. Almost all my posts are optimized for different specific keywords as I submit most of them to ezine articles. Currently I am using links from ezine and other places to drive traffic to my blog but it barely ranks in Google. Should I also try and focus on keywords for the blog itself and if so how should I do this. I have considered placing the keywords as titles in various places in the blog, down the right hand column etc or would I need to place them in posts for Google to pick them up?

Keyword density is a myth. You want to write naturally and not think about your keyword placements on site and density. This is all a myth.

[imran.fuuast]

search engines keen on website`s fresh content, so you dun need to distribute your content on article`s sites. they are useless.
watch matt cutt(google analyst)video on article marketing:
YouTube - ‪Do you recommend article marketing as an SEO strategy?‬‏

[jaxrobinson]

You should really keep a check on keyword density even if you are considering blogs.That matters the most for SEO perspective.

[LandoFormosa]

to have your pages rank for the specific keywords make sure your terms are not too competitive, that's one. make sure also your articles and kws are thematically related. also, consider how often you r posting overall - give google a reason to come back to your blog more often

[jaxrobinson]

You should place the keywords in the post and don't try to overstuff them.

[nicbos]

Despite of all DOs and DONTs that you may have read here and there, my experience proved that keyword density matters, but you must do a density calculation also considering other "on-page" factors.

In other words: html title, alt in images, title in href, I noticed that all of them are counting in the total of density. Please be aware of the well-known "keyword stuffing" problem too.

I would suggest you the tool located at:
Free SEO Analysis Search Engine Optimization Tool - SEO Workers
I found it to be very useful also to fully understand how some factors work.

Hope this helps.
- Nic