How Keyword Density, Frequency, Prominence and Proximity Affects Search Engine Rankings

In this article I explain the difference between keyword density, frequency, prominence and proximity, and how they affect search engine rankings.

Keyword Density

Keyword density refers to the ratio (percentage) of keywords contained within the total number of indexable words within a web page.

The preferred keyword density ratio varies from search engine to search engine. In general, I recommend using a keyword density ratio in the range of 2-8%.

You may like to use this real-time keyword analysis tool to help you optimize a web page's keyword density ratio.

Keyword Frequency

Keyword frequency refers to the number of times a keyword or keyword phrase appears within a web page.

The theory is that the more times a keyword or keyword phrase appears within a web page, the more relevance a search engine is likely to give the page for a search with those keywords.

In general, I recommend that you ensure that the most important keyword or keyword phrase is the most frequently use keywords in a web page.

But be careful not to abuse the system by repeating the same keyword or keyword phrases over and over again.

Keyword Prominence

Keyword prominence refers to how prominent keywords are within a web page.

The general recommendation is to place important keywords at, or near, the start of a web page, sentence, TITLE or META tag.

Keyword Proximity

Keyword proximity refers to the closeness between two or more keywords. In general, the closer the keywords are, the better.

For example:

How Keyword Density Affects Search Engine Rankings

How Keyword Density Affects Rankings In Search Engine

Using the example above, if someone searched for "search engine rankings," a web page containing the first sentence is more likely to rank higher than the second.

The reason is because the keywords are placed closer together. This is assuming that everything else is equal, of course.

Google Panda Updates Algorithm for 2012

We've always known content is king, even before all the 2011 algorithm enhancements, Google has always regarded highly websites with substantial amounts of content. With all these recent changes, Google is trying to put more emphasis on good content; not just a lot of content-- but a lot of well written, unique content.

During January a few algorithm updates were released to give clues as what 2011 will be about, it wasn't until February we saw the first Panda update-- affecting 12 % of all search results.

2012 will see a decent percentage of Google's updates refining the Panda update, putting more and more significance on brands, with bigger brands getting more favourable results. Sense of the algorithmic rule modifications to assist warfare nasty quality content, it comes to being more significant than ever for business owners and entrepreneurs who are searching for article on the internet to guarantee that purely pleasant content is presented and placed.

Caliber content is content that has not at any time been advertised online, causes suitable utilitization of the chosen keywords by admiring density, and supplies something of worth to the exploiter who is pursuing the revealed keyword. A few items of the content offer better worth than alternatives, when associated to the type of keyword they're formed to promote in under Google.

Well, orchestrated How-To reviews are widely an extreme source of component, since various people become to the Internet when they have concerns about in what way to carry out a job. News reviews are also well accepted, as countless persons need to know-how the most-recent news relating to modern technology, public affairs, and any quantity of another curiosities ready for use online.

Sites that are still reeling from the changes-- some have lost 50 % of their earnings or more-- this is only a small reprieve. Nonetheless it does give sites some breathing room to fix what Panda is likely to target next. Many an AdSense teacher will tell you to pile on the ads at the top of the page.

Bury your content in ads. Give your website visitors every justification to click through and away from your site as soon as possible. You make money, your advertisers get visitors, and the search engine doesn't see a bounce. Have faith that the search engines will see the patterns. If your site is Pandalyzed it's because you got idle, let things get out of control, followed formulaic SEO strategies, and pretty much did small to nothing to put the interests of your visitors ahead of your desire to make money.

Don't build a site to please marketers. Occupy a site with too many marketing campaigns, and the viewer is less likely to pay a visit to the site once more, much less link to it. No "no-indexing" thin subject matter SEO Theory says, "You left it there for the search engines to see that you were really just trying to please them."

google place tutorial

Google Places is the modern day version of the yellow pages, with a few big exceptions. The biggest difference is that everyone gets a display ad, cleverly called a “Page” (Google is smart, but no one ever accused them of being creative), and the other big difference is that Google Places is free. Your business most likely already has a Page. If you haven’t yet done so, you need to claim control of your page so that you can maximize its impact through customization.

