We all know that, when you’re planning a new or redesigned website, you need to think about relevant keywords to show search engines that you’re worth ranking.
Photo by Flickr user chrissy575
While it’s not the only thing you need to worry about when it comes to search engine optimisation, you do need to ensure that your copy contains a good chunk of keywords. That’s not the problem; the problem is when it starts sounding spammy:
Happy Husky dog kennels are the best dog kennels your dog could ever want! Lots of dog kennels are cold and draughty dog kennels, but your dog shouldn’t have to sleep in a dog kennel like that – our dog kennels are warm and dry and your dog will love sleeping in our dog kennels!
Sounds stupid, right? The sad thing is, I’ve seen copy like this on a lot of sites (and I bet you have, too). What often gets forgotten is the end user; the person who’s come to the site looking for information. Search engines actually don’t need as much keyword density as you might think; conventional wisdom suggests 5-10%. The above (made up) example shows the keyword ‘dog’ makes up 18% of the words, and ‘dog kennels’ makes up 10%. Sure, it’s a really brief passage (55 words), and that skews the figures, but it shows how easy it is to shove keywords into copy, to the detriment of its credibility and readability.
The trick is not to go overboard. Sure, if you can work in a keyword instead of ‘it’ or ‘our product’, do it, but don’t write slavishly for search engines. If you think about it in the right way, you’ll get your keywords but your copy won’t read like your copy/paste button vomited on the screen.
All dogs deserve a warm, dry dog kennel, and yours is no exception. Happy Husky builds premium dog kennels with your dog’s comfort in mind. Forget those damp and cold dog kennels at the bottom of the garden – for a happy, comfortable dog the best choice you can make is a Happy Husky dog kennel.
This is still a little more exaggerated than I’d normally like, but the ‘dog’ keyword is down to 12% and ‘dog kennels’ down to 7%. They’re still there, but they don’t jar nearly as much. And the best part is that you leave more room for persuasion – now readers know that Happy Husky makes premium dog kennels, and that their dog deserves to be happy and comfortable. (Well, I hope they knew that already, but it never hurts to remind them, right?)
