What is keyword,A keyword is a single word or phrase defining a topic, subject area or concept. When people refer to keywords in websites and search engines, they’re talking about the words and phrases that tell search engines what a website is about.
In a nutshell, your keywords are the words and phrases you want to rank for in search engines. If you’re a florist in Raleigh, North Carolina, some of your important keywords may be “Raleigh florist” and “floral arrangements in Raleigh,” for example. Your keywords are the phrases you want people to search for and then notice and click to visit your website.
Search engines take note of keywords that have been placed in the text of a website. This includes both text that people view and read, and text that is hidden from view and “seen” only by search engines and other software.
Website owners who want their sites to rank high in search results – which can attract more people to the site – must choose their keywords carefully. They must be relevant to the site, and should be both well understood and commonly used by the people the website owner hopes to attract. That’s because most people look for information on a specific topic by typing into a search engine the words they associate with that topic.
Keywords must appear often enough to “tell” a search engine what the site is about, without occurring so often that human beings can’t easily read the website. A very high incidence of keywords (often referred to as high keyword density) can also indicate that someone is trying to “game” search engines, leading to a lower ranking in search results.
Keywords should also be used in the alt text, meta descriptions and title tags that are part of the website’s code. These additional pieces of text, which people cannot see on the page, are associated with images, video, sound files and other elements of a website. Alt text, too, tells search engines what a website is about.
For more information about keywords and choosing the best ones for your site, read Keyword Research Is Key to Online Success.
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