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If you ask me, I'd say keyword optimization is not a must. Okay, for lesser-know websites it is a necessity. But once your site crosses the threshold into the world of wide acknowledgement - which is a tough call indeed - you'll find less and less need of embedding keywords in your webpages. Here is why..

August 28, 2007 20:31

Is Keyword Optimization Important? It Depends.

Category: Optimizing    []   [To Blog Main]
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"I don't necessarily go for keyword optimization", remarked a famous blogger in response to my comment in one of his posts in his blog.

That set me thinking about the whole conundrum surrounding the aspects like importance of keyword, optimization of pages, and top rank in search results.

There is no dearth of stuff on the net that speaks of the inevitability of keyword optimization for achieving higher search ranking. Equally, there are those excellent tools like Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker (its GTrends tool is free), the paid ones, or the tools from Google AdWords and Overture, the free ones that can help locate the ideal keywords.

Coming back to the opening remark by the famous blogger above, the question remains as to whether keyword optimization of webpages is necessary. My answer to this is, it depends. It depends on how much influence or authority your site has in the respective field it is dealing in.

Let us examine the issue in 2 conflicting scenarios.

Keyword Optimization May Not Be Necessary


When I looked at the famous blogger's site, several things came to my notice.

  1. The blogsite appeared at least 3 years old.
  2. It homepage PR was 7 and Alexa ranking at a healthy 17,000 level.
  3. 3 to 4 writers, all experts in their field, contribute to the blog.
  4. Nearly all his posts are commented upon, some as much as more than 30 times. Remember not all visitors comment. In fact very few care to make comments.
  5. I found the homepage having nearly 6,000 backlinks in Google search result.
  6. The site was ranked pretty high at Technorati for several highly popular search terms.

Based on these preliminary findings, what emerges is that in the subject it is about the site is already considered an authority by search engines and visitors alike. Its posts are eagerly awaited by readers, who find them useful and helpful.

It is clear that this site doesn't need keyword optimization. There can be 3 reasons for that:

  1. The site's reach is already phenomenal on the strength of its contents, so no extra effort in terms of increase in search visibility is necessary.
  2. Keyword optimization of a webpage is somewhat tedious. One has to be diligent to do it well, and that calls for expertise. It may not be necessary for the blogsite to hire someone specifically for this job.
  3. To my understanding, emphasis on keyword optimization to some extent chokes the natural flow of an article. Clearly, this is not desirable for the site.

Keyword Optimization Is Necessary


This brings us to cases where indeed there is a strong need for keyword optimization for a site's pages. To understand the point I'll compare my own 2 sites - this one (Site-A) and my blog on various facets of search engine marketing (Site-B).

Though my blogsite enjoys higher homepage PR (4) and Alexa ranking (272,480) compared to this site (Alexa: 504,698 and homepage PR: 3), this site consistently has higher number of visitors than the blogsite.

Here too there are some points that need mention:

  1. In this site, Site-A, visitors largely come to those pages that are optimized for less popular keywords. This means the other pages of Site-A that have more popular keywords are not yet weighty enough for search engines to rank high in search results though all pages are equally keyword-optimized.
  2. I haven't done any keyword optimization of the pages in my other blogsite, Site-B (on search engine marketing).

    I'm not surprised that Site-B doesn't get much traffic because, as I've said above, it is yet to receive the stamp of authority that my famous blogger's site enjoys so as to command higher visibility in search results even without keyword optimization.
  3. It is interesting that visitors who come to the keyword optimized pages in Site-A tend to spend more time (as evidenced from website stats) here compared to those that come to Site-B.

    I attribute this to the fact that the visitors, who usually come by searching the exact phrase that a page of Site-A is optimized for, are generally aware what to expect in the page they arrive at.

Conclusion


I come to my pet theme again, which is that any site's search engine popularity depends on how much relevant content the site has.

Keeping this aspect in perspective, it is clear that a new site has to go for keyword optimization of its pages in order to attract traffic.

Then, as the site grows old and heavy with contents and finds that it is able to serve a loyal set of viewers effectively, the need for keyword optimization will steadily diminish.

Therefore the right answer to the question 'is keyword optimization important?' will be 'it depends'.

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