DIY SEO: Tips on Joomla Keyword Location and Density

This do-it-yourself search engine optimization post is a short and sweet one but vitally important if you want to maximize your localized search results for your small business website. It is not enough to simply drop the words “Maple Ridge Vinyl Windows” (a phrase we just optimized Ecowest Renovations for) into your blog post and expect everyone to start finding you on Google. If you really want to climb the rankings, then you need to focus on a single keyword phrases and you need to position that phrase strategically in your page title, article title, content, image alt text and meta data. In previous articles, I’ve explained how to fill those bits and pieces into Joomla. So I’ll keep this focused on three major techniques that you will need to adopt in order to maximize your ranking opportunity.

OK, this is pretty straight forward but it’s easy to forget when you get caught-up in writing your content:

1. Same keyword phrase everywhere. You need to think about the keyword phrase you want to maximize for each article/post in your site. Then put that keyword phrase in your page title, article title, content, image alt text and meta data. Keep it consistent throughout so you can maximize the emphasis on one keyword phrase.
2. At the beginning of titles. Google places more emphasis on keywords that are at the beginning of titles rather than at the end. You article will have more rank potential for say “Port Coquitlam Vinyl Windows” if you start the article title with the keywords “Port Coquitlam” and follow up very soon or immediately after with the words “Vinyl Windows”. Remember, you need to do this in under 80 characters or it will get cut-off on Google’s search engine results page.
3. Throughout the content. Then when you write the article, you want to use that same keyword phrase as often as possible throughout the article/post. You still need to write genuine content that reads well. But just make sure you are saying “vinyl windows” instead of “replacement windows” or “retrofit windows”. Be sincere and don’t try to force that keyword phrase into every sentence. Google will spot this and penalize you for “keyword stuffing”.

That’s it. It’s really not that complicated but for most of us will require a few rewrites in order to include the keywords phrase in question while still providing genuine content that users will actually read and appreciate.