I’ve put together a short video tutorial with three tips to help you maximize the impact of your Google Places Page (the video also shows you how to claim control of your Page). Your page will appear as an option for customers to click in local search results. Take a look at the video and make these three simple improvements to your Page. (Email Subscribers and feed readers, please click here to see the video: Google Places Page Tutorial )

Tips for Maximizing Google Places Pages

I. Get Customer Reviews

Get your customers to review your business on your Google Places page by making it easy for them to do so. Many SEO experts believe that getting reviews on your Places Page raises its value in search engine results. Whether or not that’s true, reviews definitely add credibility to your listing and give it a sense of popularity.

• First, navigate to your Google Places Page. (Tip: Search for your business in Google Maps)
• Next copy the link provided in the upper right hand corner of your page.
• Use a URL shortening service like BUDurl to customize the link and make it more appealing to customers.
• Email the link to customers customers and ask them to review your business on your page (Note: Google says you cannot offer incentives to get reviews).

II. Create Current Content

Google Places allows you to create Twitter-like posts on your page of up to 160 characters. Use the post function to personalize your page with current events, product spotlights, to introduce employees, or a myriad of other possibilities.

• First, log in to your Google Places page.
• In the upper right-hand corner look for the heading “Post to your place page.”
• Type in up to 160 characters to update your status.
• Click the “post” button.

III. Add Photos and Videos

This is a really useful function because it adds the personal touch to your page while providing vital information to potential customers. You can add up to 10 images and five videos to your Google Places page. Use them to introduce the owner and/or employees, showcase products and services, even video commercials. To post videos, you will need to have videos hosted on a YouTube account. Images may be uploaded from your computer or shared from another source on the web.

• First, log in to your Google Places page.
• In the right hand column, click the “edit” link in Your Business Info box.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page where you will see the options to add photos and videos.

Cached Pages

Google takes a snapshot of each page it examines and caches (stores) that version as a back-up. The cached version is what Google uses to judge if a page is a good match for your query.

Practically every search result includes a Cached link. Clicking on that link takes you to the Google cached version of that web page, instead of the current version of the page. This is useful if the original page is unavailable because of:

• Internet congestion
• A down, overloaded, or just slow website
• The owner’s recently removing the page from the Web

Sometimes you can access the cached version from a site that otherwise require registration or a subscription.

Note: Since Google’s servers are typically faster than many web servers, you can often access a page’s cached version faster than the page itself.

If Google returns a link to a page that appears to have little to do with your query, or if you can’t find the information you’re seeking on the current version of the page, take a look at the cached version.

Let’s search for pages on the Google help basic search operators.

Click on the Cached link to view Google’s cached version of the page with the query terms highlighted. The cached version also indicates terms that appear only on links pointing to the page and not on the page itself.

Note: Internet Explorer users may view a page with any word(s) highlighted, not just search terms, by using the highlight feature of the Google Toolbar, which we cover in Making Google Easier with Google Tools.

When Google displays the cached page, a header at the top serves as a reminder that what you see isn’t necessarily the most recent version of the page.

The Cached link will be omitted for sites whose owners have requested that Google remove the cached version or not cache their content, as well as any sites Google hasn’t indexed.

If the original page contains more than 101 kilobytes of text, the cached version of the page will consist of the first 101 kbytes (120 kbytes for pdf files).

You can also retrieve Google’s cached version of a page via the cache: search operator. For example, [ cache:www.pandemonia.com/flying/ ] will show Google’s cached version of Flight Diary in which Hamish Reid documents what’s involved in learning how to fly.

On the cached version of a page, Google will highlight terms in your query that appear after the cache: search operator. For example, in the snapshot of the page www.pandemonia.com/flying/, Google highlights the terms “fly” and “diary” in response to the query [ cache:www.pandemonia.com/flying/ fly diary ].

Use the Wayback Machine when you want to visit a version of a web page that is older than Google’s cached version.

Exercises

These problems give you practice accessing Google’s cached version of a page. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page.

1. After Nelson Blachman received reprints of a paper he wrote for the June 2003 issue of The Mathematical Scientist, he wanted to discover what other sorts of papers appear in the same issue of this semiannual publication. Find a table of contents for The Mathematical Scientist for Nelson.
2. Compare the dates on the current page with the dates on the cached version for the following organizations:
   • CNN
   • New York Times
   • Linux Magazine
   • North Texas Food Bank
   Note: Google indexes a page (adds it to its index and caches it) frequently if the page is popular (has a high PageRank) and if the page is updated regularly. The new cached version replaces any previous cached versions of the page.
3. Check the dates that the Wayback Machine archived versions of Google Guide.

