How Many Keyword Should I Target? Options

[Zriegle]

I work in the business marketing department for a small business networking website. Like many here, I have no formal training in anything related to seo or keyword optimization, but have landed in this role by chance. That being said, I have been researching and exploring the topic the past couple of weeks. We want to optimize keyword for about 250 individual pages. From what I have read, targeting several 'medium strength' terms per a page is a more effective approach for small sites thant trying to target the highly competitive terms. So how many keywords do you suggest I target per a page? Is there a number that is too many or too little? I have found a lot of good information out there (particularly this site) but I havent seen any definite answers as to how many terms to use. Thanks!

[qwerty]

Welcome, Zriegle (IMG:style_emoticons/default/hi.gif)

There's no set answer to your question. It depends on how competitive the keywords are (as a general rule, the more competition, the more you need to concentrate on a given keyword), and how similar they are to each other. What I mean by that is that by optimizing a page for rare literary autographs, you're also optimizing it for literary autographs and rare autographs.

[Zriegle]

Thanks for the reply qwerty! Appreciate the help.

I think I will be targeting 4-6 words per a page, depending on the page and the competiveness of the terms in question. But like most things in life, a little trial and error will go a long way (IMG:style_emoticons/default/crossfingers.gif) /

Thanx again!

[Randy]

Welcome Zriegle ! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/hi.gif)

As a very general rule I usually try to incorporate/optimize each page for somewhere between 3 and 5 keyword phrases. The point with the emphasis being that I look at whole phrases I've identified as terms to target as opposed to just words.

This post has been edited by Randy: Oct 8 2007, 06:08 PM

Reason for edit: <censored> typos!

[Zriegle]

Thanks Randy!

That was really helpful. Its hard trying to teach yourself some of this stuff, but you guys rock!

Thanx!

[omahonydonnelly]

I usually start by targeting 3 phrases per page and then in time see how many it is effective for. Often you have one longer phrase that is made up of shorter phrases so it can be easy to target on the same page (ie tuxedos, tuxedos for hire, tuxedos for hire houston). Any more than 3 and I have trouble creating an effective TITLE.

If it's a very competitive topic on the net, I start targeting moderately popular or more specialised phrases (ie pink tuxedos, pink tuxedos for hire, pink tuxedos for hire south houston) and if I find we do well for them I may shoot for the more popular phrases as well.