Search Operators

The following table lists the search operators that work with each Google search service. Click on an operator to jump to its description — or, to read about all of the operators, simply scroll down and read all of this page.

Search Service	Search Operators
Web Search	allinanchor:, allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, cache:, define:,filetype:, id:, inanchor:, info:, intext:, intitle:, inurl:, link:,phonebook:, related:, site:
Image Search	allintitle:, allinurl:, filetype:, inurl:, intitle:, site:
Groups	allintext:, allintitle:, author:, group:, insubject:, intext:,intitle:
Directory	allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, ext:, filetype:, intext:,intitle:, inurl:
News	allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, intext:, intitle:, inurl:,location:, source:
Product Search	allintext:, allintitle:

The following is an alphabetical list of the search operators. This list includes operators that are not officially supported by Google and not listed in Google’s online help.

Note: Google may change how undocumented operators work or may eliminate them completely.

Each entry typically includes the syntax, the capabilities, and an example. Some of the search operators won’t work as intended if you put a space between the colon (:) and the subsequent query word. If you don’t care to check which search operators require no space after the colon, always place the keyword immediately next to the colon. Many search operators can appear anywhere in your query. In our examples, we place the search operator as far to the right as possible. We do this because the Advanced Search form writes queries in this way. Also, such a convention makes it clearer as to which operators are associated with which terms.

allinanchor:

If you start your query with allinanchor:, Google restricts results to pages containing all query terms you specify in the anchor text on links to the page. For example, [ allinanchor: best museums sydney ] will return only pages in which the anchor text on links to the pages contain the words “best,” “museums,” and “sydney.”

Anchor text is the text on a page that is linked to another web page or a different place on the current page. When you click on anchor text, you will be taken to the page or place on the page to which it is linked. When using allinanchor: in your query, do not include any other search operators. The functionality of allinanchor: is also available through the Advanced Web Search page, under Occurrences.

allintext:

If you start your query with allintext:, Google restricts results to those containing all the query terms you specify in the text of the page. For example, [ allintext: travel packing list ] will return only pages in which the words “travel,” “packing,” and “list” appear in the text of the page. This functionality can also be obtained through the Advanced Web Search page, under Occurrences.

allintitle:

If you start your query with allintitle:, Google restricts results to those containing all the query terms you specify in the title. For example, [ allintitle: detect plagiarism ] will return only documents that contain the words “detect” and “plagiarism” in the title. This functionality can also be obtained through the Advanced Web Search page, under Occurrences.

The title of a webpage is usually displayed at the top of the browser window and in the first line of Google’s search results for a page. The author of a website specifies the title of a page with the HTML TITLE element. There’s only one title in a webpage. When using allintitle: in your query, do not include any other search operators. The functionality of allintitle: is also available through the Advanced Web Search page, under Occurrences.

In Image Search, the operator allintitle: will return images in files whose names contain the terms that you specify.

In Google News, the operator allintitle: will return articles whose titles include the terms you specify.

allinurl:

If you start your query with allinurl:, Google restricts results to those containing all the query terms you specify in the URL. For example, [ allinurl: google faq ] will return only documents that contain the words “google” and “faq” in the URL, such as “www.google.com/help/faq.html”. This functionality can also be obtained through the Advanced Web Search page, under Occurrences.

In URLs, words are often run together. They need not be run together when you’re using allinurl:.

In Google News, the operator allinurl: will return articles whose titles include the terms you specify.

The Uniform Resource Locator, more commonly known as URL, is the address that specifies the location of a file on the Internet. When using allinurl: in your query, do not include any other search operators. The functionality of allinurl: is also available through the Advanced Web Search page, under Occurrences.

author:

If you include author: in your query, Google will restrict your Google Groups results to include newsgroup articles by the author you specify. The author can be a full or partial name or email address. For example, [ children author:john author:doe ] or [ children author:doe@someaddress.com ] return articles that contain the word “children” written by John Doe or doe@someaddress.com.

Google will search for exactly what you specify. If your query contains [ author:”John Doe” ] (withquotes), Google won’t find articles where the author is specified as “Doe, John.”

cache:

The query cache:url will display Google’s cached version of a web page, instead of the current version of the page. For example, [ cache:www.eff.org ] will show Google’s cached version of the Electronic Frontier Foundation home page.

Note: Do not put a space between cache: and the URL (web address).

On the cached version of a page, Google will highlight terms in your query that appear after the cache:search operator. For example, [ cache:www.pandemonia.com/flying/ fly diary ] will show Google’s cached version of Flight Diary in which Hamish Reid’s documents what’s involved in learning how to fly with the terms “fly” and “diary” highlighted.

define:

If you start your query with define:, Google shows definitions from pages on the web for the term that follows. This advanced search operator is useful for finding definitions of words, phrases, and acronyms. For example, [ define: blog ] will show definitions for “Blog” (weB LOG).

ext:

This is an undocumented alias for filetype:.

filetype:

If you include filetype:suffix in your query, Google will restrict the results to pages whose names end in suffix. For example, [ web page evaluation checklist filetype:pdf ] will return Adobe Acrobat pdf files that match the terms “web,” “page,” “evaluation,” and “checklist.” You can restrict the results to pages whose names end with pdf and doc by using the OR operator, e.g. [  email security filetype:pdf OR filetype:doc ].

When you don’t specify a File Format in the Advanced Search Form or the filetype: operator, Google searches a variety of file formats; see the table in File Type Conversion.

group:

If you include group: in your query, Google will restrict your Google Groups results to newsgroup articles from certain groups or subareas. For example, [ sleep group:misc.kids.moderated ] will return articles in the group misc.kids.moderated that contain the word “sleep” and [ sleep group:misc.kids ] will return articles in the subarea misc.kids that contain the word “sleep.”

id:

This is an undocumented alias for info:.

inanchor:

If you include inanchor: in your query, Google will restrict the results to pages containing the query terms you specify in the anchor text or links to the page. For example, [ restaurants inanchor:gourmet ] will return pages in which the anchor text on links to the pages contain the word “gourmet” and the page contains the word “restaurants.”

info:

The query info:URL will present some information about the corresponding web page. For instance, [ info:gothotel.com ] will show information about the national hotel directory GotHotel.com home page.

Note: There must be no space between the info: and the web page URL.

This functionality can also be obtained by typing the web page URL directly into a Google search box.

insubject:

If you include insubject: in your query, Google will restrict articles in Google Groups to those that contain the terms you specify in the subject. For example, [ insubject:”falling asleep” ] will return Google Group articles that contain the phrase “falling asleep” in the subject.

Equivalent to intitle:.

intext:

The query intext:term restricts results to documents containing term in the text. For instance, [ Hamish Reid intext:pandemonia ] will return documents that mention the word “pandemonia” in the text, and mention the names “Hamish” and “Reid” anywhere in the document (text or not).

Note: There must be no space between the intext: and the following word.

Putting intext: in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting allintext: at the front of your query, e.g., [ intext:handsome intext:poets ] is the same as [ allintext: handsome poets ].

intitle:

The query intitle:term restricts results to documents containing term in the title. For instance, [ flu shot intitle:help ] will return documents that mention the word “help” in their titles, and mention the words “flu” and “shot” anywhere in the document (title or not).

Note: There must be no space between the intitle: and the following word.

Putting intitle: in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting allintitle: at the front of your query, e.g., [ intitle:google intitle:search ] is the same as [ allintitle: google search ].

inurl:

If you include inurl: in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the URL. For instance, [ inurl:print site:www.googleguide.com ] searches for pages on Google Guide in which the URL contains the word “print.” It finds pdf files that are in the directory or folder named “print” on the Google Guide website. The query [ inurl:healthy eating ] will return documents that mention the words “healthy” in their URL, and mention the word “eating” anywhere in the document.

Note: There must be no space between the inurl: and the following word.

Putting inurl: in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting allinurl: at the front of your query, e.g., [ inurl:healthy inurl:eating ] is the same as [ allinurl: healthy eating ].

In URLs, words are often run together. They need not be run together when you’re using inurl:.

link:

The query link:URL shows pages that point to that URL. For example, to find pages that point to Google Guide’s home page, enter:

[ link:www.googleguide.com ]

Note: According to Google’s documentation, “you cannot combine a link: search with a regular keyword search.”

Also note that when you combine link: with another advanced operator, Google may not return all the pages that match. The following queries should return lots of results, as you can see if you remove the -site: term in each of these queries.

Find links to the Google home page not on Google’s own site.

[ link:www.google.com -site:google.com ]

Find links to the UK Owners Direct home page not on its own site.

[ link:www.www.ownersdirect.co.uk -site:ownersdirect.co.uk ]

location:

If you include location: in your query on Google News, only articles from the location you specify will be returned. For example, [ queen location:canada ] will show articles that match the term “queen” from sites in Canada. Many other country names work; try them and see.

Two-letter US state abbreviations match individual US states, and two-letter Canadian province abbreviations (like NS for Nova Scotia) also work — although some provinces don’t have many newspapers online, so you may not get many results. Some other two-letter abbreviations — such as UK for the United Kingdom — are also available.

movie:

If you include movie: in your query, Google will find movie-related information. For examples, seeGoogle’s Blog.

phonebook:

If you start your query with phonebook:, Google shows all public U.S. resudence telephone listings (name, address, phone number) for the person you specify. For example, [ phonebook: John Doe New York NY ] will show phonebook listings of everyone named John Doe in New York, NY.

related:

The query related:URL will list web pages that are similar to the web page you specify. For instance, [ related:www.consumerreports.org ] will list web pages that are similar to the Consumer Reports home page.

Note: Don’t include a space between the related: and the web page url.

You can also find similar pages from the “Similar pages” link on Google’s main results page, and from the similar selector in the Page-Specific Search area of the Advanced Search page. If you expect to search frequently for similar pages, consider installing a GoogleScout browser button, which scouts for similar pages.

site:

If you include site: in your query, Google will restrict your search results to the site or domain you specify. For example, [ admissions site:www.lse.ac.uk ] will show admissions information from London School of Economics’ site and [ peace site:gov ] will find pages about peace within the .gov domain. You can specify a domain with or without a period, e.g., either as .gov or gov.

Note: Do not include a space between the “site:” and the domain.

You can use many of the search operators in conjunction with the basic search operators +, –, OR, and" ". For example, to find information on Windows security from all sites except microsoft.com, enter:

[  windows security –site:microsoft.com  ]

You can also restrict your results to a site or domain through the domains selector on the Advanced Search page.

source:

If you include source: in your query, Google News will restrict your search to articles from the news source with the ID you specify. For example, [ election source:new_york_times ] will return articles with the word “election” that appear in the New York Times.

To find a news source ID, enter a query that includes a term and the name of the publication you’re seeking. You can also specify the publication name in the “news source” field in the Advanced News Search form. You’ll find the news source ID in the query box, following the source: search operator. For example, let’s say you enter the publication name Ha’aretz in the News Source box, then you click theGoogle Search button. The results page appears, and its search box contains [ peace source:ha_aretz__subscription_ ]. This means that the news source ID is ha_aretz__subscription_. This query will only return articles that include the word “peace” from the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz.

weather

If you enter a query with the word weather and a city or location name, if Google recognizes the location, the forecast will appear at the top of the results page. Otherwise, your results will usually include links to sites with the weather conditions and forecast for that location.

Since weather is not an advanced operator, there is no need to include a colon after the word. For example, [ weather Sunnyvale CA ] will return the weather for Sunnyvale, California and [ weather 94041 ] will return the weather for the city containing the zip code (US postal code) 94041, which is Mountain View, California.

The Google Guide Advanced Operator Quick Reference(www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html) provides a nice summary of the search operators grouped by type. It includes search operators not yet documented by Google, e.g., allinanchor:, allintext:,author:, ext:, group:, id:, insubject:, intext:, intitle:, location:, phonebook:, and source:.

Note: Google may change how undocumented operators work or eliminate them completely. If you notice problems or changes in Google’s undocumented operators, please let us know.

Exercises

This problem set is designed to give you experiences with search operators and practice with specifying more precisely what you’re seeking by using the Advanced Search form. For hints and answers to selected problems, see the Solutions page.

1. Use the site: operator to search for armchairs on IKEA’s site, www.ikea.com.
2. Use the Advanced Search form to find the page whose title is “Some Ways to Detect Plagiarism.” When the title is entered in lowercase letters, the query box on the results page contains [allintitle:  “ways to detect plagiarism” ].
3. Find all pages on google.com but not on answers.google.com nor on directory.google.com whose titles include the words “FAQ” or “help.”
4. Use the link: operator to see who links to googleguide.com, your company’s website, or your favorite website.
5. Find pages whose titles include surfing that are not about surfing the World Wide Web.
6. Find out where the upcoming international conference on AIDS is being held.
7. How can you search for [ google help ] on Google Guide, www.googleguide.com, and on the UC Berkeley library website, www.lib.berkeley.edu?
tags (keywords): advanced search, operators, queries, search operators